During the last decade in more than ten review papers (e.g., Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007; Gordon, Lavallee, & Grove, 2005; Hackfort & Huang, 2005; Petitpas, Brewer, & Van Raalte, 2009; Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, & Côté, 2009; Taylor & Ogilvie, 2001; Wylleman, Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004), one meta-review (Stambulova, 2012), and the book “Athletes’ careers across cultures” (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013) methodological issues related to the career topic in sport psychology were outlined and discussed. The aim of this symposium is to demonstrate paradigmatic and methodological diversity in contemporary career research around the world but also to discuss complementarity between different ways of acquiring knowledge about athletes’ careers. The first presenter will focus on lessons learned from analyzing career research in 19 countries based on “Athletes’ careers across cultures” book and further emphasize that better future for the career topic is relevant not only to an increase in methodological diversity but also to an increase in methodological and cultural congruence of career projects. The second presenter will demonstrate advantages and limitations of a longitudinal quantitative (positivist) approach in studying the transition from junior to senior sports in Swedish context. The third presenter will acknowledge mixed-method (positivist/post-positivist) approach in exploring dual career experiences of junior elite German athletes and their premature athletic dropouts after graduation from elite sport schools. The fourth presenter will shift discussion to a qualitative (constructivist) approach and using an Indigenous philosophy known as Dadirri to guide an investigation of athletic retirement experiences of Indigenous Australian athletes. The fifth presenter will provide insights in how existential-narrative (constructivist) approach opens new possibilities in exploration of meanings that Finnish athletes attach to their career experiences on different career stages and during athletic retirement.