This article proposes a career counseling group design for mid-to-late career adults who have been unemployed for six months or longer. Career construction theory is the theoretical framework for the group curriculum. In addition to practical considerations for group facilitators, the authors also provide the proposed group curriculum that…

New hires must prepare to make an immediate impact in a fluctuating and dynamic job market. Teaching career readiness and employability skills helps prepare college students for a job search and, ultimately, success in their careers. This paper discusses how an academic program at a university adapted to prepare students for the workplace during a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between proactive personality and job search outcomes through network size, job search clarity, and networking behavior by surveying a sample of 773 university graduates. The results revealed that proactive personality has direct and indirect effects on job seeker's job search networking…

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for young people in the labor market. Based on an evolutionary life history perspective, we tested how and when perceived scarcity of job opportunities during the pandemic related to job search outcomes. Using a sample of Master's student graduates (N = 1434; 40.2% female; mean age 25.6 years)…

Background/Purpose: Students enroll in college at least in part to prepare for a career after graduation. At the same time, for many students, attending college requires working to earn money (Perna, 2020). Optimally, these work positions concurrently provide students the opportunity to develop skills that have labor market returns, explore career…

How does the presence of information, or lack thereof, affect consumer behaviors and firm outcomes in the context of digital economy? My dissertation examines this broad question in three different empirical contexts. In the first chapter, I study how providing brand information influences the performance of job ads on an online job search…

This study investigates how different forms of social capital and job searching methods influence the incidence of overeducation among international students upon graduation in Ireland. While most studies have concentrated primarily on human capital factors in explaining overeducation among immigrant workers, this study emphasises the effect of…

We measured 16 career-related metaphors' salience to university students and graduates (N = 577). The JOURNEY metaphor recorded the highest score (62%) with moderate levels for ENCOUNTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS, A STORY, and ROLES. Exploratory structural equation modelling revealed four factors labelled as Constraint (i.e. entrapped, struggling, or…

Past research shows Psychological Capital (PsyCap) to be associated with behaviors and performance at work, but few studies link PsyCap to the job seeking process. This project highlights how PsyCap might support persistence and success among job seekers. In study 1, using a two-wave design (N = 447), findings indicate that PsyCap might help…

How the labour market operates in an increasingly digital context has remained under-researched. The article explains why the digital labour market is in urgent need of study, as digitalisation transforms how labour markets are structured and shape the competition for jobs. Digital tools give job seekers new ways of describing themselves and give…

The qualitative study used two case studies to explore the career search experience of college graduates with autism. The study included interviews with college graduates diagnosed with ASD, interviews with family members of the college graduate, and interviews with hiring supervisors of the college graduates with ASD to glean information…

This article examines the role of student job search strategies that differ in goal-directedness (focused, exploratory, and haphazard) in achieving successful university-to-work transitions (i.e., employment in jobs with high skill use/development and qualification-job match). The relationship between job search and employment outcomes is…

In Sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia, the waiting time for graduates before having their first job is very high. This study aimed at predicting the waiting time to get their first job and the effects of the associated factors. A retrospective study was conducted based on the 2021 graduate tracer survey data at Wolkite University. By…

Language teachers' resilience, or their socially-mediated capacity to adapt to adverse conditions and thrive, has garnered attention amidst evolving challenges to language education and bilingual teachers in diverse spaces. Taking an ecological-collective perspective towards language teacher resilience, this qualitative case study examined the…

This article focuses on the experiences of adult job seekers in a community technology center, primarily exploring three cases. In adult education, the term digital literacy has been used to refer to technical skills, reflecting a hierarchical framing of learning that positions technologies as neutral tools. Drawing from a sociomaterial…