The authors used a phenomenological research method to investigate the career decision-making experiences of 17 employed adults. Thematic results from interview data analysis were organized within 3 overarching themes: decisions centered on relational life, decisions centered on personal meaning, and decisions centered on economic realities. Study results supported and extended contentions that career decisions are embedded in relational life and have contextual meaning. Belonging and the potential for meaningful engagement were integral to career decisions. Implications for the role of career counselors and career counseling are discussed. Recommendations for counseling that facilitates the consideration of belonging and personal meaning in career decisions are offered.Recent career literature has delineated the central role of work in human experience (Axelrod, 1999) and has demonstrated that career decisions and personal issues (Amundson, 1995;Borgen, 1997) are inextricably intertwined. The extension of relational perspectives to the study of career decision making and development (Blustein, Schultheiss, & Flum, 2004) has indicated that career theory needs to take into account emerging evidence that human experience within work and nonwork domains intersects within and across relationships. Career counseling approaches that have focused on Super's life career development approach (Niles, 2003) and existentialism (Cohen, 2003) have offered alternatives to practice based on more traditional theory. Yet, despite an emphasis on more relational, contextual, and meaning-based perspectives in the professional literature, current career counseling practice often continues to reflect traditional matching and information-giving approaches

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