Från en glasklar karriär till ett brokigt CV : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om individers upplevelse av pandemin som en påtvingad brytpunkt i karriären

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine how individuals who became involuntary unemployed due to the Covid-19 pandemic experience and handle the situation as unemployed. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for products and services in certain industries has drastically reduced and work opportunities have decreased.  Whilst working as career counsellors within support during this year we have encountered a new group of job seekers – those who have higher education experience, who, before 2020, were not part of the natural unemployment in Sweden. During the interviews it was noticed that most of these participants expressed a strong professional identity associated with their previous professional role.  This, in turn, could be attributed to having an impact on their coping strategies and their way of reflecting over their situation of being unemployed. The empirical data that was produced using qualitative interviews were later analysed using Hodkinson and Sparkes careership theory, Mezirow's Transformative learning and Ylva Ulfsdotter and Malin Lindes explanation of the term Professional Identity. This study highlighted that most participants continued to have a strong connection to their previous professional identity and that a forced turning point due to the pandemic contributed to a feeling that unemployment would only be temporary. It also concluded that those participants who had an inherent idea of a new career or a new lifestyle acted quickly and were able to make the transition to a different occupation. The turning point also contributed to the participants learning as they planned alternative careers as backups for eventual, future, turning points to come