Mapping Career Paths: A Systematic Review of Research Dynamics, Approaches and Perspectives

Abstract

In a rapidly changing professional landscape marked by digitization, socio-economic transformations, and post-pandemic upheavals, understanding career trajectories has become an interdisciplinary concern. This study presents a systematic bibliometric review of 135 peer-reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2025 and extracted from the Scopus database. Using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, the analysis maps the intellectual structure, thematic evolution, and methodological trends in career path research. The results reveal a high concentration of studies in Anglo-Saxon contexts, with a predominance of the education, health, and hospitality sectors. Key populations include students, women, and recent graduates, while seniors, informal workers, and non-Western contexts remain underrepresented. This field is conceptually diverse, structured around protean and borderless career models, and increasingly interested in themes such as sustainability, digital transformation, and gender inequality. Cross-sectional quantitative approaches dominate methodologies, while longitudinal and mixed designs are rare. Thematic mapping reveals four key clusters: sociodemographic factors, professional development, labor market dynamics and identity formation. Citation analysis reveals key contributions to career theory, social capital and organizational support. This review reveals gaps in geographic coverage, theoretical integration and methodological pluralism. It calls for a more inclusive, contextualized and interdisciplinary approach to better understand the complexity of contemporary careers.