Career navigation to thriving at work – a multi-method study among gig workers

Purpose The study primarily aims to know how gig workers navigate their careers, how they thrive at work and what strategies they take to excel at work. The study focused on identifying the role of career navigation, career resilience and perceived employability in determining thriving at work, i.e. well-being faced by gig workers. The authors try to understand how these lead to sustainable careers, which are happy, healthy and productive employees. Design/methodology/approach The study used a mixed-methods design. The first quantitative study used a self-administered questionnaire circulated via social networks to get responses from contingent workers, gig workers and on-call workers from India. The second qualitative study used the interview methods, where knowledge workers shared their insights to highlight the inhibitors and strategies for successful career navigation. Findings The data analysis of 215 gig-workers showed the positive impact of career navigation on resilience, career navigation on thriving at work and resilience on thriving at work. Resilience also mediated the relationship between career navigation and thriving at work, and the moderation effect of perceived employability on the relationship between career navigation, resilience and thriving at work. The 23 in-depth interviews denote gig-workers on lack of experience, gendered advantage/disadvantage, location disadvantage and financial ambiguity as inhibitors for successful career navigation; agility and flexibility, continuous learning, entrepreneur mindset, developing social network and digital networking and being resource-intensive as strategies for successful career navigation. Originality/value The study offered a simplified career navigation and outcomes model through career resilience as an important resource and perceived employability as a moderating variable.