A review of new and emerging conceptions of work and career is complemented by a description of a comprehensive systems framework that avoids many of the dichotomies found in current accounts of career development and intervention. This is followed by a description of Ford and Smith's ("Educational Psychologist" 42(3):153-171, "2007") "thriving with social purpose" framework, which is offered as a potentially more inclusive approach to intervention than that based on the meta-theoretical framework of social constructivism.