cariera

Cariera, or carieră in Romanian, is a feminine noun with two primary meanings. In everyday usage, it denotes a person’s professional life and development: the sequence of jobs, roles, education, and achievements that compose one’s professional path. In mining and geology, carieră refers to a quarry or pit where rocks and minerals are extracted.

The word is borrowed from French carrière, which historically carried both senses—the quarry and, metaphorically, the course of life or a racecourse—and was adopted into Romanian with the contemporary sense of “career” as well as the quarry sense. In Romanian, carieră is used in expressions such as a avea o carieră de succes (to have a successful career) and carieră profesională (professional career). It can also appear in the phrases carieră minieră (mining quarry) or carieră de piatră (stone quarry).

In contemporary usage, discussions of career focus on planning, education, skill development, and advancement, and may involve career counseling or career management. The mining sense is common in geography, industry, and infrastructure contexts, describing active extraction sites and their operations.

See also: career counseling, professional development, quarry, mining.