A former Republic of Ireland Under 21 international, Shaun Carey did not make the breakthrough that he would have liked. He made his debut in September 1995 against Torquay in a League Cup tie and was later the target of a double bid by Leicester's Martin O'Neill for him and Darren Eadie. However his career never recovered from an Achilles injury sustained at Stockport in the 1998/99 campaign. Throughout the 1999/2000 season transfer speculation was plentiful as his contract was expiring in the summer of 2000 and Norwich were reluctance to open talks. Teamtalk reported that Shaun's agent Neil Featherby had been speaking to Dundee whilst Teamtalk speculated that West Brom, Crewe, Walsall, Port Vale, Bristol Rovers, Preston, Millwall, Burnley and Gillingham were all interested. Shaun was finally released on Tuesday 25th April 2000. He had made 76 appearances for the first team.

Teamtalk speculated on 14th June 2000 that Carey might face the Canaries next season with their Division One rivals Stockport and Tranmere interested in signing the Irish midfielder. Walsall were also keen but Shaun stated that he preferred not to drop into Division Two. Carey joined Gillingham on trial in July 2000 but was not deemed to be what they were looking for. He left Kent and immediately had a trial with Bristol Rovers, playing in their friendly against Yeovil on 25th July 2000. After another unsuccessful trial at Chesterfield, Shaun ended up in late August 2000 trialling for non-leaguers Rushden & Diamonds who signed him permanently

Shaun returned to league football in August 2001 as Rushden had secured the Conference title on May 1st when closest challengers Yeovil lost 3-2 at Hereford.

In December 2001, Shaun joined Stevenage on a month's loan with a view to a permanent switch. He had made only 7 appearances for the Diamonds in Division Three. On his return, Rushden and Carey agreed to part company in February 2002 and Shaun opted to join Conference side Chester City. Chester finished in the bottom half of the Conference in 2001/02 but had a better 2002/03 with Carey forming a strong midfield partnership with former Norwich triallist Michael Twiss. The same partnership helped Chester to the Conference championship and thus promotion into the Football League in April 2004. However this success had a sting in its tail as Chester manager Mark Wright doubted whether Carey could perform at the higher level and so released him and teammate Chris Lane.

Despite interest from fellow Conference side Burton Albion, Carey returned south accepting an "unbelievable" offer to join Garry Hill's revolution at Hornchurch. Dubbed the "Chelsea of Non-League" for their spending, Hornchurch raced to the top of the Conference South only for their bubble to burst at the beginning of November 2004 when the business collapse of their sponsor left them unable to pay their players and so made all their players available for transfer.

Shaun joined Weymouth on trial in early July 2005, later signing for them. He moved back north to Conference North side Droylsden in October 2005. Shaun was linked with a return to Norfolk in December 2005 with King's Lynn entering into discussions with him but nothing could be agreed. Shaun finally made the switch to Lynn on December 26th 2005 along with former Cambridge striker Matt Nolan.

On 19th May 2006, Lynn manager Tommy Taylor released Carey as he no longer had the sponsorship to pay for the midfielder's services. Three days later, and the Linnets announced that a deal had been struck which would enable Carey to stay at the Walks.

In November 2006, following Tommy Taylor's resignation to take up a coaching role at Peterborough, The Linnets chairman appointed Carey (pictured) and experienced defender Dean West to take charge for Saturday's FA Cup First Round tie at Bishop's Stortford. "There'll be no knee jerk reaction," he said. "I've already received three telephone applications but we are determined to take our time and find the best person we can for the club. We'll meet as a board today (Tuesday) to formulate a way forward. After sitting down with the senior players we've agreed Shaun will take over this weekend, in conjunction with Dean. The lads are comfortable and happy with that. If they did express one worry it was the fear we would get a new manager in straight away who would look to bring in his own players. We assured them we don't want that to happen. We strongly believe Tommy has assembled a team perfectly capable of winning the league and going further in the cups."

Shaun later acted as Assistant Manager to new incumbent Keith Webb but stepped down from this role in May 2007 to concentrate on getting fit for the 2007/8 campaign

Carey left Lynn in March 2008 to sign for Spalding.