Youth, Work and ‘Career’ as a Way of Talking about the Self

This article develops research on youth and ‘career’ beyond a focus on attitudes towards employment flexibility and towards an examination of the ideological role of work in the formation of youth identities. The article draws on a programme of research on the formation of young people’s working identities, and presents interview data in which young people discuss the meaning of ‘career’ and the significance of work in general. These data show that across divergent aspirations and family histories of employment, young people define ‘career’ in terms of the promise of self-actualisation through labour, and thereby position work as the key site for self-expression and the cultivation of personal uniqueness. This article therefore suggests that the notion of ‘career’ is a way that the ‘post-Fordist work ethic’ is articulated on the level of youth identities, elevating self-realisation through labour as the goal of successful labour market engagement for youth.