Abstract
Career issues of professionals working in the biotechnology industry give insight into work and life strategies of the future. Through in-depth case studies, we explore commonalities and differences between men and women. We examine individual and organizational factors that serve as barriers or enablers to full integration of work and life issues. The structure of the professionals' work itself contributes to new constructions of the employment relation and to the very concept of career in these firms. The old employment contract no longer concerns employment alone (since key workplace decisions have implications for family life, and vice versa), nor is it clearly any longer a contract, but rather an emergent, ever changing interactive set of adaptations. We argue that this requires a new conception of career, which is more fluid, more adaptable to different life stages and needs, and more variable than the traditional conception.
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