Career adaptability of South Korean engineering students Personal and contextual influencing factors

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of mastery goal orientation, support for career development, career decision-making self-efficacy and engineering interest in career adaptability for engineering students. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 307 Korean engineering students from two universities. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data and examine the relationships among the variables. Findings The results indicated that the level of mastery of goal orientation and support for career development significantly affected career decision-making self-efficacy. Engineering students' career decision-making self-efficacy also positively influenced their engineering interests and career adaptability. Finally, the students' engineering interest positively affected their career adaptability. Originality/value This study demonstrated that important factors for career planning and development need to be successively considered during the career choice process by linking it to career decision-making self-efficacy, engineering interest and career adaptability (career choice action), in consecutive order.