Job-Seeking Anxiety and Job Preparation Behavior of Undergraduate Students

This study attempted to examine and compare the job-seeking anxiety and job preparation behavior of undergraduate students. A descriptive cross-sectional study was employed; the study participants were 360 students (3rd and 4th grade), selected from K’ university in G city. Data were collected by structured self-reported questionnaires from November 2020 to February 2021. Variables included general characteristics, job-seeking anxiety and job preparation behavior and were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression analysis by using the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. Of the total population, 70.8% were female in the health and social science group, the age group was 22–24 years (55.2%; 50.2%) and were fourth grade 62%; 59.1%). The level of job-seeking anxiety of students showed a higher proportion in health science (4.45 ± 0.81) than social science (3.73 ± 0.55). The level of job preparation behavior also revealed the same results in health science (4.28 ± 0.76) and social science (4.06 ± 0.81). Job anxiety showed a positive correlation with employment anxiety induction situation (r = 0.32, p < 0.01) and employment anxiety induction causes (r = 0.27, p < 0.01), and social science students showed a positive correlation with employment anxiety induction situation (r = 0.24, p < 0.01) and employment anxiety induction causes (r = 0.23, p < 0.01). The factors of age, gender and desired job position are highly associated with job-seeking anxiety and job preparation behavior. The findings of this study revealed job-seeking anxiety was higher among the undergraduate students and showed a high level of job preparation behavior. There is a need to develop intervention strategies for promoting job preparation behavior and reducing job-seeking anxiety among undergraduate students by providing career planning to improve the positive attitude towards desired job selection.