The purpose of this study is to present and to discuss main changes in the conceptualization of career. Two different approaches are compared and contrasted: the traditional concept, based on the usual assumptions of tenure and security; and the modern view, according to which the assumption that the success, in a given career, is related to the personal trajectory, expanding itself to a more comprehensive meaning of a personal, family and professional satisfaction, as in Chanlat (1995), Martins (2001) and Hall (1996). According to the later approach, comes along the concept of protean career with learning, psychological success and the expansion of the self-identity features, regardless of profession or company that may be chosen. A research was conducted to identify and to order the cities where the dimensions of this career perspective appear with more strength. This research was based on statistical techniques methodology to define and test a set of indicators to express the local potentiality of the cities in Brazil, under the presented theory. As a result, one hundred cities were ranked according to the criterion of inclusion defined for the study.
human resources; people managing; careers; career planning
