Market reforms in former communist countries are supposed to have liberated individuals and enterprises alike. Post-industrial, globalised contexts are said to create greater risks and to require flexibility of businesses and employees, and that the latter are therefore required to become reflexive, proactive, and to take charge of their own career planning and progress. Has this actually happened? This paper presents relevant evidence on the career development of samples totalling 1800 25-29-year-olds from contrasting regions of three ex-communist countries (Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine). The findings show, as expected, that the old communist structures that had formerly guided young people through their school-to-work transitions were no longer operative. Moreover, most of the young adults felt in control of their own working lives and, indeed, of their lives in general. They believed that they had been liberated from former constraints and were generally optimistic as regards their own, if not their countries', futures. Even so, the evidence shows that their career development was patterned by new, latent, but extremely powerful structures created by normal labour market processes. During the initial transition from education to working life, family backgrounds and education had ceased to be reliable predictors of career achievements. At that stage, much had depended on having the right 'connections' and pure luck, being in the right place at the right time. That said, once the young adults had entered specific labour market segments it was these that then governed, and became the best predictors of, their future career development.
