Collegiate career development: a quantitative study comparing the career maturity and internship experience of graduating college seniors.

Permanent URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20193652
Title:
Collegiate career development : a quantitative study comparing the career maturity and internship experience of graduating college seniors
Creator:
Graham, Katrice (Author)
Contributor:
Gorman, Margaret (Advisor)
Nickel, Sandy (Committee member)
Lofton, Charlotte (Committee member)
Language:
English
Publisher:
Boston, Massachusetts : Northeastern University, 2015
Date Accepted:
March 2015
Date Awarded:
May 2015
Type of resource:
Text
Genre:
Dissertations
Format:
electronic
Digital origin:
born digital
Abstract/Description:
This study explores the relationship between career maturity and internship experience, through quantitative data collected via an e-survey. The participants are undergraduate students in the College of Journalism and Communications, who have registered to graduate at the conclusion of the Spring 2014 semester. The study used Liptak's Career Planning Scale to measure career maturity, while using Super's Life Stage Theory as the theoretical foundation for examining the results.

Survey results showed that 83% of the students had completed at least one internship. Descriptive data displayed that across all races, genders, and academic majors reviewed, the students scored highest in the self-knowledge category. Spikes in career maturity were seen at the level of two internships, while overall career maturity maximized at four or more internships. In the inferential statistical analysis, the only significant relationship between internship experience and career maturity discovered was in the area of occupational knowledge, which returned a significance in t-test of 0.010. This determines that the more internship experience a student has, the greater their awareness of the variety of occupations they are interested in and possess the skills to achieve.

This study concludes with a recommended strategy to maximize student career maturity prior to graduation, and increase job placement rates at the time of commencement.
Subjects and keywords:
career maturity
college students
internship
Super's theory
University of Florida, School of Journalism and Communications
Internship programs
Interns (Education) -- Florida
Journalism -- Study and teaching (Internship) -- Florida
Advertising -- Study and teaching (Internship) -- Florida
Public relations -- Study and teaching (Internship) -- Florida
College seniors -- Vocational guidance -- Florida
Career development
Experiential learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17760/D20193652
Permanent Link:
http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20193652
Use and reproduction:
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