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Abstract

Background

American Psychological Association Guidelines for Undergraduate Education (2013) encourage workforce preparation among undergraduate students, and the field of psychology has implemented this recommendation in various ways.

Objective

The present study investigated what sources undergraduate psychology students use to find information about and experiences they seek in preparation for their future careers, and what characteristics are associated with this process.

Method

Undergraduate participants (N = 354) described the number and type of sources from which they sought information and experiences on careers, and also provided demographic information (e.g., academic achievement).

Results

Participants primarily used the Internet, advice from friends/family, and a career orientation course to find information, with higher academic achievement predicting the use of more sources. They sought a variety of experiences to enhance career opportunities (e.g., volunteering), with academic achievement and class standing as positive predictors of seeking more of such experiences.

Conclusion

To maximize students’ success, psychology departments should show students everything that the department and university have to offer by way of career information and preparation.

Implications

Departments should encourage students to use resources within the psychology department, include career information in orientation courses, in addition to regularly encouraging familiarity with on campus career centers.

Keywords

career preparation career information career experience

Psychology is the fourth most popular undergraduate major in the United States, representing 117,000 bachelor’s degrees awarded in the 2016–2017 academic year (The Condition of Education, 2020). A bachelor’s degree in psychology offers students a wide variety of potential job prospects, ranging from laboratory managers to practicing clinicians (Landrum & Davis, 2013). Career options available to psychology majors ultimately depend on whether students choose to pursue additional education or enter the workforce upon graduation. According to recent data, 45.3% of undergraduate psychology majors go on to earn a graduate degree, meaning that over half of students enter straight into the workforce after graduation (American Psychological Association [APA], 2016). While many universities require students to meet with advisors to discuss their academic pathways to graduation, not many schools require students to attend advising regarding their future careers (Fried, 2020). Many institutions view the seeking of career advising services as the responsibility of the student rather than an educational requirement (Fried). The purpose of the present study is to understand how students seek information about the careers available to them, and what experiences students seek in preparation for their future careers. In addition, it is important to understand which students are seeking these sources and experiences, and to identify groups that may benefit from additional resources.

What resources are available to undergraduate students regarding careers? Students may rely on the resources that are made available to them within their program of study to find information about careers. Traditionally, advising in an academic setting involves undergraduate students meeting individually with a professional academic advisor or a faculty member. While students may consider faculty members the most readily accessible resource for advising, psychology professors may not be the best equipped for the task (Fouad et al., 2006; Vespia et al., 2018). Most psychology professors went straight into graduate school, and thus may not have the appropriate training or experience to advise students entering the workforce on their options (Halonen & Dunn, 2018). For example, some students may want to explore career options outside of the academic sphere, such as law enforcement or positions in human resources. To deal with this problem, the APA (Halonen et al., 2013) has recommended that psychology departments incorporate career information into coursework, or even offer entire courses dedicated to providing students with career information (Schwartz et al., 2018). However, these courses often remain optional, and not all students seek these opportunities to learn more about the options available to them.

A study by Green et al. (2008) found that only 17 of 251 universities (7% of sample) required a career planning course for the major, and only 15 (6%) offered a career course as an optional elective. Large universities were more likely to offer courses aimed at career preparation than smaller universities, possibly due to different approaches toward learning or staffing resources (Green et al., 2008). Green and colleagues suggest that courses designed to introduce new students to the psychology major can provide students with career information as embedded in the larger curriculum, rather than offering separate courses dedicated solely to careers. A study by Landrum et al. (2003) found that only 34.2% of the psychology departments they surveyed offered an introduction course to the psychology major, which as noted above would likely include at least some basic information about career preparation. The results also found that offering this type of introductory course was associated with greater importance placed on career preparation by faculty and students (Landrum et al., 2003).

In the absence of career advising in any formal capacity, many students may rely on unofficial sources of information like unverified information found online, which could create an inaccurate picture of careers in psychology. For example, existing evidence suggests that students who major in psychology overestimate how much education is required for careers in psychology (Strapp et al., 2018). In addition, many psychology majors are unaware of the earning potential associated with careers in psychology, which could result in an uninformed pursuit of expensive graduate degrees (Rajecki, 2008; Strapp et al., 2018; Vedder et al., 2013). Overall, with all of the information about careers that is available to students, it is important to explore what resources undergraduate students are actually using to seek information about their future careers.

In addition to learning about careers, students can also seek extracurricular experiences to help prepare for their future careers. Certain experiences like internships or shadowing a professional have straightforward benefits like adding relevant work experience to a resume or acclimating students to a work environment. However, some benefits of these experiences may be less obvious, like professional networking, building students’ confidence, and/or helping them decide whether a particular career environment is a good fit. To help provide students with career experience, most 4-year universities have career centers that provide specialized services related to career preparation to students free of charge. According to a Strada-Gallup poll in 2018, college students typically utilized on-campus career services for updating a resume (60%) or obtaining advice about potential career options (57%), but only 18% utilized the career center to help find a job for after they graduated (2018). However, even at universities with career centers, students tend to view professors as the advising resource most readily available to them and feel satisfied with faculty advisors providing career advice (Vespia et al., 2018). Additionally, career center staff may have a broader focus (e.g., social sciences rather than psychology specifically; Stuckert Career Center, n.d.), thus having less knowledge specific to psychology major career opportunities.

Often, students are unaware of the existence of career centers and services on campus, which likely contributes to the underutilization of these resources. For example, Vespia and colleagues (2018) found that only half (51.2%) of students in their sample realized there were career resources available to them on campus. Like concerns about providing students with accurate career information, advisors at campus career centers may be better suited than traditional faculty advisors to provide students with pathways to relevant career experience. At the very least, students could use the career center to supplement the traditional required forms of academic advising, gaining access to forms of employment, internships, or volunteer opportunities. Therefore, to better meet the needs of psychology undergraduate students, it is important to explore the types of experiences they are seeking to prepare for their future careers.

While it is important to identify the sources and experiences that psychology students seek to prepare for their future careers, not all students may approach preparation in the same way. Specifically, an individual’s class standing, academic achievement, and plans for graduate school may affect how they approach career preparation. As students move through their undergraduate programs and come closer to graduation, career preparation may grow in relevance and importance. However, previous research suggests that a number of psychology students may lack direction in their career preparation. Specifically, Strapp and colleagues (2018) found that 20% of undergraduate psychology majors were undecided or had no answer when asked what career they were preparing for. Senior undergraduate students were as equally undecided as first-year students, suggesting this pattern did not improve with experience and time (Strapp et al., 2018).

Although career preparation may be especially important for graduating seniors, encouraging students to start exploring and preparing for a future career earlier in their education may stave off prolonged uncertainty. Individual factors like academic success may also impact how students seek information and experiences related to their careers. Previous research suggests that some measures of academic success (specifically, ACT scores and high school GPA) are both strong predictors of first-year academic performance among college students (Westrick et al., 2015). Several studies suggest academically successful undergraduates students tend to have higher perceptions of their self-efficacy (e.g., Andrew, 1998; Cobo-Rendon et al., 2020; D’Lima et al., 2014; Lane et al., 2004). Further, academic self-efficacy can transfer into an increase in intentions to explore career resources (e.g., Betz & Voyten, 1997). In other words, academic self-efficacy may be related to career self-efficacy. Thus, if students perform well in an academic setting, they may feel more prepared to explore career options, or they may simply be more aware of the resources available to them, in line with research on social cognitive career theory from Lent and colleagues (2017; see also Lent & Brown, 2019). Similarly, students who plan to attend graduate school may be more likely to have already identified a future career and sought information and experiences to prepare for it.

The Present Study

We used survey methodology to explore the sources of information undergraduate psychology students use to find information about their future careers, and what types of experiences they seek to prepare for careers. The present study also examined individual characteristics among students, specifically whether class standing, academic achievement, and plans for graduate school would be related to how students sought information and experience relevant to their future careers.

First, we predicted that students who scored higher on the ACT, those who had a higher GPA, and those reporting a higher class standing would seek information from a greater number of sources and have a greater number of career-relevant experiences (Andrew, 1998; Betz & Voyten, 1997; Cobo-Rendon et al., 2020; D’Lima et al., 2014; Lane et al., 2004; Westrick et al., 2015). Second, based on research suggesting current graduate students emphasize academic success and information-seeking (e.g., Catalano, 2013; Sloan & McPhee, 2013), we predicted that students who were intending to apply for graduate school would seek information from a greater number of sources and have a greater number of career-relevant experiences, compared to students who did not plan to apply. In addition to our primary hypotheses, we also explored whether any demographic characteristics (e.g., gender and ethnicity) predicted the amount of career information and experience-seeking reported. Finally, we explored whether demographic characteristics predicted the frequency of visits to the career center on campus.

Method

Participants

Due to variability in the college population, age was examined for outliers in the original sample (N = 365). Outliers were defined as ages that were beyond three SDs below or above the mean. Eleven participants were classified as age outliers (>31 years old) and removed from the dataset before analyses. Non-traditional students are usually significantly older than traditional undergraduate students. Thus, the outliers were removed due to the probability of non-traditional students having significantly different life experiences and motivations for participating in higher education than traditional students (Adams & Corbett, 2010; Forbus et al., 2011; Newbold et al., 2010).

The remaining participants were 354 college students from a public Research I university in the upper south (288 women, 63 men, 1 missing/other) with a mean age of 20.41 years (SD_age = 1.59). The participants identified as 76.3% White/Caucasian (n = 270), 10.5% Black/African American (n = 37), 5.6% Hispanic/Latinx (n = 20), 4.0% Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 14), 2.5% Other (n = 9), and 1.1% Middle Eastern (n = 4). The sample included students with a psychology major (n = 288) or a double major that included psychology (n = 66). The majority of students in the sample were upperclassmen, and overall, they consisted of 19.8% freshmen (n = 70), 20.1% sophomores (n = 71), 30.5% juniors (n = 108), and 28.5% seniors (n = 101; missing four participants 1.1%, n = 4).

Measures

Demographics

For gender, participants responded to the question, “What is your gender?”, choosing from the options female, male, transgender, or other, for which they could self-report their gender. For ethnicity, participants were asked, “What is your ethnicity?” choosing from the options Asian or Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, White/Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Native American, or other, for which they could self-report their ethnicity. Due to the lack of ethnic diversity in the sample, ethnicity was dummy-coded into White/Caucasian (1), and ethnic minority (0) for data analyses. Participants self-reported their age.

Class Standing

To assess class standing, participants were asked, “What is your year in college?”, choosing from the options freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or other, for which they could self-report their class standing.

Academic Achievement

Academic achievement was represented by students’ ACT score and college grade point average (GPA). Both values were self-reported by participants, using the questions, “What was your highest ACT score (high score = 36)?” and “What is your current overall GPA?”

Graduate School Plans

To assess whether participants were planning on attending graduate school, they were asked, “Immediately after you graduate, do you…” and chose from options not plan to attend graduate school or professional school, plan on taking time off and then attend graduate school or professional school, or plan to attend graduate school or professional school. This variable was dummy-coded for data analysis, with not planning to attend graduate school coded as 0, and both other options as 1.

Use of Career Center

To assess knowledge and use of career resources available on campus, we asked students to indicate whether they were aware that the university had a career center and whether they knew where the career center was located. Students also indicated on a multiple-choice question how often they had visited the career center, choosing one of the options: never, 1–2 times, 2–3 times, or 4 or more times. The options were recoded for the primary analyses; the option never was coded as 0, 1–2 times as 1, 2–3 times as 2, and more than four times as 4.

Information Seeking

To assess how participants sought information about careers, students answered the question, “Where have you gotten information on careers? Please check all that apply.” They were able to indicate more than one answer on the checklist and chose each source they had used from the options: professional advisor, career center, Internet, faculty advisor, faculty in my department who are not your advisor, faculty in other department(s), friends and/or family, books, the orientation course for your major, first introduction course in your major, other courses in your major, other college courses, high school psychology courses, high school faculty/counselor, or other (with an open-ended text box). The provided options for information sources were chosen to comprehensively cover the resources available to students at the University where the research was conducted. Cumulative scores across sources were created for each participant to indicate how many different sources they had used for seeking information about careers. Scores could range from 0–15, with higher scores indicating the use of more sources.

Experience Seeking

To assess how participants sought experiences to help prepare them for their future careers, students answered the question, “What experiences have you had related to your career goal? Please check all that apply.” They were able to indicate more than one answer on the checklist and chose each source they had used from the options: internship on-campus, internship off-campus, employment on-campus, employment off-campus, volunteer on-campus, volunteer off-campus, independent research/study course in your major, field-based study course in your major, EXP 396/397 (career experiences supervised by faculty member), shadow a professional, or other (with an open-ended text box). The provided options for career experiences were chosen to comprehensively cover the resources available to students at the University where the research was conducted. Cumulative scores across experiences were created for each participant to indicate how many different experiences they sought in preparation for their future career. Scores could range from 0–10, with higher scores indicating more experiences.

Procedure

We recruited participants using an email listserv for all psychology majors at the university. The survey was distributed using the online survey platform Qualtrics. Participants read and signed a cover letter explaining that their responses would be anonymous, and they were free to skip questions or exit the survey at any time. Participants provided informed consent to participate in the study by reading the cover letter provided and clicking a forward arrow to proceed to the survey. The survey was not counter-balanced, as there was no reason to expect ordering effects. Participants answered demographic questions, followed by questions about their career preparation. The survey took approximately 10–15 min to complete. Participants were not compensated for their participation in the study.

Results

Descriptive Analyses

Participants had a mean ACT score of 26.90 (SD = 3.86) and a mean GPA of 3.49 (SD = 0.50). The majority of students (85.3%) knew about the career center and knew where the career center was located (60.5%). Despite awareness of the career center on campus, only 28.2% of students reported visiting the career center on one or more occasion. The mean value for visits to the career center was 0.40 (SD = 0.64), which corresponds to the average student visiting the career center between zero and one time. The mean number of sources of career information used was 4.47 (SD = 2.52), and the mean number of career experiences student sought was 2.12 (SD = 1.87). The percentages of students who used each source of career information and sought each career experience are presented in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1.
Percentage of Students Who Used Each Source of Career Information.

Source of Career Information Percentage of Students, % n

Internet 71.5 253

Friends and family 57.6 204

Major orientation course 56.5 200

Assigned faculty advisor 48.3 171

Other faculty within department 35.9 127

Professional academic advisor 31.1 110

Courses within major 27.1 96

Books 18.1 64

High school psychology courses 18.1 64

Introductory courses within major 16.4 58

Other college courses 15.8 56

Faculty from other departments 15.0 53

High school faculty/counselors 15.0 53

College career center 13.0 46

Other high school courses 7.3 26

Table 2.
Percentage of Students Who Sought Each Career Experience.

Career Experience Percentage of Students, % n

Volunteering off campus 39.5 140

Independent study research course 33.1 117

Employment off campus 23.7 84

Shadowing a professional 23.7 84

Internship off campus 22.0 78

Volunteering on campus 20.3 72

Employment on campus 16.4 58

Internship on campus 15.5 55

Field-based study course within major 13.6 48

Experiential education 3.7 13

Inferential Analyses

Two separate linear regression models were used to assess the primary hypotheses. Assumptions for both models’ standardized residuals were tested using scatterplots, q-q plots, and histograms (with normal curve overlayed for comparison). Linear regression assumptions (i.e., normality, linearity, homoscedasticity, and independence) were met prior to interpretation of model or coefficient significance. Previous research suggests there may be differences in scholastic achievement and attitudes toward student advising based on gender and ethnicity; thus, we entered gender and ethnicity into each model as control variables (Strada-Gallup, 2018; Voyer & Voyer, 2014). The first model included sources of career information as the dependent variable predicted by class standing, plans for graduate school, and academic achievement (ACT and GPA). The overall model was significant F(6, 301) = 3.21, R² = .06, adj-R² = .04, p = .005. The second model included experience-seeking as the dependent variable predicted by gender, ethnicity, class standing, plans for graduate school, academic achievement (ACT and GPA), and visits to the career center. The overall model was significant, F(6, 301) = 17.67, R² = 0.26, adj-R² = 0.25, p < .001.

Academic Achievement

First, we predicted that students who scored higher on the ACT and had a higher GPA would seek information from a greater number of sources and have a greater number of career-relevant experiences. Consistent with these hypotheses, both ACT scores and GPAs were significant predictors of seeking career-related information and experiences. For information-seeking, higher ACT scores (β =0.15, p = .020) and GPAs (β = 0.14, p = .028) predicted seeking information from a greater number of sources. For experience-seeking, higher ACT scores (β =0.14, p = .018) and GPAs (β = 0.12, p = .034) also predicted having a greater number of career-relevant experiences.

We also predicted that students who reported a higher class standing would seek information from a greater number of sources and have a greater number of career-relevant experiences. Class standing was not a significant predictor of information-seeking, β = −0.06, p = .313. However, consistent with our hypotheses, class standing predicted a significant amount of variance in experience seeking; as students moved through their undergraduate trajectory, they were more likely to have a greater number of career-related experiences, (β = 0.45, p < .001).

Graduate School

Second, we predicted that students who were intending to apply for graduate school would seek information from a greater number of sources and have a greater number of career-relevant experiences, compared to students who did not plan to apply to graduate school. Plans for graduate school were not a significant predictor of information-seeking (β = −0.05, p = .422) nor of experience-seeking (β = 0.04, p = .441).

Exploratory Analyses

Gender (β = −0.01, p = .864) and ethnicity (β = −0.06, p = .343) were not significant predictors of information-seeking. Gender, however, predicted a significant amount of variance in experience-seeking, such that women sought more experiences to prepare for their future careers than men, β = 0.14, p = .005. Ethnicity was also a significant predictor of experience-seeking (β = −0.16, p = .003), with individuals identifying as a racial/ethnic minority seeking a greater number of career-related experiences than self-identified White students.

Discussion

The APA Guidelines for Undergraduate Education (2013) encourage psychology programs to prepare their students for the workforce, but there are many ways programs can approach this goal. In the absence of a consistent standard, not much is known about what sources of information psychology students use to learn about their future careers, or what experiences they seek out to prepare for them. The present study aimed to address these gaps in the literature and explore how psychology students prepare for their future careers and whether academic achievement, class standing, and plans for graduate school would predict this preparation.

In terms of what sources students use to seek information about careers, the results suggest that over half of students used multiple strategies: using the Internet, asking family and friends for advice, and taking an orientation course in their department. The Internet was the most common source of information reported, with almost three-fourths of students reporting they used the Internet to find information about careers. Even though the Internet is a rich and readily accessible resource, the use of the Internet to seek information about careers raises important questions about students’ literacy in identifying reliable sources of information (Golding et al., 2018). For example, some information online may exist for the sole purpose of providing education and information, such as information found on university or nonprofit websites. However, other content online may be presented as career information, but exists to advertise and sell products and services, like professional resume reviews. Therefore, if students are using the Internet to learn about careers, it is important that they understand how to navigate the sources they find and determine which are reliable. Similarly, family and friends, although usually readily accessible, may not be the most accurate sources of information to learn about careers in psychology. Even if acquaintances have experience in the field of psychology, their own personal experiences will likely affect the nature of their advice.

A little less than half of students also reported talking about career options with a faculty advisor from within or outside the department. This suggests that a large number of students are taking advantage of resources available to them and using formal advising time to discuss their future careers. It is possible that this finding is due to the perceived availability of faculty (i.e., frequent student interaction with faculty from classes or otherwise), compared to career advisors. This is also consistent with findings that students are often satisfied with discussing career options with faculty members despite a potential lack of knowledge in terms of careers outside of academia (Halonen & Dunn, 2018; Vespia et al., 2018). Specifically, faculty members are less likely to have experience in post-baccalaureate career searches due to transitioning straight from an undergraduate degree into graduate school (Halonen & Dunn, 2018; Vespia et al., 2018).

When it comes to the career center, most students in the present sample knew about the career center and where it was located, in contrast to the finding by Vespia and colleagues (2018), in which only half of the participating students knew about the existence of the career center on campus. However, this knowledge did not translate into actual visits, as only about a third of students reported visiting the career center on one or more occasion. Results also indicated that only 13% of students reported using a career center on campus for information about careers. There are a variety of potential reasons students may choose not to visit the career center, including misinformation about what services the career center offers, busy schedules, or even apathy. Future research should explore the reasons behind students’ use of the career center on campus, and lack thereof, as the career center could provide students with information and experiences that traditional faculty advisors cannot (e.g., greater access to or knowledge of internship programs locally and/or nationally).

In terms of career-related experiences, about a third of students reported volunteering off campus and taking an independent study course in preparation for their future careers. Previous research suggests that students’ motivations for volunteering include improving their employability as well as more personal factors, such as building self-confidence and helping others (Holdsworth, 2010). A study by Malik et al. (2021) suggests that most psychology students who complete an independent study course feel that their faculty mentor “definitely” knew them well and could write them a positive letter of recommendation. Consistent with results that students report talking to faculty members about their careers, these experiences likely provide more opportunities for students to think about their futures.

A little less than a fourth of students sought internships, employment off campus, or shadowed a professional. Previous research suggests that internships can help shape how college students understand the interview process and the expectations of employers (Green et al., 2011). In addition, previous work found that undergraduate business students who completed internships were more likely to get career-oriented jobs after graduation (Callanan & Benzing, 2004) and report higher job satisfaction compared to students who did not complete internships (D’Abate, 2010). While internships and jobs in psychology differ from those available to business students, these studies suggest that internships can be valuable to both students and potential employers. Overall, the percentage of students seeking experiences was lower than those seeking information, reflecting that information does not always correspond to seeking relevant experiences.

In support of our hypothesis, a higher ACT score and GPA predicted seeking career information from a greater number of sources and having a greater number of career-relevant experiences. This relationship may reflect how preparation for college and access to resources can affect students’ continued success in navigating a college setting and beyond. These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating that ACT scores and high school GPAs are both strong predictors of first-year academic performance, and in turn self-efficacy, among college students (Andrew, 1998; Betz & Voyten, 1997; Cobo-Rendon et al., 2020; D’Lima et al., 2014; Lane et al., 2004; Westrick et al., 2015). In addition, academic performance in the first year predicts student retention for the second and third years, highlighting the potential impact of academic performance on students’ experiences in college (Westrick et al., 2015). Therefore, it may be important for undergraduate programs to identify students coming in with lower standardized test scores or who are struggling academically and provide them with additional career resources.

The hypothesis regarding class standing was partially supported in that students higher in class standing sought more career preparation experiences. In the context of Strapp et al.’s (2018) finding that seniors were equally as undecided as freshmen in choosing a career, the results of the present study suggest that students with higher class standing may still be seeking career experiences despite potential uncertainty about their future career path. However, Strapp and colleagues’ study was conducted at a smaller university with a total undergraduate enrollment of 4648 students, compared to the present study which was conducted at a larger university with a total enrollment of 22,188 undergraduate students. There may be differences in advising protocols and the resources available to students based on the size of the university, and these mixed findings suggest that future research should explore the relationship between class standing and career preparation at a variety of universities.

Results also indicated that gender and ethnicity were significant predictors of seeking career-related experiences, but not career-related information. Specifically, women and students identifying as racial/ethnic minorities sought a greater number of career-related experiences than men and self-identified White students. Cultural gender norms about academic achievement and careers likely affect how men and women conceptualize and prepare for their futures (e.g., Heyder & Kessels, 2017; Marcenaro–Gutierrez et al., 2018). Similarly, there is a rich literature exploring the unique challenges that historically underrepresented minority students experience at predominately White institutions (e.g., Bentley-Edwards & Chapman-Hillard, 2015; Jones et al., 2002). The present study was not designed to address the nuances of how college experiences can differ based on gender and race. Therefore, we believe these findings suggest a need for future research that investigates how gender and race can impact the ways psychology students prepare for their future careers.

There were a few findings from the present study that did not support our hypotheses. Plans for graduate school were not a significant predictor of seeking career-related information nor experiences. It is possible that students who already had plans for graduate school did not seek more information sources than others because they were already secure in their post-graduation plans and felt secure in their admittance to a program. Thus, these students did not feel a sense of urgency in seeking information regarding careers, or career-related experiences. Whereas class standing was a significant predictor of seeking a greater number of career-related experiences, it did not predict seeking career information from a greater number of sources. This finding suggests that while students may seek information about careers from similar sources throughout their undergraduate education, they begin to seek more career-related experiences closer to graduation when concrete experiences on a resume become more valuable.

Educational Implications

The findings from the present study have several implications for improving career knowledge among undergraduate psychology students. First, orientation courses were a common source of career information for the students in our sample. Including career information in required psychology orientation courses would be an effective way to the importance of career preparation to students. By deliberately emphasizing career-oriented information early in undergraduate psychology education, students can start exploring available resources earlier than they perhaps would otherwise (i.e., as juniors or seniors; Strapp et al., 2018). Additionally, orientation courses could include guests’ lectures by career advisors, creating a level of familiarity between students and the people who have access to helpful information and resources.

Second, it would be beneficial for instructors and faculty to include information on career centers in all course syllabi. Some institutions of higher education already require syllabi to include information regarding disability accommodations, non-discrimination statements, Title IX, or other on-campus resources (e.g., UC Santa Cruz, n.d.; University of Kentucky, 2021). By adding career center information to syllabi, this resource would remain salient throughout each semester. Third, the high number of students using the Internet to find career information suggests that helping students build information literacy is critical (American Library Association Institutional Repository, n.d.). Colleges and universities should equip students with the skills they need to assess the validity of online sources and ensure they can critically evaluate information.

Conclusion

Limitations and Future Research

Despite addressing some gaps in the literature regarding how undergraduate psychology students prepare for their future careers, the present study had several limitations. First, the study was conducted at a large, public, R1 university, and the results may not generalize to smaller institutions with different learning environments and resources. Second, in the absence of a consistent approach to advising students about their future careers, the present study does not capture what information and experiences students sought initially. Specifically, the information or experiences students first encountered may have influenced what additional information and experiences they sought.

Third, our data relied on students self-reporting their career-related behavior and information about academic achievement. Previous research suggests that students, especially low-achieving students, may sometimes inflate their GPA or test scores when self-reporting them (Cole & Gonyea, 2010; Kuncel et al., 2005). Therefore, some students in our sample may have overestimated their ACT scores or GPAs, which may have influenced the results of the study. Future research should try to use more objective measures of academic achievement, such as information obtained from the university registrar. As a final note about limitations, our results are correlational, and the direction of the observed effects cannot be determined from the present data.

Overall, the results of the study shed important light on how undergraduate psychology students seek information about the careers available to them, and what experiences students seek in preparation for their future careers. For psychology programs that wish to maximize the success of their students, especially recent graduates entering the workforce, they need to show students everything that their department and the university have to offer (e.g., career center advising, career compatibility assessments, and partnerships with employers). This approach can include encouraging students to use resources within the psychology department, such as courses that teach students how to recognize reliable sources on the Internet, as well as credit-bearing supervised work experiences. In addition, universities with career centers should make additional explicit efforts to encourage students to visit and take advantage of the resources and advising services offered. As outlined by the APA, psychology programs should emphasize workforce preparation among undergraduate students, and the first step may be helping them take full advantage of resources that are already available to them.

Source of Career Information	Percentage of Students, %	n
Internet	71.5	253
Friends and family	57.6	204
Major orientation course	56.5	200
Assigned faculty advisor	48.3	171
Other faculty within department	35.9	127
Professional academic advisor	31.1	110
Courses within major	27.1	96
Books	18.1	64
High school psychology courses	18.1	64
Introductory courses within major	16.4	58
Other college courses	15.8	56
Faculty from other departments	15.0	53
High school faculty/counselors	15.0	53
College career center	13.0	46
Other high school courses	7.3	26

Career Experience	Percentage of Students, %	n
Volunteering off campus	39.5	140
Independent study research course	33.1	117
Employment off campus	23.7	84
Shadowing a professional	23.7	84
Internship off campus	22.0	78
Volunteering on campus	20.3	72
Employment on campus	16.4	58
Internship on campus	15.5	55
Field-based study course within major	13.6	48
Experiential education	3.7	13

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Andrea M. Pals

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Exploring How Undergraduate Psychology Majors Seek Information and Experiences for Career Preparation

Abstract

Background

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusion

Implications

Keywords

The Present Study

Method

Participants

Measures

Demographics

Class Standing

Academic Achievement

Graduate School Plans

Use of Career Center

Information Seeking

Experience Seeking

Procedure

Results

Descriptive Analyses

Inferential Analyses

Academic Achievement

Graduate School

Exploratory Analyses

Discussion

Educational Implications

Conclusion

Limitations and Future Research

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

ORCID iD

References