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This study explores job search dynamics among employed individuals. We focus on factors related to employees initiating their job searches and changing its intensity.

We conducted a qualitative study with 41 employed job seekers using semi-structured interviews.

Our analysis reveals six catalysts that initiate employee job searches and nine modulators that influence fluctuations in job search effort. We highlight the significant roles of social actors, resource dynamics, and personal, professional, and environmental factors in shaping employees’ job searches.

The diverse sample strengthens theory building but may not represent all employed job seekers. Future research would benefit from longitudinal designs.

This study underscores the influence of social actors on employee job search processes. Our findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and employers seeking to support employed job seekers and proactively manage voluntary turnover.

This research advances our understanding of employee job search beyond its traditional role in voluntary turnover. By integrating Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we provide a framework for understanding employee job search initiation and modulation.

The present study aimed to understand how participation in university extracurricular activities has a beneficial or detrimental impact on students’ employment self-efficacy through the intervening mechanism of information search strategy.

The authors collected data from active job-searching university students across two time-points and hypothesized that the breadth of extracurricular activity participation would positively impact employment self-efficacy perceptions and information search strategies (focused, exploratory and haphazard) would mediate this relationship.

Results indicate that the breadth of students' participation in extracurricular activities was positively associated with employment self-efficacy perceptions, and this relationship was mediated by focused and exploratory information-search strategies. Extracurricular activities exhibited a negative relationship with a haphazard search strategy.

This research extends the understanding of the role of participation in extracurricular activities for influencing a job search. Future research may replicate these findings with different samples of job seekers.

Extracurricular activities are typically offered at universities as a way for students to develop skills and to improve employers' perceptions of students. The present results suggest that participating in extracurricular activities may also help university students to effectively conduct a self-directed job search.

We examined the role of extracurricular activities from the applicant's perspective, extending prior research examining extracurricular activities from the employer's perspective. The present results suggest that extracurricular activities play an important role in shaping the job search process of university students by influencing students' confidence for finding employment. Information search strategies mediated the effects of extracurricular activities on employment self-efficacy perceptions, suggesting that participating in extracurricular activities changed the way that applicants searched for jobs.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of self-regulation during job search by integrating goal-orientation theory with a resource allocation framework.

The author surveyed job searching new labor market entrants at two time points and hypothesized that the effects of job seekers’ state goal orientations on indicators of self-regulation during the job search process (procrastination, anxiety, and guidance-seeking behaviors) depended on levels of employment goal commitment (EGC).

Results indicate that for job seekers with higher levels of EGC, a state learning-approach goal orientation (LGO) was beneficial for the job search process and a state performance-approach goal orientation (PGO) was detrimental. For job seekers with lower levels of EGC, a state LGO was detrimental to the search process, while a state PGO was beneficial.

This research extends the understanding of state goal orientation in the context of job search. Future research may replicate these findings with different samples of employed and unemployed job seekers and extend this research with additional conceptualizations of resource limitations.

The present research suggests that the effectiveness of learning-approach goal-orientation training methods in the context of job search must be considered in light of individual differences in resource availability. In particular, individuals with lower resources available for job searching may benefit from interventions focusing on increasing state PGO.

The present results suggest that EGC is an important moderator of the impact of job search goal orientation on indicators of self-regulation during job search, and therefore present important boundary conditions regarding the role of state goal orientation in the job search process.

Rich, interactive media are becoming extremely common in internet recruitment systems. The paper investigates the role of media richness in applicants’ ability to learn information relevant to making an application decision. The authors examine these relationships in the context of two competing theories, namely media richness theory and cognitive load theory, which predict opposite relationships with information acquisition. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Participants (n=471) either viewed a traditional web site or visited an interactive virtual world that contained information about an organization's culture, benefits, location, and job openings. Culture information was manipulated to either portray a highly teams-oriented culture or a highly individual-oriented culture.

Participants who viewed the low-richness site recalled more factual information about the organization; this effect was mediated by subjective mental workload. Richness was not related to differences in culture-related information acquisition.

These findings suggest that richer media (such as interactive virtual environments) may not be as effective as less rich media in conveying information. Specifically, the interactive elements may detract focus away from the information an organization wishes to portray. This may lead to wasted time on the part of applicants and organizations in the form of under- or over-qualified applications or a failure to follow instructions.

This study is among the first to use a cognitive load theory framework to suggest that richer media may not always achieve their desired effect.