Career self-management behavior among undergraduate students: A comparison of two-time points

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have heightened the importance of career self-management, a behavioral variable deserving of university attention. Using online surveys of undergraduate students in hospitality classes at two-time points, this empirical study found that career self-management behavior (i.e., networking behavior, visibility behavior, self-initiated developmental behavior, and job mobility preparedness) is facilitated by positive career planning attitude (i.e., career optimism, perceived knowledge of the job market, and career adaptability). Results show that a certain aspect of a positive career planning attitude is more strongly related to a certain behavior than other behaviors. We found no salient differences in relationships among latent variables in our hypothesized model across years, but there were minor differences between sociodemographic groups. This study extends the extant literature regarding university students’ career planning and management by adding specific information in the context of hospitality and the COVID-19 pandemic.