Career and occupation in the educational context: Does work characteristics centrality change?

During the transition of each career, the perception and adaptability of work characteristics change. There are mixed results concerning which work characteristics are more central, which may be due to the occupational and temporal context. Comparing work characteristics across occupational categories (i.e., white, blue and pink) and career stages (i.e., entry, middle and end) allows the most influential characteristics for each collar occupation in all career stages to match workers’ abilities and needs and was the aim of this study. Employees ( N = 2166) participated in this research, and a psychological network analysis was applied. The results reveal common core characteristics for the three-collar occupational and career categories and specific central work characteristics according to career stage and collar occupational category. Therefore, a relationship is established by the occupational and temporal context, which includes employees with the evaluated work characteristics and provides new evidence for work design as an approach to match the person–environment fit. Practical implications for the educational context and future research in vocational behavior are discussed.