Exploring University Students’ Career Resources Profiles to Cope with Career Insecurity and Promote Employability

The aim of this study was to characterize profiles of career resources among university students and identify differences in career insecurity and employability between these profiles. The conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll 1989) and career resources model (Hirschi 2012) were used as theoretical lenses. Specifically, psychological career resources (i.e., present positive time perspective, future positive time perspective, resilience) and social career resources (i.e., university career support, social career support, studies challenge) were explored as university students’ resources to cope with their career insecurity and promote their employability. Survey data were collected from university students (N = 281) in this cross-sectional research. Cluster analysis results revealed four career resources profiles of university students: (1) low career resources; (2) high career resources; (3) high psychological career resources–low social career resources; (4) low psychological career resources–high social career resources. Additionally, career resources profiles with high levels of psychological career resources were found to have significantly lower scores on career insecurity and higher scores on employability in comparison to other career resources profiles. The study has theoretical and practical implications for a person-centered approach to promoting career preparation among university students.