The concept of career has its origin in the sociology of professions, where it has been used since the 1950s with different meanings. Corresponding to everyday meaning, “career” refers to certain occupations and professions of high status and stable upward mobility. In this context “career” means a highly institutionalized social and cultural pattern of social positions in an orderly sequence or a system of sequences of positions with growing prestige and earnings within a bureaucratic organization. This definition was first applied in functionalist perspectives and was linked to the question of the social function of this patterned organization of professions for the integration of modern societies.