The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental characteristics, meaning of career construction
and life changes of the men in their mid-life transition based on their career life history. To achieve this
purpose, the data were collected through in-depth interviews with eight men in their mid-life transition. In
the process of data analysis, common categories and sub-concepts were extracted according to
Mandelbaum's three conceptual frameworks; life dimensions, turning points, and adaption. As a result of
this study, the extracted categories were ‘family’, ‘school’ and ‘workplace’ in their life dimension. For
turning points, the non-voluntary turning points were ‘contract' and 'retirement' and voluntary tuning points
were ‘scout’ and ‘change jobs’. Lastly, adaption was ‘loop learning’, ‘career identity’, ‘social relations’,
‘meaning of the work’ and ‘life after 40’. According to the results, the mid-life transition was the time of
exposing self-realization to play important social role by expanding social boundary based on their career
identity rather than the time of mid-life crisis. These results showed that the men in their mid-life
transition could develop the second part of their life based on the resources that they had as a result of
their earlier career construction, and at the same time, they needed to have very detailed strategy and
execution. The results of this paper could be a momentum to understand the career construction of the
men in their mid-life transition through analysing external context and experiences of career construction.