From Hero to Zero: A Case Study of Industry-To-Academia Career Transitions at a Czech Public University

Career transitions from industry into academia remain comparatively under-researched in Central European higher education. This study explores, as a single-institution case study, how three experienced professionals made sense of moving into full-time academic work at one Czech public university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioner-academics who each had more than twenty years of corporate experience. Transcripts were analysed using six-phase reflexive thematic analysis with MAXQDA, and interpreted through Career Construction Theory as the single guiding framework. Six interpretive themes were developed: purposeful reorientation over financial reward; status inversion; limited onboarding at the focal institution; economic pressure toward concurrent external work; learning accreditation norms; and reliance on individual adaptability. Because all three participants had successfully integrated and were drawn from one institution, the findings are preliminary and illustrative rather than generalisable, forming the first stage of an ongoing study.