Career Typology

In order to grasp the nature of mobility and work experiences over the life course, work has been done to in order to differentiate career types. Career types can hint to different logics of promotion or just function as frames for descriptive purposes.

The research careers typology defines three main types of research careers, defined by a combination of the sectors and research performing organisations (RPOs):

• Academic research careers (university based);
• Government research careers (government institutes, labs, etc.); and
• Industrial R&D (firm based).

In addition, two further career types are defined that combine at least two of these three main career types:

• Hybrid careers (concurrent contribution to the missions and goals of two or more RPOs of different types)
• Mixed careers (sequential contribution to the missions and goals of two or more RPOs of different types).