In-plane tension/compression tests of a cold rolled interstitial-free (IF) steel and sheet a 980MPa dual phase high strength steel sheet (980DP) were carried out to investigate the work-hardening behavior under two-stage loading paths. The two-stage loading paths consist of the uniaxial tension/compression for the rolling direction (RD) followed by unloading and subsequent uniaxial tension/compression in the 0°, 45° and 90° directions from the first loading direction (0°-, 45°- and 90°-loading). The work hardening behavior in the second loading was different between the 980DP and the IF steel. It was found that the work hardening behaviors were significantly affected by the inner product of the strain rate mode tensors for the first and second loading and that the effect of the deformation mode (tension/compression) was small.