This research examines the experience of mature students on work placement as part of Information and Communications Technology programmes at Waterford Institute of Technology. Participants have availed of free college places through the government funded Springboard initiative, which has as its aim to support unemployed people to return to the paid work force. A phenomenological approach is taken in the data gathering, analysis and presentation. Fourteen interviews were carried out, with seven men and seven women between 2015 and 2016. The phenomenon is embedded in the broader experience of the period in Ireland and in particular the experience of the South-East region. Five themes emerge and a model entitled Meaning-Making in Work Transitions is presented to accommodate these. The first is the situated nature of participant experience within their own personal context. This context includes wider society and economy, but also participants’ cultural, social and personal lives. Secondly, participants demonstrate the will and ability to reinvent themselves which is represented under the theme of adaptability. Third, work decisions for participants are taken in the context of their personal relationships which falls under the theme of relationality. The fourth theme is narratability which represents how participants create a coherent working identity, including accommodating change and transition, in the telling of their working life. The fifth and final theme is at the centre of the work transition experience, and that is meaning-making. Participants demonstrate the desire to find work that aligns with a sense of self, and allows a sense of purpose and meaning. This research adds to the developing work of Blustein (2011), Savickas (2013) and Savickas et al. (2009) in an emerging career theory for a globalised economy. Participant experience points to the value of continued funded opportunities, beyond the economic imperative for national recovery, for mature learners seeking to make a change in career.