ABSTRACT
“My career,” Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon (1916–2001) said, “was settled at least as much by drift as by choice” (Economist, March 20, 2009). 1 However, most of us (at least want to) believe that our careers depend largely on our decisions, which are themselves allegedly grounded on concepts such as free will, deliberate choice, or rational consideration. In this chapter we delve into the unresolved debate on how careers of individuals are constructed and shaped, and how or why they do change and evolve over time. We ask: How are we to conceive the drivers of careers at the intersection of agency or structure? Is there a dualism, a duality, or a divide between the role of agency and structure in generating and shaping careers?
