Do I decide my career? Linking career stress, career exploration, and future work self to career planning or indecision

Abstract

Career planning and career decision are important tasks for college students. The process may be affected by career stress, career exploration, and future work self, with some students facing career indecision. Combining both construction career and proactive motivation model, this study investigated the relationships between career stress, career exploration, future work self, career planning and career indecision among 1,012 Chinese college students using the Structure equation model (SEM) to test the proposed mediation model. Results show that career stress negatively predicts career planning, while career exploration positively predicts career planning. The mediating role of future work self has on career stress and career exploration's effects on both career planning and career indecision was verified. Moreover, the study also found future work self's positive effects on both career planning and career indecision in Chinese college students. Finally, the study's theoretical and practical significance and implications are discussed.

Professional experience before a PhD. Does it pay off?

“…These results are aligned with the literature on career development at different points in the life cycle, when the importance of exploring all gained opportunities to plan and develop career paths is highlighted (Coimbra et al, 1994;Delors et al, 1996;Zhang et al, 2022), promoting a sense of preparedness to plan the involvement in new experiences (Savickas et al, 2009), thus, contributing to plan for the future (Zhang et al, 2022). Admitting that the development of each individual corresponds to the history of their development (Clot, 1999), the diversity of experiences also seems to be providing more opportunities to produce a reflection that allows self-knowledge and awareness of the alternatives, enhancing more productive and satisfactory career paths (Greenhaus et al, 2010).…”

“…The importance of having previous career experiences is supported by recent findings with college students which identify that developing career exploration activities and actions positively influences their career planning preparedness (Zhang et al, 2022). When focusing on PhD students and their work experience, there seems to be a scarcity of studies focused on the career expectations of PhD students that consider their professional experience prior to enrolling in the Doctoral Program.…”

Evaluation of the Career Stress Levels of Students Studying in the Field of Health Sciences and the Factors Affecting Them.

“…It is clear that the level of career stress will have significant effects on students' future work lives ( Zhang et al, 2022). For this reason, families, faculty members, university career centers, statesmen who carry out planning activities in higher education and students themselves have a lot of work to reduce career stress of students.…”

Linking undergraduates’ future work self and employability: a moderated mediation model

“…Based on this framework, the future work self enables students to explore and rediscover themselves through the process of identity construction and to actively work toward a future that is consistent with their goals [ 48 ]. As it constitutes the positive possible selves and is a motivational resource in the context of work [ 11 ], studies have suggested that the future work self is positively linked to proactive career behaviors [ 16 , 49 ], such as career planning and skill development. Moreover, when shaping their future work self, students are more likely to seek relevant information and suggestions on environmental clues [ 15 ], which not only provides a clearer image of their occupational self-concept [ 50 ] but also forms “personalized” career planning for constructing themselves [ 51 ].…”