This study was conducted to develop and initially evaluate the psychometric properties of the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory (PHCI), which aims to assess skill in using chance events to develop career opportunities. After item generation and exploratory factor analysis, 130 original items were reduced to 25 items across 5 factors (5 items for each corresponding factor). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the validity of this 5‐factor structure, and the goodness of fit showed an adequate fit to the observed data for both women and men. Results showed that PHCI subscales correlated moderately and in expected directions with career preparation, career decision‐making self‐efficacy, and career stress. These findings suggest that the PHCI, which assesses 5 dimensions of career‐related planned happenstance skill, shows promise as a useful tool for facilitating understanding of the influence of chance events on career choice behavior.

The current study investigated how the five components of planned happenstance skills are related to vocational identity statuses. For determination of relationships, cluster and discriminant analyses were conducted sequentially on a sample of 515 university students in South Korea. Cluster analysis revealed vocational identity statuses to be divided into six meaningful groups, as the six-cluster model originally proposed by Porfeli, Lee, Vondracek, and Weigold: achieved, searching moratorium, moratorium, foreclosed, diffused, and undifferentiated. Moreover, discriminant analysis indicated that planned happenstance skills differentially discriminated the six vocational identity statuses. The more advanced vocational identity statuses (i.e., achieved and searching moratorium) had higher scores on the assessment of planned happenstance skills than their counterpart, the less advanced group (i.e., diffused and undifferentiated). Implications of the findings were discussed in the context of career counseling intervention (133 words).

This study investigated the extent to which tolerance of uncertainty affects the relationship between happenstance skills and career satisfaction via career decision self-efficacy. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted on data collected from 321 graduates (175 men, 146 women) of Korean universities making the school-to-work transition. Results showed that career decision selfefficacy fully mediated the relationship between happenstance skills and career satisfaction. Furthermore, the moderation effect of tolerance of uncertainty had a significant impact on the relationship between happenstance skills and career decision self-efficacy. Tolerance of uncertainty should be considered an important variable in happenstance career theory and intervention. Unplanned influences should also be considered important factors in the career decision-making process.

This study investigated how the 5 components of planned happenstance skills are related to adolescents' occupational identity statuses. A canonical correlation analysis was performed with a sample of 370 high school students in South Korea. The results indicated that higher identity statuses (i.e., achievement and moratorium statuses) were significantly related to the 5 components of planned happenstance skills, whereas lower identity statuses (i.e., foreclosure and diffusion statuses) were not significantly related to the 5 components of planned happenstance skills. In addition, the results of the mediation analysis indicated that the transition from moratorium to achievement status was positively mediated by 3 components of planned happenstance skills: optimism, persistence, and risk taking.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factorial validity of the Career Growth Scale (CGS), which was originally developed by Weng and Hu. Using a sample of 230 South Korean employees, we confirmed that Weng’s four-factor model was appropriate for assessing career growth. When comparing Korean with Chinese employees, Korean employees had relatively higher scores on two CGS subscales, Career Goal Progress and Promotion Speed. Results indicated that the CGS was a valid instrument to measure career growth in Korean employees, suggesting the possibility that the CGS could be used regardless of cultural background. Implications for future research, practice, and limitations are discussed.