The Influence of College Students’ Core Self-evaluation on Job Search Outcomes: Chain Mediating Effect of Career Exploration and Career Adaptability

The study of college students’ job search and influencing factors has been an important topic in college students’ career development. The degree of satisfaction with the results of a college student’s perceived job search directly affects the sustainability of his or her future career. Although the importance of core self-evaluation in the job search process has been confirmed by a large body of literature, very little literature has focused on the mechanism of action between core self-evaluation and job search outcomes. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the impact of core self-evaluation on job search outcomes through a chain mediation model and to discuss the role of career exploration and career adaptability in this relationship. Two waves of survey data were utilized to test the research hypotheses on a sample of 310 college students facing employment in different regions of China. The results indicated that core self-evaluation positively impacted job search outcomes. In addition, career exploration and career adaptability moderated the relationship between core self-evaluation and job search outcomes, respectively. More importantly, core self-evaluation could also influence job search outcomes through the chain-mediating effects of career exploration and career adaptability.