engleski

Seeking employment after graduation: A cross- lagged investigation of the role of career adaptability and job-search self-efficacy during the pandemic

Finding work right after graduation is a crucial step in one’s career. Given the changing nature of the job market, great emphasis is placed on personal resources when dealing with career transitions and job search. Career adaptability comprises resources that represent self-regulation strengths or capacities to deal with career challenges. Based on the career construction model of adaptation (Savickas, 2013) and previous empirical findings, career adaptability should prompt employment success, especially during exceptional circumstances such as the pandemic. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether career adaptability leads to job-search success after graduation. We also researched if job-search self- efficacy mediates the relationship between career adaptability and job-search success. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted online. The research started in September 2019, with a six-month time interval between the waves. Therefore, the second (T2) and third (T3) waves took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 688 participants in T1, graduates from different universities across Croatia. Most of the graduates were women (76.3%), with an average age of 25.07 years (SD = 2.64). The participants completed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012), Job Search Skill and Confidence Scale (Wanberg et al., 2010), Coronavirus Impacts Questionnaire (Conway et al., 2020), and a set of questions on demographic data and job-search success. We conducted a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) using Mplus 8.5. The results showed that career adaptability did not have a direct effect nor an indirect longitudinal effect – via job-search self-efficacy – on job-search success. The reversed model fit the data better. Graduates who had more job-search success in T1 had higher interview performance self-efficacy in T2. Furthermore, more pronounced interview performance self-efficacy in T1 led to higher career adaptability in T2. These findings provide insight into the university-to-work transition in the new and unplanned contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

career adaptability ; self-efficacy ; employment ; graduates ; career construction model of adaptation

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