Steve is 36, single, and originally from Newcastle. After university, he joined a major retailer as a trainee area manager in Leeds in a job which he described as ‘an emotional roller coaster – total stress for a minimum of six days a week’. After only a few years, he felt disheartened by the ‘sink or swim, dog-eat-dog mentality’

and asked for a six-week vacation. ‘Such a request was unheard of and friends warned me not to rock the boat, but I was at the end of my tether. Fortunately, my request was granted, but without pay.’

Steve decided to use his frequent-flyer miles to get as far away as he possibly could. After a short stay in Singapore, he took a boat to Sumatra in Indonesia. The boat developed engine problems and drifted for a few days and Steve found himself bonding with the other passengers, none of whom spoke much English.

On arrival, a family took him in and he was touched by their hospitality. One day he was passing by a building when he heard English being spoken so he walked in to what was an English class for young children. By the end of the day, Steve had accepted a post as English teacher there for a salary of 25 dollars a month and board and lodging. He returned to Newcastle to sell everything and set off, but then decided to look for similar work overseas but with a better salary. ‘I knew I wanted a fresh start but I’d got used to a certain level of income and realised I couldn’t live on fresh air.’

Steve decided he could make good money teaching English in Japan. Shortly after starting work there, he became convinced that teaching was definitely what he wanted to do as a career. ‘Looking back, I’m so glad I quit the rat race when I did. Teaching English allows me to travel, to see other cultures, to feel them first hand and do something far more valuable than retail management, valuable in terms of contribution to the world.’

Over the next few years, Steve gradually realised that his lack of qualifications was holding him back from getting better jobs, ‘so I enrolled on a one-year Master’s degree back home’. He thoroughly enjoyed his year studying but was left with quite a substantial student loan to repay. Rather than return to Japan, he decided to go to the Middle East as he had heard that the salaries there were much higher. He found a job teaching male students in a college in Riyadh. He enjoyed the teaching but was not too happy with the administration of the institution.

‘They smothered the creativity out of you. They didn’t care about how well you taught, just about how thoroughly you completed all the paperwork.’

Steve was quickly able to get back on a good financial footing. After two years, despite being offered the chance to renew his contract, he returned to the UK and spent a year teaching freelance there. ‘After being micromanaged for so long in Saudi, I wanted to make my own decisions. I wanted a bit of freedom. I had an enjoyable, if precarious, time but I got fed up with spending most of my time and effort on finding new business, rather than on becoming a better teacher. I missed the lifestyle in the Middle East and one day I just decided to apply for a teaching post at a university in Dubai..........’

Question

Having read Steve’s account, consider the following questions:
1 Would you say that Steve’s career could be described as a ‘boundaryless career’?
2 In what ways, if any, does Steve seem to reconstruct career boundaries, rather than break free of them?
3 In your view, could Steve’s career be described as external, having an objective existence, or internal, subjectively constructed by Steve himself?
4 Is Steve’s story more about change or continuity?
5 How does Steve conceptualise success in career?
6 From the information given in the case study which one of Holland’s personality types does Steve fit into?
To what extent does Holland’s notion of congruence between personality and occupation apply to Steve?