SUMMARY
This article aims to determine the effect of employee competence on career development and to examine the moderation of organizational culture and mediation of work motivation. This study uses a quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to pawnshops in eastern Indonesia involving 90 employees, using partial least squares to analyse the relationships simultaneously. The results of the study reveal that organizational culture and work motivation can effectively moderate competencies to build career development. Several suggestions were offered regarding the meaning of the pawnshop or pawnshop environment as “AKHLAK” to become a working habitat and attract employees to build career development. This study highlights that career development can be built with strong competencies despite supportive organizational culture and work motivation.