careerist

plural careerists

1. derogatoryA person who pursues the advancement of their career at the expense of other values.

   A careerist is a square-filler, a time-server. His talents and imagination have been circumscribed to perform managerial duties.

   1980, Alfred Kern, “Waiting for Euripides”, reprinted in Malham M. Wakin (editor), Military Ethics, DIANE Publishing (1994), page 121

   2 more examples

   Liu Hsin's famous jibe seems to have been directed not against Yang Hsiung but against the intellectual limitations of contemporary careerists. […] Yang's writings and personal character did not appeal to the careerists of his time

   1995, Michael Nylan and Nathan Sivin, An Introduction to Yang Hsiung's "Canon of Supreme Mystery" (T'ai Hsüan Ching, ca. 4 B.C.)

   You’ve got a lot of elite careerist women in the officer corps who have a certain set of desires usually related to their career.

   1997, Anita Blair, quoted in U.S. Society & Values, June 1997: The Changing Roles of Women in the United States, DIANE Publishing, page 27

2. A person who takes a job, especially in the military, for a long time rather than temporarily.

comparative more careerist · superlative most careerist

1. Of or pertaining to such a person or way of life