Most tertiary students now work to support themselves, but some are motivated by improving their employability and career development. However, many work in precarious jobs and the relationship between job quality and career development is poorly understood. We tested how precarious employment related to career capital, whether perceptions of organisational career growth (i.e. goal progress and ability development) explained this, and whether meritocratic beliefs (i.e. in a just society) moderated these relationships in working university students (N = 214; 78% female; MAge 20 years). Precariousness was related to less career capital, which was explained partially by perceiving fewer organisational career growth opportunities. Meritocratic beliefs buffered the negative precariousness-career growth relationships and boosted the positive career growth-career capital relationships. Overall, 52% of the variance in capital was explained. Results point to how career practitioners might assist precariously employed students to successfully engage in career self-management.
AgutS.PeiróJ. M.GrauR. (2009). The effect of overeducation on job content innovation and career-enhancing strategies among young Spanish employees. Journal of Career Development, 36(2), 159–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845308327738
4.
AkbiyikB. (2016). The association between perceived job insecurity and career commitment in hospitality sector: The role of support at work. Research Journal of Business & Management, 3(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2016116541
5.
BahamondesJ.SibleyC. G.OsborneD. (2019). “We look (and feel) better through system-justifying lenses”: System-Justifying beliefs attenuate the well-being gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged by reducing perceptions of discrimination. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(9), 1391–1408. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219829178
6.
BarlingJ.DuPreK.HepburnC. G. (1998). Effects of parents' job insecurity on children's work beliefs and attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(1), 112–118. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.1.112
7.
BellD. N.BlanchflowerD. G. (2011). Young people and the great recession. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 27(2), 241–267. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grr011
8.
BroadbentK.StrachanG. (2016). ‘It’s difficult to forecast your longer term career milestone’: Career development and insecure employment for research academics in Australian universities. Labour and Industry, 26(4), 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2016.1243438
9.
CampbellI.PriceR. (2016). Precarious work and precarious workers: Towards an improved conceptualisation. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 27(3), 314–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304616652074
10.
CebullaA.WhettonS. (2018). All roads leading to Rome? The medium term outcomes of Australian youth’s transition pathways from educationJournal of Youth Studies, 21(3), 304–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1373754
11.
ChestersJ.WynJ. (2019). Chasing rainbows: How many educational qualifications do young people need to acquire meaningful, ongoing work?Journal of Sociology, 55(4), 670–688. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783319888285
12.
ColakogluS. (2011). The impact of career boundarylessness on subjective career success: The role of career competencies, career autonomy, and career insecurity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.09.011
13.
ConnellJ.BurgessJ. (2006). The influence of precarious employment on career development: The current situation in Australia. Education + Training, 48(7), 493–507. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910610705881
14.
CreedP. A.FrenchJ.HoodM. (2015). Working while studying at university: The relationship between work benefits and demands and engagement and well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86(6), 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.11.002
15.
CreedP. A.HoodM.BagleyL.BroughP.BialocerkowskiA.MachinM. A.WinterbothamS. (2022). Organisational career growth: Implications for future perceived employability in students who work. International Journal of Educational Research, 112, Article 101950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2022.101950
16.
CreedP. A.HoodM.KimS.BialocerkowskiA. (2026). Working students and precarious employment: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Career Assessment, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/10690727251411293
17.
CreedP. A.HoodM.SelenkoE.BagleyL. (2020). The development and initial validation of a self-report job precariousness scale suitable for use with young adults who study and work. Journal of Career Assessment, 28(4), 636–654. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720920788
18.
CreedP. A.HoodM.SelenkoE.HuS.BagleyL. (2022). The relationship between job precariousness and student burnout: A serial indirect effects model. Journal of Education and Work, 35(8), 843–857. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2022.2149713
19.
CuervoH.ChestersJ. (2019). The [im]possibility of planning a future: How prolonged precarious employment during transitions affects the lives of young Australians. Labour and Industry, 29(4), 295–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2019.1696654
20.
CzabałaC.CharzyńskaK.MroziakB. (2011). Psychosocial interventions in workplace mental health promotion: An overview. Health Promotion International, 26(Suppl_1), i70–i84. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dar050
21.
De CuyperN.Van HootegemA.SmetK.HoubenE.De WitteH. (2019). All insecure, all good? Job insecurity profiles in relation to career correlates. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(15), 2640. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152640
22.
De VosA.DewettinckK.BuyensD. (2009). The professional career on the right track: A study on the interaction between career self-management and organizational career management in explaining employee outcomes. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 18(1), 55–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320801966257
23.
DuB.YuX.LuoN.LiuX. (2022). The effect of core self-evaluations on career adaptability: The mediating role of protean career attitudes and the moderating role of meritocratic beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1000615. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1000615
24.
DugganJ.ShermanU.CarberyR.McDonnellA. (2021). Boundaryless careers and algorithmic constraints in the gig economy. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(22), 4468–4498. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1953565
FangT.ZikicJ.NovicevicM. M. (2009). Career success of immigrant professionals: Stock and flow of their career capital. International Journal of Manpower, 30(5), 472–488. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720910977661
28.
García-SierraA. (2023). The dark side of meritocratic beliefs: Is believing in meritocracy detrimental to individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds?Social Justice Research, 36(4), 385–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-023-00413-x
GoodeC.KeeferL.MolinaL. (2014). A compensatory control account of meritocracy. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2(1), 313–334. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.372
32.
HairJ. F.BlackW.BabinB.AndersonR. (2018). Multivariate data analysis (8th Ed.). Cengage.
33.
HardgroveA.RoothamE.McDowellL. (2015). Possible selves in a precarious labour market: Youth, imagined futures, and transitions to work in the UK. Geoforum, 60, 163–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.01.014
34.
HayesA. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (2nd Ed.). Guilford Press.
35.
HeckhausenJ.ShaneJ. (2015). Social mobility in the transition to adulthood. In JensenL. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of human development and culture (pp. 535–553). Oxford University Press.
36.
HenningerE.BronsA.RileyC.YinC. (2019). Perceptions and experiences of precarious employment in Canadian libraries: An exploratory study. Partnership: TheCanadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v14i2.5169
37.
HoodM.CreedP. A. (2019). Globalisation. In AthanasouJ. A.PereraH. N. (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (2nd Ed., pp. 477–495). Springer.
38.
HoodM.CreedP. A.BialocerkowskiA.ChanX. W. (2025). The relationship between job precariousness and career capital in working students: The explanatory mechanism of job crafting. Education + Training, 67(7-8), 721–736. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-05-2024-0234
39.
HuS.ShenX.CreedP. A.HoodM. (2020). The relationship between meritocratic beliefs and career outcomes: The moderating role of socioeconomic status. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 116, Article 103370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103370
JiangL.LavaysseL. (2018). Cognitive and affective job insecurity: A meta-analysis and a primary study. Journal of Management, 44(6), 2307–2342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318773853
43.
JiangZ.WangY.LiW.PengK. Z.WuC. H. (2023). Career proactivity: A bibliometric literature review and a future research agenda. Applied Psychology, 72(1), 144–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12442
44.
JokinenT.BrewsterC.SuutariV. (2008). Career capital during international work experiences: Contrasting self-initiated expatriate experiences and assigned expatriation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19(6), 979–998. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802051279
KayJ. S.ShaneJ.HeckhausenJ. (2016). High-school predictors of university achievement: Youths' self-reported relationships with parents, beliefs about success, and university aspirations. Journal of Adolescence, 53(1), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.08.014
47.
KayJ. S.ShaneJ.HeckhausenJ. (2017). Youth’s causal beliefs about success: Socioeconomic differences and prediction of early career development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(10), 2169–2180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0708-2
KozanS.GutowskiE.BlusteinD. L. (2020). A qualitative exploration of women’s work aspirations and beliefs on meritocracy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(2), 195–207. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000409
50.
KreshpajB.OrellanaC.BurströmB.DavisL.HemmingssonT.JohanssonG.KjellbergK.JonssonJ.WegmanD. H.BodinT. (2020). What is precarious employment? A systematic review of definitions and operationalizations from quantitative and qualitative studies. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 46(3), 235–247. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3875
51.
KuvaasB.BuchR.DysvikA. (2013). Happy together or not? Balanced perceived investment in standard and nonstandard employees. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(1), 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.669785
52.
LaßI. (2020). The effects of non-standard employment on the transition to parenthood within couples: A comparison of Germany and Australia. European Journal of Population, 36(5), 843–874. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-019-09548-7
53.
LentR. W.BrownS. D. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 557–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033446
54.
LernerM. (1980). The belief in a just world: Perspectives in social psychology. Springer.
55.
McCoyS. K.WellmanJ. D.CosleyB.SaslowL.EpelE. (2013). Is the belief in meritocracy palliative for members of low status groups? Evidence for a benefit for self-esteem and physical health via perceived control. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43(4), 307–318. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1959
56.
MijsJ. J. (2021). The paradox of inequality: Income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand. Socio-Economic Review, 19(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy051
57.
MoonJ.ChoiS. (2017). The impact of career management on organizational commitment and the mediating role of subjective career success. Journal of Career Development, 44(3), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845316643829
58.
NabiG. R. (2003). Situational characteristics and subjective career success. International Journal of Manpower, 24(6), 653–672. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720310496148
OerteléZ. (2019). Motives and benefits of working while studying. Eurostudent intelligence brief 5/2019. https://www.eurostudent.eu
62.
OkonS. E.DakareO.AkaigheG. O.AdebiyiS. O. (2025). Organisational career growth and work engagement: A moderated mediated model. Career Development International, 30(3), 239–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-05-2024-0228
63.
QuinlanM. G.RawlingM. J. (2024). Regulating precarious work: A paradigm shift. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 35(4), 849–877. https://doi.org/10.1017/elr.2024.65
64.
RemenickL.BergmanM. (2021). Support for working students: Considerations for higher education institutions. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 69(1), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/07377363.2020.1777381
65.
RetkowskyJ.NijsS.AkkermansJ.KhapovaS.JansenP. (2023). Seeking stability in unstable employment: An exploratory study of temporary agency workers' career self-management. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 143, Article 103877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103877
66.
ReynoldsJ.XianH. (2014). Perceptions of meritocracy in the land of opportunity. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 36, 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2014.03.001
67.
SeongY.LeeE. S.ParkS. (2021). The association between unstable employment and suicidal behavior in young-adult precarious workers. Psychiatry Investigation, 18(7), 661–669. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2020.0447
SpagnoliP. (2020). Organizational socialization learning, organizational career growth, and work outcomes: A moderated mediation model. Journal of Career Development, 47(3), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845317700728
70.
SpagnoliP.WengQ. (2019). Factorial validity, cross-cultural equivalence, and latent means examination of the Organizational Career Growth Scale in Italy and China. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(21), 2951–2970. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1340325
71.
StuthS.JahnK. (2020). Young, successful, precarious? Precariousness at the entry stage of employment careers in Germany. Journal of Youth Studies, 23(6), 702–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2019.1636945
72.
VivesA.AmableM.FerrerM.MoncadaS.LlorensC.MuntanerC.BenavidesF. G.BenachJ. (2010). The employment precariousness scale (EPRES): Psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 67(8), 548–555. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2009.048967
73.
WengQ.McElroyJ. (2012). Organizational career growth, affective occupational commitment, and turnover intentions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(2), 256–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.014
74.
WengQ.McElroyJ.MorrowP. C.LiuR. (2010). The relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3), 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.05.003
WilhelmF.HirschiA. (2019). Career self-management as a key factor for career wellbeing. In PotgieterI.FerreiraN.CoetzeeM. (Eds.), Theory, research and dynamics of career wellbeing (pp. 117–137). Springer.
77.
WongV.Au-YeungT. C. (2019). Autonomous precarity or precarious autonomy? Dilemmas of young workers in Hong Kong. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 30(2), 241–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304619838976
XuD.JinS.PunN.GuoJ.WuX. (2022). The scarring effect of first job precarity: New evidence from a panel study in Hong Kong. Work, Employment and Society, 38(1), 206–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170221112221
80.
YoonK.OhS.KimB. (2018). The influence of job insecurity on career commitment and attitude in multinational corporations. Journal of Applied Business Research, 34(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v34i1.10096
ZhangL.WangX.LiF.FanW. (2025). Meritocratic beliefs and career adaptability: The multiple mediation effects of positive affect and career self-efficacy and moderating role of social class. Current Psychology, 44(3), 1950–1961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07269-7
