Abstract This qualitative study, derived from 36 interviews with refugees in Germany, contributes to the literature on career construction theory by exploring career adaptation in the context of forced migration. We focus on the complexity of refugees' adaptive coping responses and study how refugees resort to and develop these adaptive responses in the host country. Our findings highlight the strong influence of context on refugees' ability to adapt their careers, suggesting that problems in career construction are also contextually conditioned. Fundamental uncertainties, lacking personal resources, and having lost and losing time were overarching barriers. Restricted by the context's unfamiliarity and these barriers, refugees' coping was characterized by strong self-regulation. Many of them expressed concern and took control by disregarding uncertainties and set clear career goals and kept moving on regardless of the obstacles faced. They chose positive, appreciative mindsets to take control and strengthen their confidence, and shaped and explored their career dreams, thus exhibiting curiosity. Context not only impaired, but also facilitated refugees' ability to adapt their careers through social connections and the richness of local work opportunities. The present study offers new insights into research on career construction by highlighting how context can impede individuals' use of their adaptability resources and competences, and how despite difficulties, individuals can direct and actively shape their careers to re-build their work trajectories after the resettlement.