Peter Alexander Creed

Most tertiary students now work to support themselves, but some are motivated by improving their employability and career development. However, many work in precarious jobs and the relationship between job quality and career development is poorly understood. We tested how precarious employment related to career capital, whether perceptions of organisational career growth (i.e. goal progress and ability development) explained this, and whether meritocratic beliefs (i.e. in a just society) moderated these relationships in working university students ( N = 214; 78% female; M _Age 20 years). Precariousness was related to less career capital, which was explained partially by perceiving fewer organisational career growth opportunities. Meritocratic beliefs buffered the negative precariousness-career growth relationships and boosted the positive career growth-career capital relationships. Overall, 52% of the variance in capital was explained. Results point to how career practitioners might assist precariously employed students to successfully engage in career self-management.

The existing literature calls for greater clarity on how different job search strategies influence outcomes and wellbeing. In Study 1 ( N = 1052; M _age = 25.48; 41.9% females), we developed and validated the Maximizing and Satisficing Job Search Scale (MSJSS). Results demonstrated its associations with existing measures of general maximizing and satisficing tendencies and job search outcomes (e.g., choice regret, number of offers, and outcome satisfaction). Using the MSJSS, based on another sample that was split randomly into a test group ( N = 1010; M _age = 25.64; 34.5% females) and a validation group ( N = 1010; M _age = 25.63; 35.0% females), Study 2 revealed a 4-profile solution: maximizers , satisficers , neutrals , and adaptive satisficers. Individuals in the maximizers group obtained significantly more job offers than the other groups, whereas the satisficers received the least. Job seekers in the neutrals were the least satisfied and most regretful of the four profiles. The adaptive satisficers reported more job offers and similar levels of outcome satisfaction when compared to the satisficers . Implications for theory, job search practice, and future research are discussed.

Combining work and study is challenging for most students, especially when they are in more precarious work contexts. Identifying which students struggle with this would better inform interventions and advance theory. Using a sample of working tertiary students (N = 415) and a person-centered research approach (latent profile analysis), we identified five different sub-groups of students based on indicators of precarious employment– high precariousness (7.3%), inflexible with poor conditions (25.0%), average (27.4%), flexible (14.3%), and low precariousness (26.0%). These subgroups differed on study, career development, mental health, and biographic factors. The high precariousness group reported more need for recovery from work and lower study engagement, career agency, wellbeing, subjective social status, and financial comfort compared to the low precariousness group. Implications for educators and employers, as well as theory, are discussed.

Purpose: The study aimed to clarify how, or if, the quality of paid work undertaken while completing tertiary education affects students’ career development. While most tertiary students work while studying, this is often in more precarious jobs. The study examined the relationships between perceived job precariousness, student agency and the accumulation of career capital. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 273 working students (Mage = 21 years; 75.8% female; Mwork = 22 h per week) and a cross-sectional survey design, we tested a serial indirect effects model in which job precariousness predicted, in turn, perceptions of organisational climate, engagement in job crafting and accumulation of career capital. Findings: Higher job precariousness was related to lower social and professional career capital. Job crafting climate and engagement in cognitive and relational job crafting fully explained the relationships between precariousness and social capital, whereas crafting climate and cognitive crafting partially explained the relationship with professional capital. Research limitations/implications: The findings have implications for work precarity theory development. However, because the data were survey-based, cross-sectional and from a single university, longitudinal replication using diverse methodology is needed to determine generalisability and to fully test the directions of the effects found. Practical implications: The paper provides practical implications for teaching institutions and employers, both of whom have a vested interest in supporting working students to reach their full potential. Originality/value: The study contributes to an under-researched area of precarious employment and career development in working students.

Although cultural influences are a significant factor in career decision-making and progression, cultural orientations remain underexplored in career development research. This study investigated the relationship between underlying value patterns that define cultural orientation and career development among young adults. Latent profile analysis was used to identify four different cultural orientation groups in a sample of young Australians ( N = 419; 70.5% female; mean age 20 years) based on combinations of underlying individualism (i.e., competitiveness, uniqueness, responsibility) and collectivism values (advice seeking, harmony). The four profiles were “high uniqueness” (53.6%), “low uniqueness” (27.9%), “low collectivism” (12.7%), and “low individualism” (5.8%). The “high uniqueness” and “low collectivism” groups had higher scores on protean career attitudes, career adaptability, and proactive career behaviors compared to the “low individualism” and “low uniqueness” groups, and the “high uniqueness” group reported more positive views of future employability and better current academic performance than the “low individualism” group. The results demonstrated that clusters of students can be identified based on expressed cultural values and that these groups differ on career development variables. We discuss implications for practice and theory development.

Access to job and study resources is important to enhance workers’ and students’ career optimism, respectively. Yet, it is unknown how these resources foster career optimism in young adults who work and study. Drawing on conservation of resources and self-determination theories, we examined the relationships between job and study resources and subsequent career optimism directly and indirectly via psychological needs satisfaction. Data were collected at two time points (4-week lag) from 256 working students (84% women; M _age = 20.08 years) recruited from one large, multi-campus Australian university. Using structural equation modeling, we found that study resources had a direct, positive relationship with career optimism, but job resources did not. We also found that both role resources had direct, positive relationships with autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction. Only the satisfaction of autonomy needs was related to career optimism. Further, both job and study resources were indirectly related to career optimism via autonomy satisfaction. Overall, the structural model explained 21% of the variance in career optimism. These findings provide guidance on how university staff (e.g., career counselors and teachers) and those in the workplace (e.g., supervisors and managers) can enhance career optimism in this population of young workers.

Students in higher education modify their behaviour and environment to align with their study goals and achievements. This proactive process is referred as study crafting, which includes the physical and cognitive changes students make to the task, cognitive, emotional, and relational aspects of their study. This study developed and validated an inventory to measure students’ study crafting behaviours in higher education. The 16-item multifactorial Study Crafting Inventory was devised and tested for its factorial structure and reliability using two samples split from one larger sample (EFA, Sample A = 308; CFA, Sample B = 272). The Inventory assesses four crafting dimensions of managing challenging demands , social demands , structural resources , and social resources. Sound reliability was found with α s of .87, .87, .84, .85, respectively, for the four subscales and .89 overall. Support for construct validity was demonstrated, with scores on the Inventory associated positively with proactivity, growth mindset, and academic grit. This new measure can be used to progress research into how students manage their demands and resources while in higher education.

We tested a model in which discrepancy with parents’ career goals moderated the indirect path from young adults’ self-perceived career goal discrepancy to career indecision via negative emotions (regret and distress) and self-regulatory capacity. We surveyed 236 young adults ( M _Age = 21.77 years; 71.2% female), finding that parent discrepancy strengthened the positive relationships between self-discrepancy and career regret and self-regulatory depletion, but not distress. However, career distress fully explained the self-discrepancy–career indecision relationship, not moderated by parent-discrepancy. Overall, our model explained 70% of the variance in indecision. This has implications for counsellors to assist young adults in managing discrepancy-related distress and indecision.

Being optimistic about their future employability can help to provide young people with certainty and independence. We examined the relationship of perceived future employability (PFE) and some career outcomes using the social cognitive career framework. Response ( N = 449, 78% female, mean age 21.07 years), revealed that: (a) PFE was associated with career self-efficacy and outcome expectations, (b) career self-efficacy and outcome expectations were associated with career distress, career effort, and career aspirations, and (c) career self-efficacy and outcome expectations mediated PFE and career distress, career effort, and career aspirations.