The aim of the symposium is to invite young career scholars, who finalized their withinthe last 3 years, to share their experience of transitioning into their post-careerphase in life. In this symposium each presenter chooses a career theory/frameworkand applies it as a guide for sharing their post-career transition experience. Doingthis we want to illustrate various career theories/frameworks (Stambulova et al., 2021)and exemplify different career trajectories both within and outside academia afterPhD, as well as provide our experiences and coping for other scholars (e.g., PhD-studentsand/or supervisors) to learn from. After a short introduction, the first presenterwill use Stambulova’s (2009, 2020) transition model to share his experience of transitioninginto the leadership-role at a sports university trying to practice what hepreached in his about athletes’ dual careers. The second presenter will share hertransition to a postdoctoral position in a new country using Savicka’s (2005) theoryon career construction as a lens. The third presenter will reflect on her career trajectorypost-and how openness and curiosity towards lived experiences (Harris, 2009),in both research and applied practice, has provided a sound foundation for a richand meaningful, yet unpredictable and messy, career. The fourth presenter will followproviding an ecological examination (e.g., LaVoi, 2016) of a young woman’s attemptto develop a career in academia outlining the challenges in trying to enter ahigh-performance and male-dominated context. After the presentations a generaldiscussion will follow focusing on, for example, how the PhD-education preparedthe presenters for the new pressures (i.e., challenges) in the post-phase and howcareer-theory and research knowledge helped them to cope. Major lessons learnedwill also be shared to support the development and successful transitions of futurePhD-graduates in sport and exercise psychology.