Career advice: Encouraging mums and discouraging friends

A recent study from the USA investigated college students’ perceptions of their most influential sources of career related information. The researchers investigated encouraging as well as discouraging career messages and found that mothers, followed by teachers/professors, friends and fathers, were perceived to be the most influential sources of encouraging career messages. Mothers were most often described as telling their children to pursue a passion for their career while teachers/professors were frequently reported as providing career detail messages. Friends were identified as the most influential source of discouraging messages.

Powers, S. R., & Myers, K. K. (2016). Vocational Anticipatory Socialization College Students’ Reports of Encouraging/Discouraging Sources and Messages. Journal of Career Development, online before print, August 1, 2016.

What does it mean to be successful in your career?

Subjective career success pertains to the personal meaning of success in one's career. Based on interviews and statistical analyses of questionnaires the authors of a recent study identified that people commonly state eight different dimensions that constitute subjective career success: having a sense of authenticity in one's work, experiencing growth and development in one' career, exerting influence on others and the organization, doing meaningful work, having a personal life besides one's career, doing high quality work, getting recognition for one's work, and being overall satisfied with one's career in general. The study also showed that these aspects of career success are positively related to overall life satisfaction. In sum, the study shows that career success entails many aspects and is important for overall well-being. 

Journal of Organizational Behavior