This chapter is an attempt to consider career assistance to athletes as a professional culture with related concepts, theoretical frameworks, traditional and emergent working issues, professional principles, values, strategies and tools. A multiple metaphor approach suggested in social (Morgan, 1986) and vocational psychology (Inkson, 2004, 2006) is used as a framework. More specifically, nine career metaphors, such as inheritance, cycle, journey, action, fit, relationship, role, resource, and story (Inkson, 2004, 2006) are applied to career development and transition research and practice in sport psychology. Three case examples are followed throughout the chapter and viewed through the lenses of the various career metaphors. Finally, advantages, limitations, and future uses of the multiple metaphor approach in summarizing career assistance to athletes as a professional culture are discussed.

As an author, I am aware that the material in this chapter has been shaped by my personal views of the career assistance professional culture, and that this culture is examined not only through the lenses of nine career metaphors, but also through my own eyes (i.e., my professional, athletic and lived experiences in Russia for many years and later acquaintance with Western approaches in career research and practice since my move to Sweden in 2001). In this chapter, career assistance is shown as complex and multifaceted culture, but because of my personal biases in its description, some of its aspects may not have received a proper coverage. Therefore, I invite my colleagues within the career assistance field around the world to complement and challenge this view.