Emotional self‐efficacy, graduate employability, and career satisfaction: Testing the associations

Abstract

Graduate employability has been the subject of little empirical research. There are a number of difficulties in defining and measuring graduate employability, which means that there is a paucity of research that looks at its predictors and outcomes. Previous work has proposed that emotional competence improves graduate employability, and this study further investigates this idea by examining the association between emotional self‐efficacy and employability. Also investigated is the association between employability and career satisfaction. Working graduates (N = 306) completed measures of emotional self‐efficacy, self‐perceived employability, and career satisfaction, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. We found emotional self‐efficacy to be an important predictor of graduate employability. Additionally, we found that graduate employability mediates the relationship between emotional self‐efficacy and career satisfaction. Some recommendations, in light of these findings, are discussed.

Key words:

• career satisfaction
• emotional competence
• emotional self‐efficacy
• graduate employability
• trait emotional intelligence

Acknowledgement

We wish to thank F. Mathieson and J. Lee for their help with data collection.