Abstract
This paper draws on event system theory and the literatures on career orientations and career shocks to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' career orientations. Factor analyses in three samples allow us to group seven career orientations into two dimensions: needs-based career orientations (those related to security, lifestyle, and health) and talent- and value-based career orientations (related to job content). We use a three-wave survey of Chinese employees to examine how these two broad orientations evolved in two time windows-one representing high, the other low event strength. We find that the two types of career orientations evolved in different ways during the pandemic: employees' needs-based career orientations were more salient during the COVID crisis than their talent- and value-based career orientations, and the salience of needs-based career orientations did not decrease as event strength abated. Employees' personal exposure to the crisis was positively related to the salience of their needs-based career orientations, but not to the salience of talent- and value-based career orientations. We also show that the salience of needs-based career orientations differed across employee groups: it was weaker among more experienced and successful employees (those higher in the managerial hierarchy and with steeper past pay increases).