The relation of career-related work or internship experiences to the career development of college seniors

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between career-related work or internship experiences and six career development indices: decidedness, self-concept crystallization, amount of occupational information, career self-efficacy, vocational commitment, and tendency to foreclose. We further explored whether perceived characteristics of the experiences (e.g., autonomy, task variety) were differentially associated with career-related development progress. Participants were 165 seniors with and without career-related experiences who sought services at a university career services office. Results suggest that internship experience, either alone or in combination with work experience, is related to higher levels of self-concept crystallization, but is not related to amount of occupational information, self-efficacy, decidedness, vocational commitment, or tendency to foreclose. Additional findings were that the perceived work or internship characteristics of task variety, feedback, and opportunities for dealing with people were significantly associated with self-concept crystallization, amount of occupational information, and self-efficacy. However, the characteristics of autonomy, task identity, and friendship opportunities were not significantly related to any of the career development measures. © 1995 Academic Press, Inc.