Proactive career behaviors and career success during the early career

The current article tests a model of proactive career behaviors and career success with two samples of graduates making the transition from school to work. Using structural equation modeling, we tested a theoretical model that specified the relationships among career goal, career planning, career self-management behaviors, and career success. A longitudinal panel study was conducted within two samples using a one-year (sample 1) and three-year (sample 2) time lag between the first and second data collection. The results support the process model and suggest that at graduation career planning is affected by the importance attached to career progress. In turn, career planning is positively associated with career self-management behaviors. Both career planning and career self-management behaviors at graduation are positively related to career planning and career self-management behaviors one year later (sample 1) but in sample two, in which a three-year time lag was used, these relationships were no longer significant. Support is found for the relationship between career self-management behaviors during early career and career satisfaction and salary. The findings are discussed in terms of their general implications for understanding the proactive career behavior process through which graduates affect their career success during the first years of their professional career.