Transition from College to Work Life: Career Adaptability and Career Optimism
Abstract
Purpose: In this study whether career adaptability and career optimism of senior year undergraduate students change according to their gender, faculty, form of their faculty/ department choice, their plans upon what they are going to do after graduation, their thoughts about finding a job and about the fact that the job which they have found is related to the field they were graduated from was investigated.
Design/Methodology/Approach: For this purpose 323 final year undergraduate students who studied at different faculties in a state university in Ankara are included in this study. Career Adaptability and Optimism Scale ( CAOS) and Personal Information Form were used. Data was analyzed with t test and one-way analysis of variance.
Findings: According to the findings of the research; CAOS points of the students, who studied at faculties which offers easy job finding opportunities or difficult job finding opportunities, who come the department with different reasons, whose thoughts about finding a job after graduation and about the fact that the job which they have found is related to the field they were graduated from are different. On the other hand there is no meaningful difference between gender variable and between the students whose plans upon what they are going to do after graduation are different in terms of CAOS.
Highlights: Findings were discussed in the view of literature and some recommendations were put forward in terms of career counseling.
Keywords
Career adaptability and career optimism, Senior undergraduates, College to work transition
References
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- Balın, E. (2008). The role of perceived career barriers and gender in predicting commitment to career choices of univer-sity students. A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School of Social Sciences of Middle East Technical Univer-sity, Ankara.