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Early Careers - Transitions, Trajectories, Turnover

The Special Issue searches for submissions on the topic of early careers specifically early career transitions, early career trajectories and early career turnover.

Guest editors:

Simone Kauffeld, Phd - TU Braunschweig University, Germany

Daniel D. Spurk, Phd - University of Bern, Switzerland

Hannes Schilling, Phd - TU Braunschweig University, Germany

Dina Guglielmi, Phd - University of Bologna, Italy

Special issue information:

While oftentimes definitions of early careers focus on the initial stages of a person's professional life after completing formal education, research suggests that early careers can begin even earlier, as choosing a career path or undergoing career transitions are among life's most important decisions (Hechtlinger et al., 2024). Recent studies and reports highlight that the first career steps, in particular, are marked by widespread uncertainty and challenges, contributing to alarming student dropout rates in the first academic years worldwide (15–40%; Aina et al., 2022), a mental health crisis among students and early-career researchers (Forrester, 2021), high youth unemployment, and low labor market representation of underrepresented groups, especially in Europe (European Commission: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion, 2023).

Therefore, initial career decisions-such as pursuing further tertiary education or entering the labor market directly-as well as the first steps in an occupation fall within the research area of early careers, which is enriched by various research strands in psychology, management, and education.

Topics of general importance currently include early career transitions (Akkermans et al., 2024); career trajectories of specific groups and fields across multiple career stages (Gao et al., 2025); the health and well-being of students and early career scholars (Barthauer et al., 2020); as well as turnover during the early career stages (Zacher & Froidevaux, 2021). All of these topics remain time-critical for addressing current global challenges such as psychological well-being, the need for highly qualified workers, and sustainability.

The Special Issue aims to clarify conceptual ambiguities, such as when an early career begins-whether at the transition from school to higher education, school to work, or higher education to work. Theories on early career transitions, trajectories, and turnover vary across fields, such as psychology and education, highlighting the need for more integrative research. There is also a growing emphasis on longitudinal studies spanning multiple career stages and a demand for contextual investigations, particularly those using qualitative methods. We are particularly interested in longitudinal trajectory investigations, with a special focus on their antecedents and outcomes related to career-related behaviors such as career turnover; early career interventions with a focus on career development like mentoring, coaching, or onboarding; holistic quantitative and qualitative investigations of career transitions (pre-transition, during transition, and post-transition); and studies on the consequences of career-related behavior on health and well-being.

Manuscript submission information:

All interested researchers are invited to submit their abstract to Simone Kauffeld - s.kauffeld@tu-braunschweig.de by 1 November, 2025. 

Once the abstract is accepeted the final manuscript should submitted by 15 February, 2026 using the submission portal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jvb/default.aspx

To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the special issue, it is important to select "VSI: Early Careers" when you reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process.

All full manuscripts must be submitted by the deadline However, if you have any questions regarding the suitability of your manuscript, please do not hesitate to contact one of the guest editors listed above. 

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2026.

Keywords:

early careers, career transition, career trajectories, career turnover, early career interventions