A qualitative investigation of career orientations of a sample of Iranian software engineers

This study investigates different types of career orientation of a sample of iranian softwareengineers and antecedents of these orientations. a qualitative study was conducted in seven iranian smallto large sized companies, where forty-nine software engineers were interviewed. using the thematicanalysis technique, technical, managerial, entrepreneurial, project based, and hybrid orientations wereidentified. for some orientations, several sub-orientations were also identified. in addition, the resultspropose some antecedents of career orientation, mainly based on engineer needs, competencies andvalues, which may be moderated by some external factors, including organizational and national levelphenomena.