The Impact Of Changeable Career Orientation On The Quality Of Job Search Process Of College Graduate

In the current social and economic context,the labor market is full of volatility,uncertainty,complexity and ambiguity.At the same time,the school-to-work transition has also become very challenging.It is more important for graduating students to take charge of their career development and to conduct self-regulatory behavior in the job search process.Previous studies have shown that an important factor in successfully managing this transition is job search.Protean career orientation could be used as a cognitive factor for goal selection,evaluation and organization.As such,protean career orientation affects job-search process quality because it affects all phases of selfregulation: goal establishment,planning of goal pursuit,goal striving,and reflection.Therefore,exploring the impact of protean career orientation on job-search process quality can provide theoretical support for graduates to smoothly navigate the transition.Based on career construction theory and social cognitive career theory,this study hypothesized career adaptability and job search self-efficacy as potential mediators in the model.This study adopted a mixed-method research design.In the quantitative research,the hypothesized model was tested in a sample of 201 graduates using a two-wave design and provided a satisfactory fit to the data.The results indicated: the correlations between protean career orientation,career adaptability,job search self-efficacy and jobsearch process quality were significantly positive.Moreover,protean career orientation predicted job-search process quality;career adaptability and job search self-efficacy mediated this association,which contained three significant mediating pathways: the separate mediating effects of(a)career adaptability and(b)job search self-efficacy,and the serial mediating effect of(c)career adaptability and job search self-efficacy.In the qualitative research,Interview Method was adopted to understand and explain the facts from the individual level.Based on the quantitative results,10 subjects were selected for semi-structured interview,and the qualitative data were analyzed through open,axial,and selective coding in NVivo 12 Plus.The results of qualitative research supplemented the quantitative results: the group of the high job-search process quality was higher than the group of the low job-search process quality in terms of protean career orientation,job search self-efficacy,and career adaptability.The jobsearch process quality was also affected by personal factors(such as socio-economic status)and environmental factors(such as employment opportunities).These results supported the theoretical hypothesis and explained the relationship between protean career orientation and job-search process quality to a certain extent.These results can help graduating students to conduct job search more efficiently,and help career counselors to design more effective intervention programs.