Dynamic Career Attitudes And Life Satisfaction Among CEDIES' Postgraduates From Luxembourg

Introduction: With an ever increasing number of university students and the employment shift from an opportunity to insecure development, new postgraduate generations have to be amenable to continuous upgrading, complete with a wide range of skills in the promotion of their career development. Keeping in mind that the job market and work environment are variables that are mostly changing, the possession of an active career attitude may be a guarantee for postgraduates’ employability and their career outcome. Giving importance to the adjustment during the transitional period, life satisfaction (LS) may be altered based on the discrepancy between career aspiration and career achievement. Among university postgraduates, the main objectives of our doctoral work are to (1) measure the associations between dynamic career attitudes (DCA), generic employment capabilities and socioeconomic factors (2) determine the underlying structure of DCA, protean career orientation and career goal (3) analyze relations between DCA dimensions and career factors such as career goals, protean career orientation and LS (4) evaluate the effects of DCA dimensions on LS for native and non-native Luxembourgish postgraduates.
Method: A survey was conducted among 2800 participants registered at the Centre for Documentation and Information on Higher Education (CEDIES). Data collection was realized via an information flyer that was sent to the home addresses of the postgraduates and that contained instructions about the aims of the study and a link to the survey. The postgraduates could directly access the anonymous online questionnaire in either French or English. To explore the associations and relations between variables student t-tests and bivariate correlations were used. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying relationships between measured DCA dimensions, protean career orientation and career goals. In order to determine the statistical significance of the indirect effect for the mediation analysis, the bootstrapped confidence interval on 1000 bootstrap samples was used. A multiple logistic regression was applied to each group, but only significant variables (p<0.05) were introduced into the regression models.
Results: A total of 644 volunteers completed the self-assessment questionnaire online. Majority of the participants were female, students and not employed. Postgraduates with high employment capabilities tend to present a higher dynamic career score that has been identified as a construct of four career dimensions (career adaptability, career optimism, career related knowledge and career planning). Each dimension was mediated from self-directed career dimension of protean career orientation by intrinsic career goal. Career adaptability and career optimism predicted both, happiness and LS. However, this relationship seems only to be presented for ‘postgraduates that are still studying. In the same vein, the DCA dimension of career optimism has been associated to LS by native Luxembourgers, whereas perceived financial situation intervenes in explanation of LS by non-native postgraduates.
Discussion and Conclusion: The Dynamic Career Attitudes scale appears to be a relevant instrument in evaluating disparities in employment capabilities among postgraduates. Our findings indicated the application of intrinsic career goal in the development of career attitudes, where career adaptability and career optimism explained the highest proportion of the variance related to LS. The acquisition of qualitative information on DCA from a comparable population at different stages (from career goals aspirations and the process toward career goal accomplishments), could be rendered more straightforward for future research. Finally, it could be interesting to assess the DCA of university graduates during and after their Master’s degrees; before they start work and in the early years of their careers. Contextualizing our findings, the differences of native Luxembourgish and non-native postgraduates don't differ in LS, however, it seems to be influenced by different variables such as financial situation suggesting the introduction of the social grant of CEDIES for the most disadvantaged students. Practical implications are also suggested. Promoting programs proposed by University services towards counseling and an accompaniment to their career attitudes may enhance postgraduates’ LS which are major indicators for a successful mobility.