Navigating Careers Without Clear Pathways: Supporting Workers and Learners in Today's Fragmented Labor Market
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Abstract: Career mobility in the contemporary United States increasingly depends on workers' capacity to navigate a fragmented, nonlinear labor market characterized by repeated transitions and structural uncertainty. This analysis examines how low-wage workers and community college students interpret labor market signals, make career decisions, and pursue advancement amid systemic constraints. Drawing on mixed-methods research that includes nationally representative survey data and qualitative interviews with workers, students, and career coaches, this study reveals that career navigation capacity is shaped not solely by individual motivation but by access to reliable information, diverse social networks, stable employment conditions, and institutional guidance. Findings demonstrate that existing education and workforce systems remain oriented toward linear career pathways despite the prevalence of career pivots driven by economic shocks, credential barriers, and employer screening practices. The study concludes by proposing a framework for strengthening career navigation infrastructure through coordinated investments in information systems, social capital development, job quality improvements, skills cultivation, and professionalized coaching services.
Economic opportunity in the United States has become increasingly contingent upon individuals' ability to navigate complex career transitions across education, training, and employment systems. Traditional notions of career ladders—characterized by predictable advancement within stable organizations—have given way to career trajectories marked by frequent pivots, lateral moves, and interrupted pathways (Akkermans et al., 2024). Workers today change jobs more frequently, return to education at multiple life stages, and contend with technological disruptions that reshape occupational requirements with accelerating speed (Li, 2022; Brynjolfsson et al., 2025).
This labor market transformation presents both opportunities and risks. For workers with access to reliable information, professional networks, and institutional support, increased flexibility may facilitate upward mobility and alignment with personal values. For those without such resources—particularly low-wage workers and community college students—fragmentation often translates into false starts, credential mismatches, and perpetual cycles of precarious employment. When career navigation infrastructure is weak or inaccessible, disparities in economic outcomes widen, and the promise of mobility remains unfulfilled.
This paper builds on emerging scholarship that frames career navigation as an ongoing process of acquiring information, making decisions, and taking action toward career goals (Fuller et al., 2023). It extends prior analyses by examining how structural conditions—including information quality, social network composition, employment stability, skill development opportunities, and coaching availability—shape navigation capacity among populations facing significant mobility barriers. The analysis integrates survey data from over 1,200 workers and students with qualitative insights from focus groups and interviews, providing a nuanced understanding of how individuals interpret and respond to labor market complexity.
The why-now imperative is clear. Automation, artificial intelligence adoption, and post-pandemic labor market volatility have intensified the frequency and complexity of career decisions workers must make (World Economic Forum, 2025). At the same time, hiring systems have become more opaque, screening criteria more rigid, and pathways to stable employment less visible. Understanding the conditions that enable effective navigation is therefore not an academic exercise but a practical necessity for designing education, workforce, and employment systems capable of supporting broad-based economic mobility.
The Fragmented Labor Market Landscape
Defining Career Navigation in Contemporary Context
Career navigation refers to the iterative process through which individuals acquire labor market information, interpret opportunities, make decisions, and act in pursuit of career goals across the lifespan (Fuller et al., 2023). Unlike traditional models of career development that assumed relatively stable occupational structures and linear progression, career navigation acknowledges that contemporary labor markets require continuous adaptation to shifting conditions. Individuals must repeatedly assess their skills, evaluate alternative pathways, and respond to disruptions—often under conditions of uncertainty and constraint.
This process differs fundamentally from career planning, which implies a one-time decision followed by steady implementation. Navigation is dynamic, requiring ongoing sensemaking as labor market signals evolve, personal circumstances change, and institutional structures shift. Effective navigation depends not only on individual agency but also on the accessibility and quality of the systems that provide information, connections, stability, and guidance.
The concept draws on multiple theoretical traditions. Social cognitive career theory emphasizes self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and personal goals as drivers of career behavior, while acknowledging that environmental supports and barriers shape opportunity structures (Lent et al., 1994). Boundaryless career scholarship highlights the declining relevance of organizational boundaries and the corresponding rise of individual responsibility for career management (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). Life-span career development models recognize that career trajectories unfold across multiple transitions, with individuals recycling through exploration, establishment, and re-evaluation phases throughout adulthood (Super, 1980).
Contemporary career navigation also reflects the realities of algorithmic hiring, credential inflation, and occupational polarization. Workers increasingly encounter automated screening systems that filter applications based on narrow criteria, often excluding qualified candidates who lack conventional credentials or employment histories (Fuller et al., 2021). Information abundance coexists with declining information reliability, as online platforms proliferate without corresponding improvements in data quality or institutional validation. Under these conditions, navigation capacity becomes a critical determinant of who advances and who remains stuck in low-wage employment.
Prevalence and Drivers of Career Pivots
The workers and students examined in this study experienced careers characterized by repeated pivots—transitions between jobs, exits from roles or education, and re-entries prompted by external shocks or personal circumstances. Analysis of career mapping exercises completed by focus group participants reveals that approximately 46% of transitions represented lateral or backward movement relative to stated career goals, rather than clear advancement. Only one participant described a strictly linear trajectory, consistent with survey findings showing that fewer than half of low-wage workers report that their current role advances them toward their ideal career.
Several structural and personal factors drive these pivots. Economic shocks emerged as a predominant cause of career disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted widespread layoffs, particularly among low-wage and low-hour workers, forcing many individuals to reassess their career plans and pursue alternative paths (Gould & Kassa, 2021). Community college enrollment patterns shifted dramatically during the pandemic, with disproportionate declines among Black and Latinx students, many of whom faced technological and economic barriers to remote learning (Fairlie & Bulman, 2022; Bird et al., 2022). As of 2023, only 27% of community colleges had recovered to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, illustrating the lasting disruption caused by systemic shocks (Fink, 2025).
Beyond pandemic-related disruptions, participants described pivots driven by layoffs linked to labor disputes, industry restructuring, and localized economic downturns. One worker interviewed for this study left the entertainment industry after a prolonged writers' strike eliminated opportunities in Los Angeles, prompting a decision to return to community college and pursue a new occupational field. Such transitions reflect broader patterns documented in labor economics research: job displacement frequently triggers enrollment increases in community colleges, particularly in workforce-oriented programs (Foote & Grosz, 2020; Acton, 2021; Minaya et al., 2023).
Personal life-changing events also shaped career trajectories. Health challenges, disabilities, and mental health needs influenced the types of roles individuals could pursue and the workplace accommodations they required. Immigration emerged as a particularly consequential pivot point. Many participants arrived in the United States with professional credentials or work experience that were not recognized by domestic employers, forcing them to restart their careers in lower-skilled roles despite prior expertise. Research confirms that over two million college-educated immigrants in the United States are unemployed or underemployed, with race, ethnicity, place of education, English proficiency, and legal status all influencing employment outcomes (Batalova & Fix, 2021).
Educational interruptions represented another common pivot. Nearly half of qualitative study participants had previously enrolled in college before their current program, almost all without completing a credential. These stop-outs rarely resulted from disengagement but rather from misalignment between initial fields of study and evolving career interests, financial pressures, family responsibilities, or institutional barriers. Nationally, nearly 40% of students at public two-year colleges leave without completing a credential, with many later returning after periods in the labor market (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2025).
Importantly, participants rarely had structured opportunities to reflect on their career trajectories. Focus groups and interviews themselves often represented the first occasions on which individuals were asked to map and interpret their career journeys in detail. This absence of guided reflection has implications for career development practice: without regular opportunities to assess progress, identify patterns, and recalibrate strategies, individuals navigate largely by trial and error, increasing the likelihood of costly missteps.
The Conditions That Enable Career Navigation
Table 1: Key Factors and Barriers in Career Navigation for Low-Wage Workers
Navigation Condition | Key Factors or Barriers | Impact on Career Mobility | Associated Statistical Insight | Institutional or Professional Support Needed |
Career Trajectories/Pivots | Economic shocks (e.g., COVID-19), industry restructuring, credential barriers, and lack of recognized international expertise. | Hinders advancement; leads to fragmented trajectories marked by lateral or backward moves rather than clear progression. | Approximately 46% of transitions represented lateral or backward movement relative to career goals. | Guided reflection, structured opportunities to map and interpret career journeys, and credential recognition for immigrants. |
Social Capital | Reliance on "strong ties" (family/friends) in low-wage sectors vs. lack of "weak ties" or mentors in higher-wage industries. | Facilitates immediate stability but reinforces occupational clustering; weak ties are needed for transformative upward mobility. | 31% of workers and 32% of students rely on family/friends for info; 3 in 5 low-wage workers secured a job through a connection. | Programs should build cross-sector networks, exposure to higher-wage industries, and embedded structured mentorship models. |
Informational Reliability | Abundance of data but low clarity; prevalence of "ghost jobs," scams, and opaque salary information on online platforms. | Hinders mobility by creating false starts and mistrust; low-income job seekers experience lower returns to digital searches. | Only 58% of workers and 38% of students rate online tools as reliable. | Institutions must translate labor market signals into context-specific guidance and provide trusted interpretive intermediaries. |
Job Quality (Wages and Stability) | Low wages, unstable schedules, and time scarcity for working learners. | Hinders mobility by limiting the cognitive capacity, time, and resources needed for long-term planning and skill development. | 62% of low-wage workers report job satisfaction despite earnings falling short of what is needed to make ends meet. | Wraparound supports (childcare, transportation), predictable scheduling, and strengthening the social safety net. |
Coaching Infrastructure | High caseloads, resource constraints, and lack of professionalized training for coaches. | Facilitates mobility when holistic and personalized, but fragmentation and high volume limit effectiveness. | One coach at a large community college reported responsibility for 4,700 students. | Professionalization of the workforce, standardized certifications, manageable caseloads, and integration of coaching across departments. |
Access to Reliable Information
Labor market information serves as a foundation for career navigation, yet participants consistently described environments characterized by information abundance without corresponding clarity. Online job boards, social media platforms, and digital search tools provide large volumes of data about occupations, wages, and job openings, but workers and students often struggle to determine which sources are trustworthy or relevant to their circumstances.
Online Platforms and Information Reliability
Survey findings reveal that one in five workers rely on online tools as their primary source of career information, yet only 58% of workers and 38% of students rate such tools as reliable. Qualitative data illuminate the sources of this mistrust. Participants described online job platforms as saturated with misleading postings, scams, and "ghost jobs"—positions that remain advertised even though employers have ceased active recruitment. One community college student explained that he abandoned Indeed and LinkedIn entirely, stating, "I stopped because I just feel as though it's a bunch of ghost jobs and scams on their website."
Career coaches confirmed these concerns, noting that clients frequently encounter "phantom jobs" and advising caution when using major platforms. Even when postings are legitimate, participants complained about opacity: salary information is often absent or presented in algorithmically generated ranges that provide little actionable guidance. Job descriptions fail to clarify day-to-day responsibilities, advancement prospects, or workplace culture. Requirements are frequently written in technical jargon rather than accessible language, creating additional barriers for individuals without insider knowledge of specific industries.
This pattern is consistent with research demonstrating that low-income job seekers experience lower returns to digital job search than their higher-income peers (Karaoglu et al., 2022; Dillahunt et al., 2021). The challenge is not solely one of access—most participants had internet connectivity and basic digital literacy—but rather of differential capacity to interpret, validate, and act on information encountered online. Without trusted intermediaries to help contextualize labor market data, information abundance can exacerbate rather than reduce inequality.
Media Influence and Expectation Misalignment
Traditional and social media also shape career expectations, sometimes in ways that diverge from labor market realities. Several participants described forming initial career interests through television dramas, YouTube videos, or TikTok content. One student mentioned that her interest in medicine began through repeated exposure to medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy. While such media can spark genuine interest, they often provide incomplete or misleading signals about the nature of work, required credentials, and advancement pathways.
Career coaches described clients pursuing roles they encountered on social media—particularly high-earning technology positions advertised with "six-figure salary, no degree required" narratives—without fully understanding credential requirements, skill demands, or realistic hiring timelines. Attempts by coaches to recalibrate expectations often met resistance, as clients remained anchored to information encountered through informal channels. One coach noted, "No matter what we do, they just take that number and run," describing clients who returned months later confused about why anticipated offers had not materialized.
Survey data suggest such misalignment is not uncommon. Over 70% of community college students and more than three-quarters of workers report confidence in their understanding of their ideal career, yet fewer than half can name specific employers in their desired fields. Experimental evidence demonstrates that students systematically overestimate earnings and underestimate employment risk, and that providing accurate salary information shifts major choice (Baker et al., 2018; Wiswall & Zafar, 2015). These findings underscore the need for institutions to actively translate labor market signals into context-specific guidance rather than assuming individuals will independently reconcile conflicting information.
Institutional Translation Gaps
Education institutions are often expected to bridge the gap between complex labor market data and students' career decisions, yet participants described a profound disconnect between education and work. Many students entered community college expecting a straightforward transition from credential completion to employment, only to discover that credential requirements, workplace norms, and advancement pathways were learned primarily through trial and error after entering the labor market. One worker summarized the sentiment: "I feel like I just got pushed into the outside world without knowing anything."
Institutional capacity constraints compound this gap. Career services offices at community colleges often operate with limited staffing, and organizational structures vary widely across institutions. One coach working in a recently established office described the challenge: "This whole office is brand new… we don't really have a lot of systems in place." Even where knowledgeable staff are present, institutional silos limit their reach. Coaches described difficulty coordinating with faculty, despite the fact that professors often maintain valuable industry connections. In practice, such connections frequently function as "pocket opportunities" that flow to students within specific courses or networks rather than being systematically accessible through formalized advising structures.
This institutional fragmentation helps explain a persistent paradox in survey data: teachers and counselors are rated among the most helpful and reliable sources of career information, yet they are among the least frequently used. Fewer than 12% of low-wage workers reported receiving information from teachers, and fewer than 8% received it from career counselors. As a result, many workers and students continue to interpret labor market signals independently, relying on fragmented information and personal networks to guide decisions.
Unequal Pathway Clarity Across Occupations
Information barriers are not evenly distributed across career fields. Healthcare emerged as one of the most comprehensible sectors in qualitative interviews. Students pursuing nursing or allied health programs described clear credential sequences, licensure requirements, clinical placements, and recognizable job titles. The pathway from training to employment appeared linear and visible. As one community college student explained, "In nursing, it's easy to get a job. You just go to a hospital and look online and they want you, typically."
This clarity is reinforced by community networks. A career coach noted that within certain immigrant communities, information about healthcare roles circulates widely: "People are all talking to each other about what the opportunities are… a lot of people want to be CNAs." In such cases, community networks transmit not only aspirations but also practical knowledge about certifications, employers, and wage expectations. The structure of healthcare occupations—standardized credentials, regulated licensing, and large institutional employers—combines with dense social networks to create relatively transparent pathways.
By contrast, students pursuing emerging or less structured fields described navigating without clear guidance. A student studying cybersecurity explained: "You kind of have to be on your own, and do your own research." Unlike healthcare, fields like cybersecurity often lack standardized pathways or widely recognized credentials. For students without existing networks or industry connections, identifying viable opportunities requires extensive independent research and experimentation. Survey findings reinforced this pattern: individuals in fields with well-understood pathways report greater confidence in their skills acquisition and career trajectories, while those in more fragmented sectors face intensified informational burdens and heavier reliance on social capital.
Generative AI as an Emerging Information Source
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence adds complexity to an already uncertain information environment. At the time of this study (fall 2024), direct use of AI tools for career information remained relatively limited: approximately 4% of workers and 7% of students had recently accessed career information via AI, with only 2% and 4%, respectively, using AI as a primary source. During interviews and focus groups, participants rarely mentioned generative AI unprompted, and responses were cautious when the topic was raised.
One student studying physical therapy reported that generative AI tools provided "extra information" that felt irrelevant to her career journey, such as suggesting alternative paths like medical assistant roles. This example illustrates a broader concern about algorithmic bias in AI-powered career tools. Large language models rely on historical data to generate predictive outputs, and without careful design, they risk learning patterns that reinforce occupational segregation by gender, race, or socioeconomic status (Akter et al., 2021; Bankins et al., 2024).
Career coaches raised similar concerns, describing generative AI as contributing to a "hack culture" within the job search ecosystem, where tools promise shortcuts that may ultimately undermine candidates' credibility. One coach recounted a client using ChatGPT to generate a cover letter, only to have "ChatGPT hallucinate an experience that they didn't have." Such risks are particularly acute for job seekers with limited digital literacy or familiarity with professional norms, as AI-generated materials may introduce language or claims inconsistent with their actual backgrounds.
At the same time, some early adopters report that generative AI can be helpful when used carefully, particularly for synthesizing labor market data and personalizing search strategies. In principle, AI tools could function as scalable interpretive intermediaries—precisely the infrastructure many participants lack. However, without safeguards related to accuracy, bias, and digital literacy training, generative AI risks amplifying existing inequalities rather than reducing them (Fuller et al., 2025).
Social Capital and Network-Based Opportunity
Social networks function as critical mechanisms through which career information and opportunities are transmitted, yet the structure of those networks often shapes whether individuals gain exposure to higher-wage roles or remain clustered within familiar industries. Family and friends were the most common sources of career information for both workers (31%) and students (32%) in the survey, far exceeding reliance on formal institutional sources. While these strong ties provide emotional support and encouragement, they frequently lead to jobs within a limited set of sectors, reinforcing occupational clustering in low-wage work.
Strong Ties and Occupational Clustering
Qualitative findings reveal the dual role of family and friends in career navigation. Many participants described turning to relatives for practical advice and emotional validation. One community college student explained that after seeing her cousin become a registered nurse, she decided to follow the same path: "I have family workers that work in the healthcare field, so if I have questions, I can go to them." Personal connections provided tangible examples of career pathways and offered encouragement during difficult transitions.
However, when networks are stratified by income and occupation—as research consistently demonstrates they are (Chetty et al., 2022)—strong ties can limit exposure to alternative opportunities. A 33-year-old worker who had recently relocated described relying heavily on word-of-mouth to learn about job openings in logistics and warehousing: "First I go to my friends… I go to people that have made career decisions, and it's worked for them, because I feel like if they did it, and they successfully did it, then why not go to them and figure it out?" While this strategy provided access to employment, it constrained his exposure to roles outside the industries his network already occupied.
Career coaches confirmed this pattern, noting that even when workers sought training in promising fields, their ultimate placements were often determined by their networks rather than their skills. One coach described an influx of individuals training as Certified Nursing Assistants "because that's what everybody else is doing" in their community, rather than because of informed assessment of alternative pathways. In such cases, community norms and network structures channel individuals toward specific occupations, regardless of whether those roles align with broader labor market opportunities or personal career goals.
Importantly, participants did not critique the opportunities they received through referrals. Three in five low-wage workers in the survey reported securing a job through a connection, and many expressed gratitude for such support. Even when referrals did not directly advance long-term career goals, individuals interpreted them as signs of mutual aid and community solidarity. One worker explained her appreciation for a friend who referred her to a role at an assisted living facility: while the position did not align with her career aspirations, it provided immediate stability during a period of financial need.
Weak Ties and Cross-Sector Exposure
In contrast to strong ties, weak ties—connections outside close personal networks—can provide access to new industries and career paths. Research on labor markets has long emphasized the importance of weak ties in connecting individuals to opportunities beyond their immediate social circles (Granovetter, 1973; Wang & Uzzi, 2022). Yet many study participants lacked such connections, particularly workers. Community college students reported somewhat larger professional networks with broader exposure than workers, but access to cross-sector or cross-income ties remained rare across both groups.
Participants recognized the limits of their networks, especially when exploring unfamiliar career fields. One computer science student joined a club for women in programming but was disappointed to discover no events were offered during the semester. Another participant connected with a network of Black professionals in technology and found community but struggled to translate those relationships into employment opportunities.
Experimental and observational evidence underscores the mobility consequences of network composition. Chetty and colleagues (2022) demonstrate that cross-income friendships are strongly associated with upward economic mobility, and recent research shows that weak ties facilitate access to higher-quality job opportunities in part by exposing individuals to information and norms from different occupational contexts (Wang & Uzzi, 2022). For low-wage workers whose networks are concentrated within similar industries, the absence of weak ties can effectively place a ceiling on mobility, regardless of individual effort or skill development.
Mentorship as Transformative Capital
Despite the limitations of their broader networks, many participants identified specific mentors—often teachers—whose guidance significantly influenced their educational and career trajectories. While participants rarely used the formal term "mentor," they described individuals who recognized potential they had not seen in themselves, provided concrete advice about pathways, and offered sustained encouragement through setbacks.
Both workers and students spoke with visible emotion when describing mentors' impact. One young man attributed his decision to return to study engineering to a single professor: "If I didn't meet him, I definitely would not be here." Another student described her career journey as a "zigzag" through multiple retail jobs until a conversation with her pastor, who suggested nursing. She enrolled in community college the same day. These accounts illustrate how mentorship can function as a turning point, redirecting trajectories and opening pathways that might otherwise remain invisible.
Importantly, mentorship appears to operate differently than general network exposure. Mentors provide not only information but also validation, accountability, and personalized guidance tailored to individuals' specific circumstances and goals. This suggests that interventions aimed at expanding social capital should prioritize quality and depth of relationships, not merely quantity of connections. Programs that embed structured mentorship—such as cohort-based training models or formalized faculty-student engagement—may therefore yield stronger navigation outcomes than those that simply facilitate networking events without ongoing relationship development.
Employment Conditions and Job Quality
Job quality functions as both an outcome of career navigation and a precondition for it. For many workers and learners in this study, decisions about education, training, or job transitions were made under conditions of significant economic and logistical constraint. Unstable schedules, low wages, long commutes, and hostile workplace environments limited the time, resources, and cognitive capacity available for career planning, skill development, and risk-taking.
Wages as a Threshold Condition
Wages emerged as the most immediate constraint shaping career decisions. Many participants described frustration with earnings insufficient to meet basic needs despite full-time employment. One nursing student described economic pressures facing her family: "My brother is working right now in a factory. My father was working a month ago in the factory, now is working with Instacart and Spark, but they work, like, 14 to 16 hours a day, and they don't earn that much. So it's difficult to see them work that hard and don't earn what they deserve."
Although 62% of low-wage workers in the survey reported job satisfaction, qualitative interviews revealed complexity beneath that figure. Participants often defined satisfaction relative to stability or workplace relationships rather than financial security. In reality, for many workers, earnings fall short of what is needed to "make ends meet" (Gould & Fast, 2026), particularly when they serve as primary earners for their households.
Despite initial reluctance to share wage expectations during interviews, participants' economic pragmatism was clear and shaped how they evaluated opportunities. Research documents increased importance of pay in determining job satisfaction following the COVID-19 pandemic, as working conditions became more precarious and income inequality widened (Johnson & Whilans, 2022). Career coaches noted this shift explicitly: "I have yet to find a client who says, 'you know I'm salary neutral. Just find me something, I don't care.'"
At the same time, when naming wage expectations, participants quickly qualified their responses by mentioning other dimensions of job quality. One worker warned, "Not all money is good money. I just want to put that out there," emphasizing that respect and dignity in the workplace mattered alongside compensation. This suggests that while wages function as a threshold—without sufficient income, individuals cannot afford to engage in career navigation activities—additional factors become salient once basic needs are met.
Transportation and Location Constraints
Transportation emerged as a significant constraint shaping the range of opportunities individuals could realistically pursue. Reliable access to transportation determines whether workers can reach certain jobs, training programs, or educational institutions. Survey findings indicate that alongside wages and scheduling, location and commute ranked among the top factors influencing job selection for workers.
Participants described how commuting challenges limited their options. A 34-year-old home care worker in Boston explained how public transit constraints shaped which clients she could accept: "Cuando no tienen buen transporte, ya uno no lo coge porque, lamentablemente no hay facilidad para llegarle al horario que tiene que llegarle [When there's no good transportation, you don't take the client because there's no way to arrive on time]." In metropolitan areas, research confirms that low-income and minority workers are less likely to reside in proximity to employment opportunities compared to their affluent and white counterparts (Kneebone & Holmes, 2015).
For students, limited transportation can prevent participation in work-based learning opportunities integral to career exposure and skill development. One interview participant went so far as to consider purchasing a car specifically to expand job opportunities, illustrating how transportation barriers can create additional financial burdens that compound mobility challenges.
Scheduling Instability and Time Scarcity
Beyond wages and location, unstable work schedules emerged as a major barrier to navigation. Many participants worked in jobs offering little control over hours, instead contending with fluctuating schedules, last-minute changes, and on-call shifts. These practices are especially acute in service occupations and lead to income volatility and elevated stress (Schneider & Harknett, 2019).
One worker described waiting several days for her schedule after starting a role as a home health aide, eventually having to press her supervisor for information: "there was no type of organization at all." Such unpredictability prevents workers not only from adjusting to new roles but also from engaging in any form of long-term planning. Career coaches described this challenge explicitly: "Now you need another full-time minimum wage job to make up for this one that's not full-time anymore, and when do we have time to actually help you work on long-term?"
Constraints are particularly acute for working community college students, many of whom navigate strict course requirements while employed in low-paying jobs (Carnevale & Smith, 2018). One student, balancing full-time work and full-time study, explained, "it's a bit hard focusing on both of them at the same time." Another student, a 26-year-old father, brought his 2-year-old daughter to a focus group, fidgeting in his lap while he outlined the regimented schedule he maintains: working night shifts, parenting, and attending class. Time is rarely afforded for exploration, reflection, or skill-building beyond immediate survival needs.
One coach described a client who had completed hotel housekeeping training and was ready to work but could not find a job allowing her to pick up children from school: "She's like, well, I can work from 9 to 6 every day, but then I have to pick up my kids. That's it, that's the deal breaker, every single time." Such examples illustrate how schedule inflexibility creates insurmountable barriers even for motivated, trained individuals.
Workplace Environment and Psychological Safety
Participants also emphasized workplace culture and relationships with supervisors and colleagues as critical factors shaping both job satisfaction and capacity for skill development. Supportive supervisors encouraged learning and growth, while hostile environments discouraged risk-taking and professional development, especially among younger workers. One 24-year-old student explained that unless he trusts his manager, "I don't really feel safe to step out of my comfort zone."
When participants discussed ideal work environments, they focused on interpersonal dynamics and psychological safety. Many noted the importance of protecting mental health in the workplace. In one worker focus group, a 23-year-old man asserted: "I'm a human first before I'm an employee, so if you can't see that, then what is the point of me working for you?"
Participants also described the psychological toll of environments characterized by disrespect, discrimination, or microaggressions. Four workers described experiences ranging from microaggression to explicit discrimination, with facets of their identity—age, race, gender, or intersections thereof—scrutinized in ways that left them feeling unwelcome and undervalued. One 48-year-old Black woman working as a public school educator noted that microaggressions compounded over time, forcing her to choose between her job and her mental well-being.
In such settings, individuals often prioritized leaving quickly rather than pursuing optimal next steps. These experiences reinforce research showing that workplace relationships and organizational culture shape whether workers receive mentorship, information about advancement opportunities, or encouragement to pursue training (Fuller et al., 2021). When workplace environments are hostile or unsupportive, even motivated individuals may struggle to access the developmental resources necessary for long-term mobility.
Ideal Careers and Entrepreneurship
Participants' descriptions of ideal careers provide insight into how workers and students prioritize competing factors. While wages were consistently important, participants emphasized a broader set of considerations including advancement opportunities, workplace environment, job security, scheduling flexibility, and alignment with personal values. Survey data reveal that 57% of workers and 55% of students prioritize wages when selecting an ideal career, but substantial proportions also emphasize values alignment (44% of workers, 36% of students), job security (36% of workers, 42% of students), and work environment (36% of workers, 40% of students).
For many participants, an ideal career was defined not only by security but also by meaningful work aligned with personal interests. Ideal careers were imagined as integral to identity; as one participant explained, "it's a huge part of my personality." These aspirations often coexisted with awareness that careers increasingly require continuous skill development to remain viable. One student, cognizant of generative AI's impact, wanted a career allowing him to build skills to "stay ahead of the curve."
Flexibility also emerged as important, particularly among students. Some described seeking careers offering work-life balance or remote work opportunities. A computer science student explained that one reason she chose her field was the possibility of working remotely. Workers were less likely to mention such expectations; one worker noted that working long hours was "kind of what my family and I have grown accustomed to." This difference may reflect generational divides or reveal how limited career exposure creates unrealistic expectations for some students unfamiliar with workplace norms.
Both students and workers identified entrepreneurship as a path toward flexibility, meaningful work, and advancement. When participants discussed self-employment or starting businesses, they described it as a way to bypass traditional hierarchies and exercise greater control over their trajectories. One early childhood worker described her ideal career as owning her own business: "I will have the ability to set my own policies, or whatever the case may be, and also be that guidance and that resource for parents. And… you know, hire people who love… who have the same passion as I do."
For this worker and others, self-employment represents a pathway to designing environments, relationships, and impact unavailable within traditional employment structures. Notably, none of the coaches interviewed mentioned clients pursuing entrepreneurship, even though both students and workers raised the topic. This gap suggests that while some participants see entrepreneurship as viable, it is unlikely to feature in formal advising conversations.
Recent labor market analysis indicates that the share of job-switchers moving into entrepreneurship has reached a seven-year high, rising most sharply among workers without college degrees, and the average age of new entrepreneurs has fallen to under 34 (Aksu, 2025). In a cooling labor market, entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a serious early-career option rather than a late-career pivot, yet pathways into self-employment remain opaque for many participants.
Skills Development for Navigation
Career navigation depends on both durable skills—such as communication and teamwork—and navigation-specific skills, including decision-making, adaptability, and self-advocacy. Across surveys and interviews, participants reported relatively high confidence in their abilities, yet opportunities to develop these skills systematically remain limited within education and workforce programs.
Durable Skills and Context-Dependent Application
When asked about skills that had helped most in their career journeys, participants overwhelmingly emphasized durable skills. Social and interpersonal abilities were most frequently cited, including communication, teamwork, and the ability to interact with diverse groups. One worker pointed to the utility of adapting communication styles—or "code-switching"—in her front-desk role as "the first face" of the company.
Such accounts illustrate how durable skills are often context-dependent and laden with power differentials (McCluney et al., 2019). Communication in professional environments may require different strategies than communication with peers or family members, and individuals often develop these capacities through workplace experience rather than formal instruction. Self-management skills, including adaptability, patience, and organization, were also frequently mentioned, alongside higher-order cognitive skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.
Survey findings indicate high levels of confidence: 69% of students and 69% of workers report knowing what skills are valued by employers, and 66% of students and 63% of workers believe they have or will soon have the skills employers desire. However, research documents persistent gaps between workers' self-assessments and employers' evaluations of workforce readiness, particularly regarding professional communication and workplace norms (Davidson, 2016; Gray, 2025; The Lumina Foundation and Gallup, 2026). This disconnect suggests not only a gap in skill development but also in how skills are understood, demonstrated, and evaluated across education and employment contexts.
Navigation Skills as Learned Through Experience
In addition to durable skills, participants frequently described abilities related to career navigation itself—persistence, adaptability, goal-setting, and self-advocacy. One 25-year-old student who returned to community college after leaving a four-year university described self-advocacy skills she developed: "I think the biggest skill is learning to… advocate for myself… In class, when I need help, I make sure I go back to the professor or someone else. And, when I was getting prepared for going back to school, I had to advocate for myself when I was doing all the financial aid stuff."
Another worker described using SMART goal-setting strategies to guide decisions and maintained a pragmatic approach: "And if it doesn't work? Oh well, it's not like I didn't try." Such accounts reveal that navigation skills are typically developed through trial and error rather than formal instruction. Less than half of workers (47%) and students (43%) in the survey report having a structured decision-making process for career choices, suggesting that individuals build these capacities gradually as they encounter challenges.
Across interviews and surveys, participants discussed perseverance through academic setbacks, layoffs, health shocks, and family responsibilities. In these cases, individual adaptability and persistence often compensate for systemic barriers and instability in education and work. Yet the stressful conditions participants face may erode the very executive functioning skills navigation requires (Shields et al., 2016), underscoring the importance of stable employment conditions and wraparound supports that reduce cognitive load.
Absence of Formal Skill Development Opportunities
Despite the importance of both durable and navigation skills, opportunities to develop them systematically remain uneven. There is no standardized curriculum or skill framework for career navigation across education and workforce systems. Students may access learning opportunities through experiential programs such as internships, but availability and quality vary significantly across institutions and programs (Green-Weir et al., 2021).
For workers, the workplace itself often serves as the primary environment for developing communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. While workers may feel confident in their interpersonal abilities, employers frequently report gaps in professional communication or workplace readiness (Davidson, 2016; Gray, 2025). This suggests a disconnect not only in skill development opportunities but also in how skills are framed, recognized, and validated across education and employment systems.
As careers become more dynamic and transition-heavy, navigation skills—including decision-making under uncertainty, adaptability to changing conditions, and resilience through setbacks—are increasingly critical to economic security. Yet structured opportunities to build such capacities remain largely absent from education and training programs. Without intentional efforts to embed career exploration, guided reflection, and coached decision-making into curricula, individuals will continue to develop navigation skills through costly trial and error.
Career Guidance and Coaching Infrastructure
Career coaches, workforce intermediaries, and social service programs play critical roles in helping individuals interpret labor market information, identify opportunities, and maintain momentum through transitions. Yet access to such support remains uneven, and coaches themselves operate within resource-constrained environments characterized by high caseloads, limited training, unclear role definitions, and inadequate technological infrastructure.
The Role and Value of Coaching
Career coaches help individuals assess interests, explore pathways, connect to opportunities, and persist through uncertainty. Evidence from multiple contexts—including community colleges, workforce programs, and reentry services—demonstrates that career coaching improves labor market outcomes and supports long-term mobility (Sylvester & Myran, 2020; McConnell et al., 2021; Davis et al., 2022). The coaches interviewed for this study came from diverse professional backgrounds, bringing varied levels of skill and domain-specific knowledge. While some organizations provided formal training and structured curricula, others offered minimal preparation, resulting in inconsistent quality and comprehensiveness of support.
Coaches described assuming responsibilities far beyond traditional career advising. Effective one-on-one relationships cannot be built, they emphasized, without addressing clients' housing instability, immigration status, childcare needs, and other circumstances affecting capacity to pursue employment. As one coach explained, "Everything in their life impacts their ability to get a job and keep a job." Another coach articulated a deliberate approach grounded in psychological safety: "The whole mission of the organization is really that idea of psychological safety... Unless you're comfortable sitting in front of me sharing about your worst interview experience, I need to make that space for you."
This holistic approach reflects the realities coaches navigate daily: clients face intersecting challenges that formal systems often treat as separate problems. Coaches frequently serve as connectors to wraparound services—including SNAP Employment and Training programs, housing assistance, and healthcare—that enable clients to engage in career development activities. Three participants in this study—two workers and one student, all mothers—described accessing training through SNAP E&T services, which often function as entry points into career resources for individuals who might not otherwise engage with workforce institutions.
Resource Constraints and Institutional Fragmentation
Despite their importance, many coaching systems operate under severe resource constraints. Interviews revealed substantial variation in caseloads: some coaches worked with 10-25 clients, allowing sustained engagement, while others served hundreds or thousands simultaneously. One coach working at a large community college system reported responsibility for 4,700 students, illustrating the scale mismatch between coaching demand and available capacity.
Such disparities have significant implications for depth of support. High caseloads limit opportunities for individualized advising and make it difficult to maintain ongoing relationships. One coach in a sector-training program described using technology to conduct virtual sessions with up to 60 participants simultaneously, asking, "how do I make this stick for them?" Others expressed frustration about not knowing where students ultimately landed: "That's the toughest part of my job, just really not knowing where the students landed, and not being able to speak to it... I'll just send the one email, and if they don't get back to me, I just hope all is well."
Institutional fragmentation further limits coaching effectiveness. Career services teams are often small and siloed within larger institutions, particularly at community colleges where many roles are grant-funded and field-specific (Strada Education Foundation, 2024). Coaches described difficulty coordinating with faculty and staff across academic departments, and in some cases reported being disconnected even within their own teams. One coach stated, "I'm kind of building it as I go," highlighting how lack of institutional integration constrains reach even when knowledgeable advisors are present.
Coaches also described lacking access to adequate digital tools and labor market data. They are expected to remain knowledgeable about evolving technologies and skills demands, yet often have limited training or resources to track and interpret labor market trends. In practice, many coaches rely on the same online platforms as their clients—LinkedIn, Indeed, and Handshake—offering interpretive scaffolding but working within the same information constraints.
Training, Professionalization, and Role Clarity
Few coaches interviewed had prior experience in career services before assuming their roles, and their professional trajectories varied widely. While some organizations provided formal training aligned with national career development standards—such as the Virginia Career Coach Certification program (Virginia Community College System, 2020)—others offered minimal onboarding. As a result, coaching quality and consistency vary, with some clients receiving less comprehensive support despite clear dedication across the workforce.
Role definitions also remain unclear in many settings. Coaches are expected to provide career guidance while simultaneously addressing clients' basic needs, yet formal job descriptions often fail to acknowledge this dual responsibility. Without clear boundaries and adequate support structures, coaches risk burnout and may struggle to maintain the quality of relationships necessary for effective navigation support.
Professionalization of the coaching workforce—through standardized competencies, credential pathways, and ongoing professional development—could help address these challenges. Establishing clearer role definitions, providing access to labor market intelligence systems, and ensuring manageable caseloads are foundational steps toward building a coaching infrastructure capable of supporting broad-based mobility.
Building Long-Term Career Navigation Capacity
Strengthening career navigation infrastructure requires coordinated investments across multiple domains. While individual interventions—such as improving job postings or expanding coaching capacity—can yield incremental improvements, sustained mobility depends on systemic alignment across information systems, network development mechanisms, employment conditions, skills curricula, and institutional guidance structures. The following pillars outline a framework for building long-term capacity.
Curated and Transparent Information Systems
Career information should be reliable, actionable, and embedded within trusted institutions. Online platforms have expanded access to labor market data, but without corresponding improvements in information quality or institutional validation, abundance without clarity can exacerbate inequality. Institutions—including colleges, workforce intermediaries, and employers—should invest in curating and interpreting labor market information, ensuring that data reflects realistic pathways rather than algorithmic aggregations.
In practice, this includes clearly communicating program-level outcomes such as typical employers, placement rates, and wages at the point of enrollment and throughout programs. Institutions should integrate labor market data into advising and instruction, enabling students to make adaptive decisions as they progress. Examples such as Dallas Community College's Labor Market Intelligence Center demonstrate how accessible data systems can support informed decision-making.
Employers should regularly share transparent information about pay, benefits, and advancement pathways. Job postings should reflect active, funded roles and include hiring timelines, expiring after defined periods unless updated. Technology platforms should improve transparency by labeling listings based on employer responsiveness or verified hiring activity. Policymakers could establish requirements that postings meet minimum standards for accuracy and currency, reducing the prevalence of ghost jobs and misleading information.
Generative AI tools offer potential to personalize and synthesize career information at scale, but they require safeguards to ensure accuracy and reduce bias. Additional research and experimentation should examine how such tools can augment—rather than replace—trusted human intermediaries, and how to ensure AI systems do not reinforce occupational segregation or exacerbate digital literacy gaps.
Mechanisms to Broaden Social Networks
Social networks remain among the most important sources of career information and opportunity, yet they are often stratified by income and occupation. Expanding access to cross-sector and cross-income networks is critical for improving mobility, particularly for low-wage workers who report narrower networks with limited exposure to alternative careers.
Education and workforce programs should intentionally build opportunities for individuals to form professional connections through work-based learning experiences, structured mentoring, regular interactions with employers and alumni, and cohort-based learning communities. Place-based investments that foster cross-income interactions—such as mixed-income housing developments or community anchor institutions—can provide broader exposure for adults and children alike (Chetty et al., 2026).
Importantly, social capital should be treated as a measurable outcome, not merely a byproduct, of education and workforce programs. Institutions should track whether participants develop relationships in target industries, receive referrals to opportunities, or expand the diversity of their networks (Charania & Fisher, 2023). Mentorship programs should emphasize sustained relationships rather than one-time networking events, as depth and continuity of connection appear more consequential than breadth alone.
Employment Conditions That Enable Navigation
Job quality functions as both an outcome of successful navigation and a precondition for it. For many low-wage workers, unstable schedules, insufficient pay, and long commutes limit the capacity to engage in career planning, learning, and risk-taking. At minimum, jobs must offer adequate wages, predictable schedules, and reasonable commutes to enable active career navigation.
Employers should clarify internal advancement pathways, build respectful and psychologically safe workplaces, and strengthen managerial support. Managers should provide clear and continuous feedback, which is associated with higher worker confidence and engagement. Unfortunately, most survey respondents reported receiving little career support from supervisors, contributing to perceptions that advancement is unattainable.
Workforce programs and education providers can support job quality by prioritizing placement into roles meeting minimum thresholds and by aligning program schedules with the realities of working learners. Wraparound supports—including childcare, transportation assistance, and income supports—expand individuals' capacity to engage in career navigation activities without sacrificing financial stability. Strengthening the social safety net through measures such as unemployment insurance, paid leave, and childcare subsidies provides the economic foundation necessary for long-term planning and skill development.
Embedding Navigation Skills in Curricula
As careers become less linear and more information-intensive, navigation skills—including decision-making under uncertainty, adaptability, and self-advocacy—are becoming more critical to economic security. Education and workforce systems should define and embed navigation skills as core competencies, taught and reinforced alongside technical and durable skills.
This requires moving beyond one-time workshops or optional career services toward integrated, developmentally sequenced instruction. Applied activities such as job searching, career planning, and goal-setting should be embedded in coursework and training programs. Guided reflection and coached decision-making at key transition points—such as program entry, mid-program, and completion—can help individuals reassess goals, adapt strategies, and build confidence in their capacity to navigate.
Institutions should assess navigation skills alongside technical competencies, treating them as outcomes that education and training programs are responsible for cultivating. This may include measuring students' confidence in their ability to identify opportunities, evaluate tradeoffs, advocate for themselves, and persist through setbacks. Programs such as career pathways frameworks that integrate education, training, and support services offer promising models for embedding navigation skill development.
Professionalized and Accessible Coaching
Career coaching should be funded, structured, and integrated as essential infrastructure across the education-to-work continuum rather than treated as supplemental or optional. Coaches require manageable caseloads, access to digital tools and labor market information, ongoing professional development, and clear role definitions aligned with national career development standards.
Sustainable funding is critical to ensuring coaches have time and resources to adequately serve each client. Standardized professional development efforts—such as state-level coach certification programs modeled on Virginia's example—can align training with competencies and improve consistency in service quality. Within institutions, career guidance should be integrated across departments, programs, and support offices, breaking down silos that limit reach.
Hybrid AI-human coaching models may expand advising capacity while maintaining quality and trust, but careful design is necessary to ensure technology augments rather than replaces human relationships. Coaching effectiveness depends not only on information provision but also on psychological safety, accountability, and personalized guidance—functions difficult to automate fully. Research should explore optimal configurations of human and digital support that maximize access without sacrificing depth.
System Alignment and Intermediary Investment
Career navigation challenges often reflect fragmentation across the institutions shaping access to information, networks, jobs, skills, and opportunity. Improving mobility requires alignment across education providers, workforce organizations, government, and employers, facilitated by intermediaries capable of bridging institutional divides.
This includes building and investing in workforce intermediaries embedded in communities, which provide outreach and wraparound services that colleges and public systems often struggle to deliver. Strong examples include organizations such as Jewish Vocational Services and NextGen Talent, which offer coaching, job placement, and advocacy tailored to specific populations. Trusted organizations with community roots can bridge gaps between education and employment while addressing barriers that formal systems treat as beyond their scope.
Employers play a critical role by partnering with education and training providers to build regional talent pipelines rather than relying on "just-in-time" hiring. They should invest in work-based learning programs, develop transparent internal pathways, and participate in sector partnerships that align curriculum with labor market needs.
Policymakers at state and federal levels should invest in modernized data systems linking education and workforce information, support intermediaries through sustained funding, facilitate work-based learning and apprenticeship expansion, and align incentives across fragmented systems. A stronger social safety net—including income support, unemployment insurance, childcare assistance, and paid leave—provides the stability individuals need to engage in meaningful career navigation without risking immediate survival.
Without coordination, individuals will continue to shoulder the burden of navigating volatile labor markets alone. With it, career navigation infrastructure can function as shared infrastructure supporting broad-based mobility.
Conclusion
This study examined how low-wage workers and community college students navigate education and employment decisions amid a fragmented and increasingly volatile labor market. Career trajectories for these populations are characterized not by steady pathways but by repeated pivots—switches between jobs, exits from roles or education, and re-entries prompted by economic shocks, credential barriers, and personal circumstances. Effective navigation of such transitions requires not only individual motivation but also access to reliable information, diverse social networks, stable employment conditions, navigation skills, and institutional guidance.
Findings reveal that existing systems remain oriented toward linear career models despite the prevalence of nonlinear trajectories. Online platforms provide information abundance without corresponding clarity or reliability. Social networks transmit support and opportunity but often reinforce occupational clustering within familiar industries. Job quality constraints—including unstable schedules, insufficient wages, and hostile work environments—limit workers' capacity to invest in long-term development. Navigation skills are developed largely through trial and error rather than structured instruction, and career coaching remains under-resourced and fragmented across institutions.
These dynamics suggest that career mobility is shaped less by individual attributes than by the strength of the systems supporting navigation. When information is curated and interpretable, networks span income and sector boundaries, employment provides stability, skills are intentionally cultivated, and coaching is accessible and well-resourced, individuals are better positioned to identify opportunities and recover from disruptions. When these systems are weak or inaccessible, workers and learners face heightened risk of stagnation, regardless of effort.
Several questions warrant further investigation. First, as generative AI tools become more widely adopted in job search and advising, research should examine how AI-enabled coaching can complement human guidance without amplifying inequalities. Second, more work is needed to identify which navigation skills most effectively support decision-making and resilience in volatile labor markets, and how such skills can be systematically developed. Third, studies should explore mechanisms for expanding social networks to provide cross-income exposure, particularly for workers concentrated in low-wage sectors. Finally, research should investigate which early-career roles provide the strongest foundations for long-term mobility in an era of automation and technological change, and how education systems can effectively prepare individuals for those roles.
As labor markets grow more dynamic and less predictable, career navigation capacity will increasingly determine who thrives and who remains stuck. Whether individuals are able to navigate effectively will depend not on their individual resilience alone but on the systems built to support them. Policymakers, educators, employers, and intermediaries must coordinate to strengthen career navigation infrastructure, ensuring that reliable information, professional networks, economic stability, navigation skills, and institutional guidance are accessible to all. Without such investments, economic opportunity will remain unevenly distributed, and mobility will continue to depend more on luck and circumstance than on effort and ability.
Research Infographic
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Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Research Officer (Nexus Institute for Work and AI); Associate Dean and Director of HR Academic Programs (WGU); Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD/HR/Leadership Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2026). Navigating Careers Without Clear Pathways: Supporting Workers and Learners in Today's Fragmented Labor Market. Human Capital Leadership Review, 37(2). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.37.2.2
