Conventional methods of stratification and mobility research are of limited use for the analysis of occupational sequence data. We have therefore developed a new approach to the classification of occupational trajectories - one that takes into account both the multidimensionality of occupational differentiation and the time-dependency of occupational careers. The application of this new classification method to occupational sequence data of two Swiss birth cohorts allows us to reduce the great multitude of individual trajectories to conceptually meaningful and empirically grounded career types. We are thus in the position to efficiently describe occupational trajectories and to document changes in particular career types.