CAR
CTO
OMT
Jenna Myers
U. Of Toronto-Ind Rel Lbr, Canada
Ece Kaynak
Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, U. of London, United Kingdom
Pedro Seguel
McGill U. - Desautels Faculty of Management, Canada
Dilan Eren
Ivey Business School, Canada
Lisa Ellen Cohen
McGill U., Canada
Due to economic, technological, and cultural changes, career paths whereby individuals move in and out of alternative working arrangements, build careers from hobbies, or transition into new occupations via non-traditional training programs are becoming increasingly common. While management scholars have developed rich theories on identity and skill development in external labor markets, we have less understanding of the pathways that shape discontinuous career transitions–transitions that entail major and simultaneous occupational and organizational changes. In this symposium, we focus on the tech sector as a setting for examining the nontraditional reskilling pathways that have begun to shape discontinuous career transitions, such as Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and bootcamps. We raise the question of whether and how value can be more equitably distributed to employees and employers through new forms of training and labor market matching. We also examine how these new pathways–and the individuals that move through them–come to be recognized as legitimate by employers. We explore these questions by addressing both the supply and demand sides of the labor market and by examining multiple touchpoints in the training and hiring process. We begin by exploring employers’ sense-making around skill demands, shedding light on how skill requirements change in IT occupations. This motivates why new and alternative career pathways and training institutions have developed in response to rapid, demand-side change. We then discuss dynamics of knowledge development and job searching experienced by participants in these alternative pathways, as well as implications for our theories of occupational entry, learning, and socialization.
Author: Pedro Seguel – McGill U. - Desautels Faculty of Management
Author: Lisa Ellen Cohen – McGill U.
Author: Emmanuelle Vaast – McGill U.
Author: Dilan Eren – Ivey Business School
Author: Ece Kaynak – Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, U. of London
Author: Jenna E. Myers – U. Of Toronto-Ind Rel Lbr