Career success is a term used frequently in academic and popular writing about career. It refers to the extent and ways in which an individual can be described as successful in his or her working life so far. Traditionally, career success has often been thought of in terms of earnings and/or status within an occupation or organisation. This can be expressed either in absolute terms (e.g. the amount a person earns) or in relative terms (e.g. the amount a person earns compared with their starting salary).
Earnings and status are examples of objective criteria of success, where "objective" means that they can be factually verified, and are not purely a matter of opinion. Many observers argue that careers are less predictable than they once were, due to the fast pace of economic and technological change. This means that career management is more obviously the responsibility of the individual rather than his or her employing organisation, because a "job for life" is a thing of the past.
