This symposium introduces the recent ISSP book project: “Athletes’ Careers across Cultures” (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013). The book editors and several chapter authors will discuss how culture (as a multilevel phenomenon) informs athletes’ career development as well as existing career research and career assistance programs around the world. The first presenter will briefly introduce the idea of “Athletes’ Careers across Cultures” project and then focus on two epistemological perspectives (‘waves’) in existing career research, such as the cross cultural perspective gravitating to the positivist epistemology, and the cultural mindset perspective located within a constructivist epistemological paradigm. She will further share the insights related to the emerging “third wave” based on the cultural praxis paradigm. The second presenter will focus on Canadian context tracing an evolution and introducing several theoretical frameworks and lines of current career research in Canada. The third presenter is going to discuss New Zealand context emphasizing how a change on the society/sport system level that is development of the Carded Athlete Program influenced carded athletes’ career development and transitional experiences. This presenter will also point out that a holistic perspective in managing athletes’ development in the Carded Athlete Program is only declared, and more should be done to incorporate this perspective in New Zealand’s sporting culture. The forth presenter will show how the holistic/developmental perspective embodied into the developmental model of transitions faced by athletes (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) has already informed both career research and career support services for athletes in Belgium (Flanders). The fifth presenter is going to emphasize the lessons learned from the analysis of career research and career assistance in 19 countries represented in “Athletes’ Careers across Cultures” and will proceed with a set of new challenges for career researchers and practitioners shaped as cultural praxis of athletes’ careers approach.