Professional vitality and career success: Mediation, age and outcomes

• Testing a career success model that adds professional vitality.
• Professional vitality is an essential ingredient for successful careers.
• Effects of career attitudes on career 26 outcomes, mediated by professional vitality.
• Professional vitality and age at work environment forms an inverse U shape curve, peaking at age of fifties.

We propose a model that explains the complex phenomenon of successful career at work, and focuses on the antecedents of professional vitality at the workplace. The model sheds light on the role of professional vitality as an essential ingredient for successful careers. Using a survey design, we tested our model with a sample of 545 managers and professionals. The findings suggest effects of career attitudes on career outcomes, mediated by professional vitality. The relationship between professional vitality and age at work environment forms an inverse U shape curve, peaking at age of fifties, an optimistic note for the global aging workforce.