"In 2000, Monster.com launched a TV commercial campaign based on an adaptation of Robert Frost’s poem, “The road not taken”. The company website explained: “We’ve created a spot which we hope will really get you thinking about the career choices you’ve made and more importantly, about the ones you haven’t.” Why does a prominent career management company try to make us wonder about the road not taken? The reason is that our current career path is influenced by our images of who we could have been if we had traveled a different career path. These images are called “alternative professional identities” (APIs), a construct that is introduced to social sciences in the fellow’s dissertation. This proposal extends this innovative line of research to explore the effects of APIs on two issues of great interest for researchers, educators, career counselors, policy makers, and the working population at large: career choices and work-family balance. Career paths in Europe are progressively more sinuous, traversing several organizations, occupations, industries, and countries; careers today require therefore frequent and difficult decisions. Moreover, the workforce composition in Europe has changed dramatically, the majority of employees are members of dual-career couples, and the majority of children grow up in households with two working parents. Consequently, work-family conflict has become prevalent, as reflected in the attention it has received from the popular press, policy makers, and social science researchers. The research outlined in this proposal combines qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to offer insight into how people can utilize their APIs to make better career decisions and achieve a better work-family balance."