Journal of Career Development

This article accounts for a renovation by enriching the existent literature regarding two major nowadays phenomena and their labor implications, which might require a rethinking regarding new career-development approaches: the overeducation phenomenon (academic graduates whose educational level exceeds the educational level required in their jobs) and the horizontal-mismatch phenomenon (the individuals’ fit between their educational and occupational fields). The article clarifies the difference between those two phenomena’s career repercussions—on three major individuals’ career outcomes: wage gaps, job mobility, and demand for further higher education. Two hundred and twenty-one participants took part to reveal that the more the individuals experience horizontal mismatch throughout their career, the less their earning level is, and the horizontally mismatched individuals have lower probability for pursuing further higher education compared to the horizontally matched individuals. These findings’ implications suggest individuals to try and modify their career planning, based on the ongoing technological and structural changes in Western-developed countries labor market.

Undocumented student immigrants in the United States face substantial challenges in higher education including systemic, institutional, and cultural barriers that often impede access to and success in higher education. These barriers directly influence academic and work opportunities. The purpose of this article is to discuss the myriad of factors that affect the academic, career, and work development of undocumented college students. The three main objectives of this article are to (1) examine legislation that directly impacts access to higher education, (2) explore common barriers and systemic challenges undocumented college students face, and (3) review culturally sensitive interventions and resources for working with undocumented college students. Vocational psychologists and career counselors employed in higher education are in a unique position to provide culturally sensitive counseling services to undocumented students as well as to advocate for their academic and work-related needs.

A transition from elementary to high school represents a very profound change and a potential source of stress, as it often requires young adolescents to make significant professional decisions. This topic was the focus of the present study in which 303 Croatian students attending their final year of elementary school completed measures of career decision self-efficacy, emotional stability, emotional competence, and concerns regarding the upcoming transition. The results indicated emotional competence as a statistically significant predictor of career decision self-efficacy, whereas emotional stability was revealed as a significant predictor of career concerns. Furthermore, a moderating effect of gender and a mediating role of career decision self-efficacy were revealed in this context. These findings provide novel evidence regarding the complex relationship between individuals’ vocational self-beliefs and emotional processing and may be informative for vocational guidance interventions targeted at young adolescents undergoing similar educational transitions.

This study examined the career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) and career maturity of 268 first-generation baccalaureate and community college student participants. Three independent variables were analyzed, including generational status (first generation and nonfirst generation), college type (baccalaureate, community college), and socioeconomic status (SES; low, medium, and high). The analysis indicated a significant interaction effect for generation by college type, with both first-generation and nonfirst-generation baccalaureate students reporting lower mean scores than community college students. This analysis also revealed an interaction effect for generation by SES, with first-generation students from high-SES backgrounds reporting the lowest levels of CDSE. A separate analysis using career maturity as the dependent variable indicated a main effect for generation, with first-generation students reporting a lower level of career maturity than nonfirst-generation students. The analysis also revealed a robust main effect for college type, with community college students reporting higher levels of career maturity than baccalaureate students.

This study examined the role of acculturation to the host culture, acculturation to the home culture, and dispositional hope in career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) in a sample of 213 Korean international undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. universities. The findings revealed that hope and acculturation to the host culture uniquely and positively predicted CDSE. Acculturation to the home culture was positively related to CDSE but did not account for unique variance in CDSE beyond that accounted for by hope. Hope was the strongest predictor of CDSE. As expected, acculturation to the host culture and acculturation to the home culture were not significantly related, suggesting that one does not necessarily require sacrifice of the other. No interaction effects were found between hope and acculturation variables on CDSE. Limitations of this study and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between the self-regulatory variable of goal orientation and the extent to which job seekers reach out to and use weak ties in their job search. Weak ties, as defined by Granovettor, are connections to densely knit networks outside the individual’s direct contacts who could provide nonredundant information. The study builds on the previous conceptual work that discussed how learning and performance goal orientation, as a part of a larger system of self-regulatory variables, may affect the extent to which individuals seek feedback and network during job search. Using a sample of Canadian job seekers, this study examines whether learning goal-oriented individuals contact weak ties more often than performance goal-oriented individuals. The results indicate that both performance and learning goal orientation are significant predictors of weak tie counts.