Reaching for the stars while staying grounded: Examining career transition outcomes across different temporal focus profiles

Abstract Many people who long for a career change do not realize their desired change. Whereas scholars have often explained this observation by focusing on external barriers, awareness has grown that people may also fail to take sufficient action. Since unfulfilled desires can negatively affect people's well‐being and performance, it is crucial to understand which individuals are more susceptible to this phenomenon than others. Drawing on Mental Contrasting Theory, we propose that different temporal focus profiles relate to differences in the career transition process and in transition outcomes. We collected two‐wave data with 306 Belgian workers who had a clear longing for a career change. Using latent profile analysis, we identified three temporal focus profiles: balanced focus, anytime‐but‐now focus and carpe diem focus. We found that individuals with a balanced focus profile were more likely to realize their desired job change than those with an anytime‐but‐now focus, through more frequent job search behaviour and lower career inaction. Balanced‐focus individuals were also more likely to achieve a job change than those with a carpe diem focus profile, although this relationship was not explained by job search behaviour or career inaction. No differences in psychological well‐being across profiles were found.