How are digital careers shaping up? A look at three new ICT professions
Keywords:
careers, digital, new professions, employability, psychological contractAbstract
This article examines how careers are developed in new digital professions: project managers, designers, and developers. It begins by presenting the literature dedicated to the concept of careers, emphasizing the distinction between frameworks for studying traditional models and new ones. The latter frameworks, governed by different logics, have an impact on companies. Therefore, they represent a significant organizational challenge, particularly in terms of employability and psychological contracts. Our qualitative approach is based on a survey conducted with twelve professionals in the digital sector. This exploratory study highlights the training, experiences, and key events shaping their career paths. The results reveal several characteristics consistent with a nomadic career model, even taking the form of a trajectory.
The results also illustrate how these paths can be chosen or undergone and how a key element of these new careers is employability. To optimize the latter, recommendations are put forward that call for the joint involvement of the individual and the organization, as well as a redefinition of the psychological contract. Future work will explore how organizations conceptualize and implement career management in new digital professions.