Abstract: Career adaptability refers to individuals’ abilities to keep balance with the changes of career roles, and is viewed as a key ability for one’s career success in the rapidly changing modern society. It has become a new theoretic growing point in the foreign field of career psychology in recent years. Based on the related summary of the foreign studies on career adaptability, this article reviews the studies of the origins, conceptual connotation, theoretical construction and empirical studies of career adaptability so that its abundant theoretical connotation and practical value can be realized and understood. Finally, the article gives some suggestions for future research, that is, the studies on career adaptability should keep focusing on the enrichment and perfection of its theoretical construction, the cultural compatibility of the concept and its application in the practice of career counseling; besides, further research on those who have career difficulties is needed.

Key words: career maturity, career uncertainty, career adaptability