Career Adaptability: A Workforce Essential Skill

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One thing that successful professionals have in common might surprise you! Research points to career adaptability as a key to successful careers. Career adaptability describes someone with an eye toward the future and how to respond to it. Career adaptability is aligning skills with what society is demanding, and it does not necessarily mean completely changing jobs. Career adaptability is a set of attributes that psychologists have named protean career theory. It is named after the Greek mythological creature, Proteus. The multiple myths surrounding Proteus include that he would tell the future if you could catch him! Yet, catching him was challenging because Porteus could change forms. Proteus was selected to describe a career orientation characterized as someone who is flexible and adaptable to the situation. People with high protean career orientation tend to not only perform well on the job, but they thrive in their career because they can seemingly predict the future. They are open to change and possess self-awareness and attributes for adapting to career, technological, and environmental changes (McDonald & Hite, 2023).
Soil Sciences

Rachel Vann, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, works with extension interns inside of the plant sciences building on Centennial campus. Photo by Marc Hall

Cultivating Career Adaptability

How can students cultivate career adaptability for agricultural careers?
  • Adapt goal setting habits and have confidence in personal skills and careers (Direnzo et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2024).
  • Complete an inventory, such as the Strong Interest Inventory Profile (SIIP), or another career assessment to help pinpoint individual goals, personality, interests, skills, and talents. SIIP and other career assessment may be available from an academic advisor or guidance counselor.
  • Check out career resources such as our Career Pathways Matrix (Donaldson et al., 2025) to see how individual goals, interests, needs, and natural tendencies align with food and agricultural careers.
  • Explore internships and volunteer opportunities to build your individual skill set and expand your professional network.
  • Discover knowledge and skills needed in an industry, and earn a credential to help you get started. For example, if forklift operators are in demand, earn a forklift operator certificate to increase your earning potential.
How can you cultivate career adaptability among students preparing for an agricultural career? If you are a high school teacher, college faculty, Extension 4-H Agent, or academic advisor, consider the following:
  • Use a career assessment tool with students and pair it with a career matrix like the one described above.
  • Help students connect with mentoring opportunities, such as the Animal Science Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASSURE) directed by Dr. Melissa Merrill. ASSURE matches animal sciences students with researchers for impactful research experiences.
  • Help students connect with part-time, temporary jobs and volunteer opportunities to build their confidence, experience, and skills.

Bertie County extension agent Jarette Hurry looks over a field of soybeans.

Special Note about Community College Students

In Fall 2020, our first fall semester in the COVID pandemic, community college enrollment fell 9.4% nationwide in comparison with 1.4% at public-4-year institutions. This is concerning from the standpoint of access and opportunity as community colleges represent higher diverse populations (National Student Clearinghouse, 2020). Community college provides an empowering experience for many low-income, underrepresented, and marginalized populations (Denning, 2017; Weiss et al., 2019). Community college success among students is important for healthy financial futures – both for individual economic vitality and national economic vitality (Buchanan & Wilson, 2017). In some cases, community colleges may have low retention and low graduation rates (National Student Clearinghouse, 2020; Sutton, 2021). Why do community college students have historically low retention and graduation rates? Likely, two huge contributors are the need for remedial instruction and running out of money. This underscores the essential need to intentionally develop career adaptability and job opportunities for community college populations, including those making the transition from community colleges to 4-year institutions.

Summary

When students develop career adaptability, they become aware of their own needs, motivations, abilities, and interests. Significantly, they pursue careers aligned with these needs, motivations, abilities, and interests (Gubler et al., 2014; Holtschlag et al., 2020). Career adaptability presents an essential set of attributes for a strong agricultural workforce.

References

Buchanan, L. E. & Wilson, K. B. (2017). Free community college and merit scholarships. New Directions for Community Colleges, 180, 67-74.
Direnzo, M. S., Greenhaus, J. H., & Weer, C. H. (2015). Relationship between protean career orientation and work–life balance: A resource perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior 36(4).
Donaldson, J. L., Lambert, M. L., Whorley, G., & Blosser, E. G. (2021-2025). Career Pathways Matrix for Careers in Food and Agricultural Sciences. NC State University.
Gubler, M. & Arnold, J. (2014). Reassessing the protean career concept: Empirical findings, conceptual components, and measurement. Journal of Organizational Behavior 35(1).
Holtschlag, C., Masuda, A., Reiche, B. S., & Morales, C. (2019). Why do millennials stay in their jobs? The roles of protean career orientation, goal progress and organizational career management. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 118 (103366.
Sutton, H. (2021). Recent research shows dismal outcome for community college enrollment after COVID-19. Recruiting & Retaining Adult Learners, 23, 8-9.
Weiss, M., Ratledge, A., Sommo, C., & Gupta, H. (2019). Supporting community college students from start to degree completion: Long-term evidence from a randomized trial of CUNY’S ASAP. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(3), 253–297.
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