Abstract
Recent research highlights that in the context of increasing career instability, individuals seek employment that is both meaningful and sustainable. Meaningful careers emphasize purpose, contribution, and coherence between personal values and career advancement over time. Career sustainability being a dynamic approach that captures changes over time, we particularly draw on the person dimension of the sustainable career concept to explore the meaningfulness of careers characterized by individual agency and meaning. Our objective is to develop a deeper understanding of the narrative processes through which individuals construct careers that are both personally meaningful and sustainable over time. Drawing on a qualitative, narrative approach, the paper analyses how individuals perceive sustainable careers that are also meaningful. For this purpose, we interviewed 65 alumni of a French Business School about their career trajectories and experiences since graduation. The preliminary findings suggested that participants perceived meaningful careers on three axes: personal fulfillment, happiness, as well as alignment between individual values and the work environment. Furthermore, our findings revealed a gendered view particularly about whether earnings are connected to the meaning of the career: for most men money contributed to meaning, whereas only a tiny minority of women connected earnings to meaning remuneration. By shedding light on narrative sensemaking in career development as well as the gendered nature of the findings, we intend to contribute to ongoing theoretical conversations on career sustainability and career meaning, while offering practical insights for managers, career counselors, and organizations seeking to support more resilient and purpose-driven career pathways.