What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to create a six-type career trajectory taxonomy for Vietnamese graduates and apply it across major undergraduate fields.

May 14, 2026Open Access

Vietnamese Career-Trajectory Case Taxonomy: A Six-Type Synthesis with Field-by-Field Application across Major Undergraduate Degrees for Layer-I Series

Key Points

This research aims to create a six-type career trajectory taxonomy for Vietnamese graduates and apply it across major undergraduate fields.
Synthesis of existing international career theories and literature
Analysis of Vietnam's labor market data from various sources
Development of a career-trajectory matrix per field of study
Identified six trajectory types: linear-ladder, lateral-hop, founder-and-freelance, field-exit, specialist-depth, international-pivot.
Mapped dominant trajectory types and endpoints across nine major Vietnamese degree clusters.
Provided insights into skills development under each trajectory amid AI-disruption influences.

Abstract

This paper produces a six-trajectory case taxonomy for Vietnamese post-undergraduate-degree career patterns and applies it field-by-field across the nine major Vietnamese degree clusters. The taxonomy synthesises international careerresearch literature — Savickas career-construction theory, Hall protean-career, Arthur-Rousseau boundaryless-career, BriscoeHall-DeMuth protean-boundaryless two-by-two, Sullivan-Baruch advances-in-careers review, Rodrigues-Guest career-patterns, Lent-Brown-Hackett social-cognitive career theory, Holland vocational fit, plus the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Cedefop European Skills Forecast as international comparators — with the Vietnamese labour-market evidence base assembled in I3.2 (GSO LFS, MOLISA, VietnamWorks, JobStreet, TopCV, Anphabe, TopDev, ILO Vietnam, World Bank, ADB) plus sectorspecific Vietnamese sources covering medical-resident, publicteaching, and legal-profession pathways. Six trajectory types are specified: T1 linear-ladder, T2 lateral-hop, T3 founder-andfreelance, T4 field-exit, T5 specialist-depth, T6 internationalpivot. Each is given a structural-driver definition, characteristic 5- / 10- / 15-year endpoints, common exit routes, and an illustrative profile. The taxonomy is then applied field-byfield across CNTT and information technology, economics and finance, engineering, medicine and pharmacy, education and teacher training, foreign-language studies, law, basic sciences, and arts. The substantive contribution is the field × trajectory × endpoint matrix, which names the dominant trajectory types per field, characteristic 5- / 10- / 15-year endpoints in role-andsalary-band terms, common pivots, and work-life patterns. The matrix is calibrated to displace the dominant single-trajectory romanticisations of Vietnamese popular career-guidance content. It feeds into the I3.1 major-decision framework at Step 4 (labourmarket reality check, surfacing endpoint-distribution rather than starting-wage point estimates) and Step 5 (exploration heuristics, distinguishing reversible-choice fields from specialist-credentiallocked fields), and into I4.x skill-investment by identifying which skills compound under each trajectory type and which compress under the AI-disruption overlay from I4.3. Per program scope, no cohort empirics; literature and secondary-source synthesis only. VN salary-trajectory data are partial and gaps are documented; no specific salary predictions are issued, only documented-range bands.

Vietnamese Career-Trajectory Case Taxonomy: A Six-Type Synthesis with Field-by-Field Application across Major Undergraduate Degrees for Layer-I Series

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