The relevance of the study is determined by the following: the possibilities to identify commonalities and develop a factual basis are disciplinarily limited with a narrowly disciplinary analysis of social reality fragments and their scientifi c explication as specifi c research issues. An expanded interpretation of the phenomenon of a professional career (PC (ПК)) leads us to the phenomenon and issues connected with professional development of a subject (PDS (ПСС)), while expanding its boundaries leads to the phenomenon and problems of human resources and human resource management (HRM (УЧР)), the latter leads to social capital (SC (СК)). The purpose of the research is to study the social and psychological phenomena associated with the choice of a professional fi eld and the success of a subject’s professional career. Hypotheses: 1. An adequate analysis of socio-psychological phenomena as a research object requires periodic correction of the boundaries and content of their study as a research subject. 2. The empirical material accumulated in psychology (in the career study-fi eld, in particular) exceeds the limits of the traditionally identifi ed “research subject” and is liable to methodological refl ection. Participants: nurses (n1= 14 and n2 = 89, 2014 and 2022 survey data), teachers (n3 = 96; 2016), pre-school teachers (n4 = 44; 2015), government offi cials (n5 = 81; 2006). Methods (tools): analysis of literary sources, the original technique developed by the author “Dynamics of the style in the professional life” (V. A. Tolochek). Results: as predictors of the general and professional activity of the subjects (the respondents and their parents), we used the correlations between: 1) the level of the parents’ (father, mother) position and the level of education; 2) the level of the respondents’ position and the level of education; 3) the respondent’s residence place and their birth place. Values greater than 1.00 were considered as a refl ection of people’s social activity, ‘effi ciency’, and managerial potential; values less than 1.00 were considered as a defi ciency of these qualities. Main conclusions: the research shows that the patterns of these variables are diff erent among the representatives of the fi ve professional spheres; they are better (numerically higher) in professions with a “high” hierarchy (a large number of positions in a “vertical career” – among government offi cials) than those with a “low” hierarchy. Practical significance: the identifi ed correlations are important for the subsequent study of human self–realization in work, in a professional career in its three phases – pre-career – active career – post-career; they also allow us to develop related issues of youth employment, employment problems in the regions, migration, etc.