Information behaviors on a social platform as a preparation for transition in the graduating student job-seeking context

Purpose This study reconceptualizes job-seeking as a preparation for transition. While existing transition theory primarily focuses on the transition experiences, limited attention has been paid to the preparation phase. We investigate how graduating university students’ information behaviors on a social platform contribute to their preparation for the campus-to-career transition. Design/methodology/approach We selected a typical social platform, Rednote (Xiaohongshu), as a case to deeply explore the process of users’ information behavior at the temporal, behavioral, cognitive and emotional levels. We employed a qualitative research design featuring semi-structured interviews with 20 university undergraduate and master’s students who were seeking jobs and were also frequent Rednote users. Data analysis followed a grounded theory approach. Findings Our analysis revealed four distinctive characteristics of job-seeking as the preparation for transition: stage-based progression (planting, cultivation, drought and harvest stages), continuously evolving information needs, reliance on social interactions and requirements for diverse information types. We identified two pivotal information strategies on the social platform, linking and comparing, that may function to either facilitate or hinder at different stages. These findings informed the development of the information behavior model in preparation for the transition stage. Originality/value This research extends transition theory to the preparation stage by distinguishing preparation for transition. Based on the examination of job-seeking-related information behavior on Rednote, an increasingly important yet understudied platform for graduating student job-seeking, this research reveals how social platforms’ unique characteristics shape the preparation for transition processes. It proposes a theoretical model of information behavior specifically for the transition preparation stage, using graduating student job-seeking on Rednote as the empirical context to capture the multidimensional nature of pre-transition information behavior.