This study presents the investigation of the career transition experience of immigrant skilled workers with a focus on their experiences with career compromise and the coping strategies that they used. The grounded theory approach of qualitative analysis method was used to analyze 20 interview transcripts with participants who had received their education/training and had at least 1 year of work experience prior to immigrating to Canada. The interviews revealed that the career transition journeys of immigrant skilled workers were thwarted with acculturation and career-seeking barriers, which made their career transition experiences quite compromising. The findings support the notion of positive compromise whereby the participants utilized their human agency and open-mindedness to deal with their career compromise. An immigrant vocational theory and an immigrant career compromise theory are proposed. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

This study presents the investigation of the career transition experience of immigrant skilled workers with a focus on their experiences with career compromise and the coping strategies that they used. The grounded theory approach of qualitative analysis method was used to analyze 20 interview transcripts with participants who had received their education/training and had at least 1 year of work experience prior to immigrating to Canada. The interviews revealed that the career transition journeys of immigrant skilled workers were thwarted with acculturation and career-seeking barriers, which made their career transition experiences quite compromising. The findings support the notion of positive compromise whereby the participants utilized their human agency and open-mindedness to deal with their career compromise. An immigrant vocational theory and an immigrant career compromise theory are proposed. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.