College Students’ Personality Traits in Relation to Career Readiness

Authors

Shelby R. Overacker, Gettysburg CollegeFollow
Carly E. Kalis, Gettysburg CollegeFollow
Francesca Coppola, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Class Year

2019

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2018

Department 1

Management

Abstract

This study examined sixty-one Gettysburg College juniors and seniors (31 males, 30 females) to measure how the Big Five personality traits, and whether a student has Type D characteristics, determines if a student is career ready. We collected data through an in-person survey, with questions about personality traits, ambition, career readiness, and demographics. Regression was used to statistically analyze our first hypothesis. The results found that there is a significant positive association between conscientiousness and career readiness, but there is no significant association between extraversion and career readiness. For the second hypothesis, a mediation model was used. We found that ambition is not a mediator between Type D personality characteristics and career readiness. However, there is a significant positive association between Type D personality traits and career readiness. We explored whether gender plays a role in ambition responses. We concluded that there were no significant differences between males and females.

Comments

Written for OMS 301: Research Methods

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Overacker, Shelby R.; Kalis, Carly E.; and Coppola, Francesca, "College Students’ Personality Traits in Relation to Career Readiness" (2018). Student Publications. 600.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/600