Comparing two career adaptability measures for career construction theory: Relations with boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes

•CMI Adaptability Form C (CMI-C) & Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) are examined.•Both measure different but related constructs; CMI-C relates most with CAAS “concern”.•CMI-C is redundant in predicting boundaryless and protean attitudes beyond CAAS.•CMI-C is related to more traditional (professional & leadership) career motivations.•CAAS is related to boundaryless/protean attitudes and career motivation profiles.

We examined the constructs underlying the Career Maturity Inventory-Adaptability Form (CMI-C) and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). Data from 852 university students indicated that the second-order factors for both scales correlate .43, suggesting that they measure different yet related constructs. All three subscales of the CMI-C correlate most with the “concern” subscale of the CAAS rather than with the corresponding subscale. It appears that the CMI-C is a measure of particular career adaptability for choosing a career whereas the CAAS is a global measure of career adaptability for dealing with all of the tasks of vocational development across the life span. Regression analyses show that the CMI-C does not add to the prediction of boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes over the CAAS. Relationships between the CMI-C and CAAS with entrepreneurial, professional, and leadership career motivation profiles showed that the CAAS is more strongly related to boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes, while the CMI-C appears to relate to more traditional (professional and leadership) career motivations.