Step 1: Read the two articles assigned and that are attached as pdfs. Then proceed to step 2. Step 2:Write a discussion board response to the materials of about 300-500 words, addressing the main points of the pieces, any significant details or data that stood out to you, and your own reaction to or understanding of this information. What can you use it for? 'Impostors' Downshift Career Goals By Michael Price Sep. 4, 2013 , 4:45 PM CREDIT: LIEBEGABY. DISTRIBUTED UNDER A CC-BY 2.0 LICENSE (FLICKR). NEW YORK CITY—Impostor syndrome—the feeling that you've somehow tricked people into thinking that you're competent, while believing that your success is the result of luck and others overlooking your Raws—is a widely reported phenomenon in academia, especially in graduate school, and is believed to play an important part in some women's decision to abandon academic        Advertisement Become a Member Log In ScienceMag.org http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/reddit/offer?url=https://www-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/careers/2013/09/impostors-downshift-career-goals&title=%27Impostors%27%20Downshift%20Career%20Goals&description=Grad%20students%20with%20impostor%20syndrome%20are%20more%20likely%20than%20others%20to%20abandon%20research%20careers.%20Superstar%20mentors%20may%20make%20things%20worse.&pubid=ra-56f2f91059d6f875 http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/mailto/offer?url=https://www-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/careers/2013/09/impostors-downshift-career-goals&title=%27Impostors%27%20Downshift%20Career%20Goals&description=Grad%20students%20with%20impostor%20syndrome%20are%20more%20likely%20than%20others%20to%20abandon%20research%20careers.%20Superstar%20mentors%20may%20make%20things%20worse.&pubid=ra-56f2f91059d6f875 http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?url=https://www-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/careers/2013/09/impostors-downshift-career-goals&title=%27Impostors%27%20Downshift%20Career%20Goals&description=Grad%20students%20with%20impostor%20syndrome%20are%20more%20likely%20than%20others%20to%20abandon%20research%20careers.%20Superstar%20mentors%20may%20make%20things%20worse.&pubid=ra-56f2f91059d6f875 http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/twitter/offer?url=https://www-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/careers/2013/09/impostors-downshift-career-goals&title=%27Impostors%27%20Downshift%20Career%20Goals&description=Grad%20students%20with%20impostor%20syndrome%20are%20more%20likely%20than%20others%20to%20abandon%20research%20careers.%20Superstar%20mentors%20may%20make%20things%20worse.&pubid=ra-56f2f91059d6f875 http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/linkedin/offer?url=https://www-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/careers/2013/09/impostors-downshift-career-goals&title=%27Impostors%27%20Downshift%20Career%20Goals&description=Grad%20students%20with%20impostor%20syndrome%20ar.

1. Step 1: Read the two articles assigned and that are attached as
pdfs. Then proceed to step 2.
Step 2:Write a discussion board response to the materials of
about 300-500 words, addressing the main points of the pieces,
any significant details or data that stood out to you, and your
own reaction to or understanding of this information. What can
you use it for?
'Impostors' Downshift Career Goals
By Michael Price Sep. 4, 2013 , 4:45 PM
CREDIT: LIEBEGABY. DISTRIBUTED UNDER A CC-BY 2.0
LICENSE (FLICKR).
NEW YORK CITY—Impostor syndrome—the feeling that
you've somehow tricked people into
thinking that you're competent, while believing that your
success is the result of luck and others
overlooking your Raws—is a widely reported phenomenon in
academia, especially in graduate
school, and is believed to play an important part in some
women's decision to abandon academic
Advertisement
Become a Member Log In ScienceMag.org

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careers. Assistance from a high-quality mentor, on the other
hand, is often touted as an
unassailably positive factor, encouraging women to complete
their degrees and emulate their
mentors.
A study presented last month at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association in
New York City aTrms the importance of impostor syndrome—
also called impostorism—in science
careers. But the study's results also suggest a more surprising
possibility: that a rock-star female

5. mentor may dissuade some women from pursuing an academic
research career.
—Jessica L. Collett
Downshifters
While both men and women suffer from impostor syndrome,
more women than men experience it,
says the study's principal investigator, Jessica L. Collett, a
sociologist at the University of Notre
Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in an interview with Science
Careers. Women also feel like impostors
more frequently than men do, she says, and are more
encumbered by it. "Impostorism is
something that negatively affects both men and women, but it's
more pronounced among women,
and therefore affects their career trajectories more," she says.
While a lot of work has been done on the causes of
impostorism, Collett notes, nobody has really
studied how it affects career choices. So, Collett and her
colleague Jade Avelis conducted a
survey and a series of interviews with 461 doctoral students at
Notre Dame, 46% of them women
and the majority studying science. The questions were designed
to tease out whether respondents
felt like impostors. She also asked them about their concerns
over family and career, their career
goals, and whether those goals had changed since they began
their doctoral programs. In the
interviews, she asked the subjects to elaborate on those topics.
For the purposes of the study, Collett categorized as
"downshifters" people whose goals had
shifted away from research-intensive, tenure-track positions and
toward nontenure-track positions

6. such as policy work or teaching. Her goal was to learn whether
downshifters were more likely than
others to suffer from impostor syndrome. Other factors—
including the odds of getting a tenure-
track job—factor into such career decisions, Collett tells
Science Careers, so she attempted to
account for these factors in her interviews. She notes, however,
that such factors aren't mutually
exclusive: People who feel like impostors might be more
intimidated than their peers by the tight
Impostorism is something that negatively affects both men and
women,
but it's more pronounced among women, and therefore affects
their
career trajectories more.
“
”
http://www.asanet.org/am2013/am2013.cfm
http://www3.nd.edu/~jcollet1/
http://sociology.nd.edu/graduate-program/student-
directory/jade-avelis/
academic job market.
Among the doctoral students in her sample, Collett found that
22.5% of women and 27% of men
identiced a research-intensive, tenure-track professorship as
their current career goal. She also
found that more women than men—11% versus 6%—initially
aspired to such positions but had
since downshifted.

7. Emulating Superwoman
Collett then sought relationships in the data between
downshifting, concerns over family-
friendliness, and impostorism. Concerns over family-
friendliness, she found, had no statistically
signiccant relationship with the decision to downshift—but
feelings of impostorism did. "We see
that impostors are overrepresented in both the groups that
seriously considered changing and
those that actually did so," Collett said at the meeting.
Impostorism was, in fact, the only
statistically signiccant gender effect that accounted for
downshifting. "This suggests that
impostorism at least partially mediates the relationship between
gender and career ambitions in
academia."
Turning to the qualitative responses that Collett collected in
interviews, she found that many of
those who were categorized as downshifters reported worrying
about being incompetent in the
lab. "My main concern is feeling competent in my chosen
career," said one Ph.D. student in a
scienticc celd. Another told Collett, "I worry that I'm maybe
just lazy and I don't like working hard,
and I shouldn't be here because I'm not willing to be in the oTce
60 or 70 hours a week." These
comments indicate feelings of impostorism, Collett says.
An unanticipated quirk emerged in her interviews: A signiccant
number of women reported that
they felt they could never be as good as their female mentors.
One said that she suspected her
mentor was secretly Superwoman; how could she ever live up to
that example?

8. That inspired Collett to consider whether impressive female
mentors might actually dissuade
women who already experience impostor syndrome from
pursuing the tenure track. Valerie Young,
an education researcher and expert on impostor syndrome, tells
Science Careers that this cnding
cts with what she's seen in her research and interviews. "If
you're constantly comparing yourself to
this star mentor, by decnition you're never going to measure
up," she says. Collett plans to explore
this idea further in future studies.
Both the quantitative and qualitative data, Collett says, suggest
that impostorism plays a larger
role than previously suspected in female scientists' decisions to
shift toward less competitive, less
time- and energy-intensive careers.
http://www.impostorsyndrome.com/valerie-young/
Give it a name
What can scientists do to combat feelings of impostorism?
"What every mentor, faculty, and
department should do is, on day one, name the impostor
syndrome," Young suggests. "No one
likes to fail, but what differentiates impostors is that they feel
shame when they fail. So, put a
name to it. I'm a huge fan of normalizing it—not pathologizing
it—and putting it into context. Let
people know that everyone feels that way at some point or
another."
Collett adds that female mentors, especially, should be open
with their female protégés about the
challenges they face in the workplace and how they overcome

9. them, and how they make
compromises with their time and energy. Male mentors tend to
feel freer to discuss their choices
and insecurities, she says, while many female mentors believe
that will make them appear weak.
"Male mentors have many more informal interactions with their
male mentees," Collett says. "In
those times, he lets guard down; he talks about his family; he
says, 'I've got to run and pick up my
son,' or 'The wife wants me home,' or something like that. These
men get to see a different side of
their mentors. Women are so buckled up at work. … Women
don't want to say, 'I've got to go pick
up my children.' " Making an effort to be more open about these
challenges and time constraints,
she says, could help debunk the myth of the Superwoman
mentor.
Am I done yet?
Although she didn't cnd statistically signiccant differences
among the various scienticc celds,
Collett speculates that some disciplines could offer some
protection against feelings of
impostorism. The reason is surprising. "The women in my
interviews who were in the hard
sciences could feel comfortable leaving the lab at whatever time
of day, so long as their
experiment was done," Collett says. In contrast, women in the
"softer" sciences tended to report
more anxiety over whether they measured up in the lab. In such
celds, apparently, it's harder to
know when you're cnished.
Collett suspects that quantitative measurements may be able to
help sufferers of impostor
syndrome see that they're doing just as well as their peers; she

10. recently applied for a National
Science Foundation grant to study this issue.
Posted in: Issues and Perspectives, Life and Career Balance,
Advice, Graduate, Postdoc, Academic, Biomedical, Engineering,
Life
Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, United States
doi:10.1126/science.caredit.a1300188
Michael Price
Michael Price is a science journalist in San Diego, California.
https://www-sciencemag-
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Journal of Vocational Behavior 74 (2009) 53–62
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Vocational Behavior
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c
a t e / j v b
The longitudinal impact of self-efficacy and career goals on
objective
and subjective career success
Andrea E. Abele *, Daniel Spurk
Social Psychology Group, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg,
Bismarckstr. 6, D 91054 Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:

25. Received 21 July 2008
Available online 1 November 2008
Keywords:
Occupational self-efficacy
Career-advancement goals
Salary
Status
Career satisfaction
Gender
Longitudinal study
0001-8791/$ - see front matter � 2008 Elsevier Inc
doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.10.005
* Corresponding author. Fax: +49 9131 8524731.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.E.
a b s t r a c t
The present research reports on the impact of occupational self-
efficacy and of career-
advancement goals on objective (salary, status) and subjective
(career satisfaction) career
attainments. Seven hundred and thirty four highly educated and
full-time employed pro-
fessionals answered questionnaires immediately after
graduation, three years later, and
seven years later. Controlling for discipline, GPA at master’s
level, and gender, we found
that occupational self-efficacy measured at career entry had a
positive impact on salary
and status three years later and a positive impact on salary
change and career satisfaction
seven years later. Career-advancement goals at career entry had
a positive impact on salary
and status after three years and a positive impact on status
change after seven years, but a

26. negative impact on career satisfaction after seven years. Women
earned less than men, but
did not differ from men in hierarchical status and in career
satisfaction. Theoretical impli-
cations for socio-cognitive theorizing and for career-success
research as well as applied
implications for vocational behavior are discussed.
� 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Research interest in career success both regarding objective
parameters (e.g., salary, promotions, hierarchical status) and
regarding subjective ones (e.g., subjective evaluation of one’s
career) has been high for many years. One main strand of re-
search concerns what predicts success. The present research
addresses the influence on career success of two well-known
individual difference variables, namely self-efficacy beliefs and
personal goals. Self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1986, 1997)
and personal goals (Austin & Vancouver, 1996; Little, 1983;
Locke & Latham, 2002) are important constructs in socio-cogni-
tive models of career interests and performance (Lent, Brown,
& Hackett, 1994). There is considerable research on the influ-
ence of self-efficacy and of personal goals on task performance
as well as on job performance (e.g., Stajkovic & Luthans,
1998). There are also findings on self-efficacy and goals
influencing early phases of an individual’s career choice (e.g.,
Betz
& Hackett, 2006). However, there is almost no research on the
influence these variables have on career success conceptual-
ized as the objective and subjective outcomes an individual
receives in his/her career. A recent meta-analysis on determi-
nants and correlates of career success (Ng, Eby, Sorensen, &
Feldman, 2005) listed not a single study on this topic. The
aim of the present study is to close this research gap. We will
present findings on the impact that self-efficacy beliefs

27. (i.e., occupational self-efficacy) and personal occupational
goals (i.e., career-advancement goals) have on career outcomes
measured both on an objective level (salary, hierarchical status)
and on a subjective level (career satisfaction).
. All rights reserved.
Abele).
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00018791
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb
54 A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62
2. Self-efficacy and personal goals
Self-efficacy is defined as individuals’ beliefs about their
capability to perform some behavior or to meet a standard. Indi-
viduals with high self-efficacy beliefs set higher goals for
themselves, put in more effort, and persist longer on a difficult
task
(Bandura, 1986; Bandura, 1997). Generalized self-efficacy can
be distinguished from more domain-specific self-efficacy. Per-
sonal goals (Little, 1983) are aims of an action (Locke &
Latham, 2002) or internally represented desired states (Austin &
Vancouver, 1996). They are assumed to influence outcomes by
directing attention, mobilizing effort, affecting persistence,
and structuring behavior. They allow long-term orientation and
regulation of one’s actions. According to socio-cognitive the-
orizing (Brown, Jones, & Leigh, 2005) both self-efficacy beliefs
and goals are determinants of successful actions.
3. Career success
Career success is defined as ‘‘the positive psychological or

28. work-related outcomes or achievements one accumulates as a
result of work experiences” (Seibert, Crant, & Kraimer, 1999, p.
417). A conceptual distinction between so-called objective
and subjective measures of career success is very frequently
made. Criteria of objective success include salary, salary
growth,
promotions, or hierarchical status. Criteria of subjective success
are, for instance, career satisfaction, comparative judgments,
or job satisfaction (for discussions see Arnold & Cohen, 2008).
Many career researchers argue that it is important to assess
both aspects because the meaning of a career can only be
understood if different criteria are taken into account (e.g.,
Arthur,
Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005; Heslin, 2005). Objective and
subjective measures correlate positively, but the correlations are
only moderate. Recent meta-analyses have revealed correlations
not higher than .30 (Dette, Abele, & Renner, 2004; Ng et al.,
2005). There are also findings suggesting that the predictors of
objective career success differ from the predictors of subjec-
tive success and that even within different facets of objective
and subjective success predictors differ. Ng et al. (2005), for
instance, argue that individual difference variables account
more for subjective parameters than for objective ones.
4. Influence of self-efficacy and goals on career success
Day and Allen (2004) reported positive correlations between
municipal employees’ career self-efficacy, current salary,
and subjective career success (similarly Valcour & Ladge,
2008). Kim, Mone, and Kim (2008) reported that Korean
employees’
self-efficacy correlate positively with salary. In contrast,
Lubbers, Loughlin, and Zweig (2005) found no association
between
job self-efficacy and hourly wage. Saks (1995) showed that
task-related self-efficacy of newly hired entry-level accountants

29. had a positive effect on job satisfaction 10 months later
(similarly, Higgins, Dobrow, & Chandler, 2008 on subjective
career
success). Frieze, Olson, Murrell, and Selvan (2006) found that
MBA graduates’ materialistic work values (e.g., making a lot of
money) predicted salary 26 years later. Hence, three cross-
sectional studies suggest an influence of self-efficacy on salary
(Day & Allen, 2004; Kim et al., 2008; Valcour & Ladge, 2008),
another study suggests no influence on salary (Lubbers
et al., 2005). Two longitudinal studies reveal an influence of
self-efficacy on job satisfaction or perceived career success
(Hig-
gins et al., 2008; Saks, 1995). One study suggests a longitudinal
effect of materialistic goals on salary (Frieze et al., 2006).
None of these studies looked at both self-efficacy and goals.
5. Present research
In the present research we analyzed the longitudinal influence
of occupational self-efficacy and of career-advancement
goals on objective success as well as on subjective success
across seven years. With regard to self-efficacy beliefs we were
concerned with occupational self-efficacy. Occupational self-
efficacy is the belief in one’s capacity and motivation to
success-
fully perform occupational tasks and challenges and to pursue
one’s occupational career irrespective of the particular field of
occupation (Higgins et al., 2008). Occupational self-efficacy is
neither a broad measure of generalized self-efficacy nor a very
specific measure of particular career interests self-efficacy such
as, for instance, occupational confidence themes according to
Holland’s (1997) RIASEC model (for instance, Betz et al.,
2003; Wulff & Steitz, 1996). Occupational self-efficacy rather
has an
intermediate level of specificity. We chose such a level because
research has shown that a medium level of specificity is

30. advantageous in predicting specific outcomes (Chen, Gully, &
Eden, 2001; Pajares, 1996).
Regarding personal occupational goals we were concerned with
career-advancement goals. These are directed at climbing
up the career ladder and at being successful in terms of
influence, material gain, and prestige. There were two reasons
for
choosing this goal content. First, prestige-, power-, and
achievement-goals are important elements in the
conceptualization
of life goals (e.g., Pöhlmann & Brunstein, 1997), and respective
career-advancement goals are important elements in the
work values literature (Super, 1970; Zytowski, 1994). Second,
previous research in the realm of motivational forces has
shown that power-related motives and materialistic goals were
especially important predictors of high achievement (Frieze
et al., 2006; Winter, 1991; Winter, Riggio, Murphy, &
Pirozzolo, 2002).
Fig. 1 depicts our hypotheses, theoretical model, and empirical
approach. We operationalized objective career success as
salary and hierarchical status and we operationalized subjective
success as career satisfaction. At time 1, immediately after
the participants’ graduated, we assessed occupational self-
efficacy and career-advancement goals. We measured objective
career success after 36 months of professional experience and
again after 85 months of professional experience. Career sat-
isfaction was measured once after 85 months of professional
experience.
Fig. 1. Theoretical model.
A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74

31. (2009) 53–62 55
Hypotheses 1 and 2 concern correlations between the variables
considered here. In accord with socio-cognitive theorizing
(Brown et al., 2005) we assumed that occupational self-efficacy
and career-advancement goals associate positively. Individ-
uals with high career-advancement goals should also have high
occupational self-efficacy beliefs. However, individuals with
high occupational self-efficacy do not necessarily also hold
high career-advancement goals. Hence, the relationship between
both variables should be positive, but of moderate size.
Hypothesis 1. Occupational self-efficacy and career-
advancement goals correlate positively.
In accord with meta-analytical findings (Dette et al., 2004; Ng
et al., 2005) we assume that the two objective success indi-
cators and the subjective success indicator associate positively.
Hypothesis 2. Salary, hierarchical status, and career satisfaction
correlate positively.
Hypotheses 3–5 concern the impact of the predictors on the
career success measures. We predicted that occupational
self-efficacy (Day & Allen, 2004; Kim et al., 2008; Valcour &
Ladge, 2008) and career-advancement goals (Frieze et al.,
2006) both impact salary. Because our longitudinal research
allows testing the influence of predictors at two times of mea-
surement (i.e., salary and salary change; hierarchical status and
status change) we predicted that occupational self-efficacy
and career-advancement goals would not only influence salary,
but also changes in salary.
Hypothesis 3. Occupational self-efficacy and career-
advancement goals both positively influence salary and salary
change.

32. Career-advancement goals should predict hierarchical status as
well as changes in status because status is one of the main
objectives of these goals.
Hypothesis 4. Career-advancement goals positively influence
hierarchical status and changes in status.
We tested the influence of occupational self-efficacy on status
and status change in an exploratory fashion. A positive
influence is conceivable because of the general motivational
impact self-efficacy has on performance and on desired out-
comes. There could, however, also be no influence because
occupational self-efficacy need not be accompanied by status
goals.
Derived from previous research (Day & Allen, 2004; Higgins et
al., 2008; Saks, 1995) and also derived from findings in the
field of optimistic expectations and their influence on outcome
evaluations (e.g., Armor & Taylor, 1998) we predicted that
occupational self-efficacy has a positive influence on career
satisfaction.
Hypothesis 5. Occupational self-efficacy positively influences
career satisfaction.
The influence of career-advancement goals on career
satisfaction was again be tested in an exploratory fashion. There
could be no influence at all, because career-satisfaction should
be due to goal-fulfillment and not to the degree of career-
advancement goals. A negative influence is also conceivable
such that individuals with high career-advancement goals
56 A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62

33. are less easily satisfied with their careers than individuals with
lower career-advancement goals. Research in the realm of
self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), for instance,
has shown that goals of financial success were less related to
subjective well-being than more ‘‘intrinsic” goals (e.g., self-
acceptance) (Schmuck, Kasser, & Ryan, 2000).
To ensure that our hypothesis testing was as valid as possible,
we controlled for several variables that had the potential to
affect our findings. First, we included only participants who
worked full-time, because it has been shown that working hours
have a strong influence on, for instance, salary or promotions
(Ng et al., 2005). Second, we controlled for the occupational
field
our participants were in, because average wages vary between
disciplines like, for instance, teaching vs. medicine or law.
Third, we controlled for gender, because many studies show that
women earn lower salaries than men (Abele, 2003; Greene
& DeBacker, 2004; Kirchmeyer, 1998; Ng et al., 2005). Finally,
we controlled for our participants’ master’s degree Grade Point
Average (GPA), because this also might have an influence on
career success (Ng et al., 2005).
Summarizing, our model suggests that—controlling for gender,
GPA, and discipline—occupational self-efficacy and career-
advancement goals influence career success outcomes, and that
these influences remain significant if both variables are con-
sidered simultaneously.
Our model posits multivariate relationships over time. The
emergence of new analytic methods has provided useful tools
for
examining such relationships and we tested our hypotheses by
means of structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus
(Muthén & Muthén, 1998). Structural equation modeling has
several advantages. The measurement model of the predictors

34. can be included; measurement errors can be taken into account;
the specific postulated paths can be tested; and besides pro-
viding the path coefficients, a series of overall fit statistics
shows how well the empirical data fit the theoretical model
(Kline,
2005).
6. Method
6.1. Overview
We tested our hypotheses with data collected in a prospective
longitudinal study with a large sample of professionals (see
also Abele, 2003; Abele & Stief, 2004). They were all highly
educated and held a master’s degree. Two cohorts of graduates
(consecutive graduation years) completed the first questionnaire
some weeks after they had passed their final exams. Fur-
ther measures were taken after one-and-a-half years, after three
years, and after seven years. We did not find any cohort
effects or time of measurement effects (cf. Palmore, 1978).
Hence, we report results for the combined data from both
cohorts.
6.2. Participants and procedure
Due to address protection reasons we were not allowed to send
out the first questionnaire ourselves. Instead the univer-
sity’s graduation office sent (or gave) it to the graduates. We
asked our participants to complete and return the questionnaire
together with their addresses, because the study would be
continued some time later. From the 4200 questionnaires given
out 1930 (46%) were sent back to the researchers.
Time 1. Participants were 825 women and 1105 men (mean age
27 years). Most of them were German and about five per-
cent came from other European countries. Ninety-four percent
of the respondents provided their address (N = 1819). At time

35. 1, we assessed gender, GPA, study major, occupational self-
efficacy, and career-advancement goals among other variables.
Participants who provided their address did not differ from
participants who declined to provide their address with regard
to these variables.
Time 2. Participants received the second questionnaire 18
months later. 102 of the 1819 participants who had provided
their address in the first questionnaire had moved to an
unknown address at time 2. Of the remaining 1717 participants,
1397 (588 women and 809 men; mean age 28.5 years) responded
to the second questionnaire (response rate 81.4%). We
do not include data from this testing here, because in the
German occupational system medical doctors, people in law
pro-
fessions and teachers have to undergo an obligatory 18 months
post-gradual training during which they earn a fixed—low—
salary. Hence, a large proportion of our sample could not
provide career success data for time 2 measures.
Time 3. Of the 1663 participants who could be contacted three
years after having left university (54 individuals had
moved to an unknown address), 1,330 (561 women, 769 men;
mean age 30 years) responded (response rate 80%). A
drop-out analysis revealed that there were no differences (with
regard to gender, age, study major, GPA, occupational
self-efficacy, and career-advancement goals) between
participants who answered this questionnaire and those who did
not. Among other variables, we measured salary, hierarchical
status, and total working hours per week.
Time 4. Seven years after having left university 1415
participants were contacted (116 individuals had moved to an
unknown
address, 132 had declined participation already at time 3). Out
of these, 1265 participants (527 women, 738 men; mean age 34

36. years) completed the questionnaire (response rate 89%). There
were no differences (same variables tested as at time 3) between
participants who answered this questionnaire and those who did
not. We measured the same variables as at time 3.
Present sample. The present analyses were performed with a
sub-sample of these 1265 participants. We excluded partic-
ipants with incomplete data sets (N = 98 had not participated at
time 3). We excluded participants who were not employed
at time 3 and/or time 4 (N = 138), because we did not have data
on career success for these participants. For the same reason
we also excluded women in maternal leave (N = 83). Finally, we
excluded participants who did not work full-time at time 3
A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62 57
and/or at time 4 (N = 212) because of two reasons. First, there
is a strong correlation of hours worked per week with salary
and with promotions (Ng et al., 2005) and we wanted to study
our hypotheses without this confound. Second, in most cases
it was not clear whether participants worked part-time because
they wanted to or because they could not get a full-time
employment. This information, however, is extremely important
when the influence of self-efficacy beliefs and personal
goals on career success—mediated via working hours—is
studied (we nevertheless tested our hypotheses also in the
sample
in which part-time employed participants were included (N =
971). The findings [controlling for working hours] were by and
large the same as the ones reported in the results section).
The above exclusion criteria led to a sample of 734 participants
(190 women, 544 men) who worked at least 35 h per
week both three years and seven years after entering their

37. career. More women (337 out of 527, i.e., 64%) than men (194
out of 738, i.e., 26%) were excluded. This is due to the fact that
women worked less full-time (51%) than men (92%). This,
in turn, is mainly due to parenthood. Seven years after
graduation mothers worked M = 12.41 h per week and fathers
worked
M = 38.97, t (572) = 27.14, p < .001.
Our 734 participants had graduated in law (16 women, 33 men),
medicine (39 women, 101 men), arts and humanities (28
women, 19 men), natural sciences (13 women, 55 men),
economics (43 women, 113 men), engineering (12 women, 179
men), and teaching (39 women, 44 men).
6.3. Measures
Grade point average. We standardized the participants’
individual GPA’s using the average of all individuals who had
passed their master’s degree in the respective major and year as
the criterion. A value of ‘‘0” means that the participant
had the same GPA as the average of all graduates of the
respective major and respective year; a positive value means
that
the participant had a GPA better than average; a negative value
means that the participant had a GPA worse than average.
Occupational self-efficacy. The occupational self-efficacy scale
(Abele, Stief, & Andrä, 2000) consists of 6 items (sample item
‘‘I am confident that I could deal efficiently with the challenges
of my occupation if I only wanted to”). Participants re-
sponded on 5-point scales (1 = not at all to 5 = very much). In
the present sample a one-factorial solution explains 49% of
the item variance and the internal consistency of the scale was
Cronbach’s a = .78. The occupational self-efficacy scale shows
construct validity (cf. Abele et al., 2000; similarly see Higgins
et al., 2008). It is, for instance, associated with protean career

38. self-directed career management (r = .42, p < .001; Spurk,
2007). The retest-reliabilities of self-efficacy in working
popula-
tions range between .62 and .75 depending on the interval
considered (cf. Frese, Garst, & Fay, 2007; Higgins et al., 2008).
Career-advancement goals. The scale we used to measure
career-advancement goals is adapted from the well established
work values inventory (Super, 1970; German version, Seifert &
Bergmann, 1983). It consists of five items (sample items: ‘‘I
want to make a lot of money”; ‘‘I want to gain high
occupational reputation”). Participants rated the importance of
these
goals on 5-point scales (1 = not important to 5 = very
important). The scale is one-dimensional (54% explained item
variance)
and showed good internal consistency, Cronbach’s a = .77.
Supporting its construct validity, the scale is highly correlated
with other measures of career orientation and its retest
reliability is high (Abele & Spurk, 2006).
Objective career success. We measured monthly salary before
taxes in thirteen steps from ‘‘no salary”, coded as 0; ‘‘less than
€500”, coded as 0.5; ‘‘less than €1,000”, coded as 1; and then in
equal steps to ‘‘less than €10,000”, coded as 10; and ‘‘more
than €10,000”, coded as 11. The salary variable could vary
between zero and 11. We measured hierarchical status by
combin-
ing information on three variables: permission to delegate work
(0 = no, 1 = yes), project responsibility (0 = no, 1 = yes), and
official leadership position (0 = no, 1 = yes). The hierarchical
status variable could vary between zero and 3.
Subjective career success. We measured career satisfaction with
a German translation of the career satisfaction scale (Green-
haus, Parasuraman, & Wormley, 1990). The scale comprises

39. five items (sample item: ‘‘I am satisfied with the progress I
have
made towards meeting my overall career goals”). Participants
responded on five-point scales (1 = not at all to 5 = very much).
The scale is one-dimensional (61% explained item variance) and
revealed good internal consistency, Cronbach’s a = .83.
Analytical strategy. We tested our hypotheses by means of
structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus (Muthén &
Muthén, 1998). Regarding our dual assessment of the objective
success measures (salary, hierarchical status) we estimated
an autoregressive change model with these variables (see Kline,
2005). Hence, the effects of our predictors on salary and
hierarchical status after seven years of professional experience
can be interpreted as the effects on the residual change of
these variables. We tested all models using Maximum
Likelihood Estimation with robust standard errors (MLR).
7. Results
7.1. Descriptive findings
Table 1 displays the means, standard deviations, and
intercorrelations of the present measures. Our participants’
mean
GPA was close to the overall average, M = .07 (SD = .51). This
suggests that our sample was representative with regard to
the respective graduates’ population GPA.
As can be seen in Table 1 our participants’ salary increased
(after 3 years of professional experience M = 4.60; after seven
years of professional experience M = 6.21), t (733) = 27.67, p <
.001. Their hierarchical status increased, as well (after 3 years
of professional experience M = 1.16; after seven years of
professional experience M = 1.71), t (733) = 13.74, p < .001.

40. Table 1
Means, standard deviations, and correlations among study
variables (N = 734).
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 GPA .07 .51
2 Occupational SEF at graduationa 3.80 .70 .07
3 Career-advancement goals at graduationa 3.23 .71 .04 .22
4 Salary after three years of professional experienceb 4.60 1.02
.03 .17 .17
5 Salary after seven years of professional experienceb 6.21 1.78
.07 .18 .16 .48
6 Status after three years of professional experiencec 1.16 .97
.01 .14 .19 .29 .23
7 Status after seven years of professional experiencec 1.71 1.14
.03 .12 .20 .27 .37 .49
8 Career satisfaction after seven years of professional
experiencea 3.67 .70 .00 .19 -.03 .08 .31 .05 .18
Note. For rs > .13, p < .001; for rs > .09, p < .01; for rs > .06, p
< .05.
a Scales from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
b Values from 0 to 11.
c Values from 0 to 3; SEF = self-efficacy.
58 A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62
We also tested whether there were gender differences in the
predictors or control variables. There were no differences in
GPA and in career-advancement goals, both t < 1. Women had
lower occupational self-efficacy (M = 3.69) than men
(M = 3.85), t (732) = 2.72, p < .01, the effect size, however,
was low, d = .02.

41. 7.2. Hypotheses testing
Measurement model. We first modeled the measurement of
occupational self-efficacy (6 items), of career-advancement
goals (5 items), and of career satisfaction (5 items). Each
construct was represented by one latent factor and these factors
were allowed to correlate. We built parcels (Dwyer, 1983) such
that every latent factor had three indicators. The fit index
of this measurement model (factor loadings see Appendix 1) is
good (v2 = 28.26, df = 24, N = 734; CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.00;
RMSEA = .02; SRMR = .02).
Hypotheses testing models. We built a model aimed at testing
our hypotheses stated above. It contained GPA, gender (dum-
my coded), the participants’ discipline (dummy coded), salary
(times 3 and 4) and status (times 3 and 4), as well as the three
latent factors of self-efficacy, career-advancement goals, and
career satisfaction. We tested paths from the control variables,
e.g., participants’ gender, GPA, and discipline, to occupational
self-efficacy, to career-advancement goals, to salary, to status,
and to career satisfaction. We also tested possible interactions
between gender and discipline on the variables considered in
the models. There were none, all ps > .05. We estimated the
residual correlation (controls partialled out) between occupa-
tional self-efficacy and career-advancement goals and the
residual correlations between salary, hierarchical status, and ca-
reer satisfaction. Finally, we tested paths from occupational
self-efficacy and career-advancement goals to salary, status, and
to career satisfaction.
The resulting model has good fit statistics (v2 = 229.50, df =
96, N = 734, CFI = .96, TLI = .93, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .02).
The
R2 values show that 19% of variance in salary after three years
of professional experience, 16% of salary change, and 7% of
variance in career satisfaction after seven years of professional

42. experience are explained by this model.
We first present the findings on the influence of the control
variables, e.g., gender, GPA, and discipline because for
clarity’s
sake we did not include the respective paths into the graphical
depiction of the model. Table 2 shows the paths discipline or
professional field (dummy coded), gender (dummy coded), and
GPA had on the variables under study as computed by the
structural equation model described above. As can be seen,
occupational self-efficacy did barely differ between disciplines
Table 2
Beta effects of discipline (study major), gender, and GPA on
latent variables and success measures.
Occupational
self-efficacy at
graduation
Career-
advancement
goals at
graduation
Salary after 3
years of
professional
experience
Salary after 7
years of
professional
experiencea
Status after 3
years of

43. professional
experience
Status after 7
years of
professional
experiencea
Career satisfaction
after 7 years of
professional
experience
Discipline
Law .04 .24*** �.06 .05 .30*** .30*** �.03
Medicine .11 .28*** .25*** .13** .42*** .45*** �.10
Arts & Humanities .05 .03 .01 .04 .25*** .26*** �.08
Science .01 .13* .03 .09** .19*** .25*** �.02
Economics .09 .38*** .33*** .26*** .42*** .46*** �.10
Engineering .17* .29*** .19*** .20*** .38*** .44*** �.11
Gender .09* �.05 .16*** .11*** .07 .03 .02
GPA .09* .06 .02 .06 �.01 .02 �.01
Note. Disciplines dummy coded (teaching is reference
category).
a Controlled for prior measure of the same variable.
A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62 59
(only participants in the field of engineering had slightly higher
means than teachers). Participants working in the fields of
teaching or arts and humanities had lower career-advancement
goals than participants in the other disciplines. After three
years of professional experience participants working in the

44. fields of medicine, economics, and engineering had higher sal-
aries than the other participants. After seven years of
professional experience these differences remained by and large
the
same. The hierarchical status variable differed between teachers
(low) and all other professions. Career satisfaction was
the same across the professions. GPA had an influence on
occupational self-efficacy. There were no gender influences on
sta-
tus or career satisfaction. However, there was an effect on
salary both after three and seven years of professional
experience.
Women earned less than men.
Fig. 2 depicts the structural equation model with respect to the
postulated hypotheses. For clarity reasons we excluded
the paths from discipline, gender, and GPA (see Table 2), and
we also excluded non-significant paths. Supporting Hypothesis
1
the residual correlation of occupational self-efficacy and career-
advancement goals was positive (r = .26, p < .001). Support-
ing Hypothesis 2 the residual correlations of salary and career
satisfaction (r = .26, p < .001), status and career satisfaction
(r = .22, p < .001), salary and status (r = .17, p < .001), and
salary change and status change (r = .16, p < .001) were
positive.
Hypothesis 3 on the impact of occupational self-efficacy and of
career-advancement goals on salary was fully supported
for occupational self-efficacy. Participants high in occupational
self-efficacy at career entry earned more three years later
(b = .10, p < .01) and had more increase in salary seven years
later (b = .08, p < .05) than participants with lower occupational
self-efficacy at career entry. Hypothesis 3 was partly supported
for career-advancement goals. Participants with high career-
advancement goals at career entry earned more three years later
(b = .11, p < .01) than those with lower career-advancement

45. goals. However, salary increase was unaffected by these goals
(b = .05, ns). Supporting Hypothesis 4 career-advancement
goals had a positive influence both on status after three years of
professional experience (b = .11, p < .01) and on status
change after seven years of professional experience (b = .08, p
< .05). The exploratory test of the influence of occupational
self-efficacy on status revealed a positive effect after three
years (b = .09, p < .05), but no effect on status change after
seven
years (b = .02, ns).
Supporting Hypothesis 5 occupational self-efficacy had a
positive influence on career satisfaction (b = .26, p < .001). The
exploratory test of the influence of career-advancement goals on
career satisfaction resulted in a significantly negative im-
pact (b = �.10, p < .01). The higher our participants’ career-
advancement goals had been at graduation, the less satisfied
they
were with their career seven years later.
Since GPA had an influence on occupational self-efficacy (see
Table 2) we also tested whether there might be indirect
influences of GPA on career outcomes mediated via
occupational self-efficacy. We computed significance tests for
indirect
effects (cf. Kline, 2005) and found only one indirect effect of
GPA on career satisfaction mediated via occupational self-effi-
cacy (product of the two involved beta-coefficients: .023, p <
.05). The test of indirect influences of gender (mediated via
occupational self-efficacy) revealed no significant results.
Fig. 2. Structural equation model for salary, hierarchical status,
and career satisfaction. Only significant paths displayed; paths
from GPA, gender and
discipline, as well as the measurement model for clarity reasons
not displayed; all variables except gender regressed on study
major (dummy coded); all

46. variables regressed on gender and GPA; *p < .05, **p < .01,
***p < .001.
60 A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62
8. Discussion
Hypotheses testing. Supporting Hypothesis 1 occupational self-
efficacy and career-advancement goals correlated moder-
ately. The objective and subjective success measures also
correlated moderately, supporting Hypothesis 2. The size of the
cross-sectional associations (residual correlations) ranged
between .17 and .26. The association between salary and career
satisfaction was somewhat lower (r = .22) than the one reported
in the meta-analysis by Ng et al. (2005; r = .30). The other
associations, however, were similar (salary and hierarchical
status r = .17; status and career satisfaction r = .26) to those re-
ported by Ng et al. (2005; salary and promotions: r = .18: status
and career satisfaction: r = .22).
Regarding the objective success indicators (salary and
hierarchical status) the data generally supported Hypotheses 3
and
4. Individuals’ occupational self-efficacy and their career-
advancement goals at career entry had an impact on salary,
salary
change, on their hierarchical status, and on status change. The
higher the participants’ self-efficacy and career advancement
goals had been at career entry, the more they earned and the
higher was their status later on. The findings show that both
variables have an independent impact on objective career
success and that the impact is evident even 7 years later. Both
variables added to the prediction of success above the included
control measures (3% in case of salary and 2% in case of salary

47. change; 3% in case of status and 1% in case of status change).
Career-advancement goals had a relatively stronger impact on
status than on salary, whereas occupational self-efficacy had a
relatively stronger impact on salary than on status.
The variances in objective success explained by the predictors
were relatively small, but we had not expected higher per-
centages of explained variance. There are many influences on
salary and status, and individual differences in socio-cognitive
variables are but one source of influence. Apart from that we
controlled for important sources of influence like discipline,
GPA, and gender, and in case of salary change and status
change we also controlled for the auto-regressor. Most
importantly,
we covered a long time span (7 years). Therefore, we believe
that even the relatively small demonstrated impact of occupa-
tional self-efficacy and of career-advancement goals on
objective career attainments is of both theoretical and applied
rel-
evance. Furthermore, beta effects between .07 and .11 are
absolutely in line with previous findings on individual
differences
as predictors of objective career success. Ng et al. (2005), for
example, found population correlations (mainly cross-sectional
studies) of .11 for proactivity with salary and .06 for locus of
control with salary. Judge and Hurst (2007) found beta effects
of
.11 and .12 in longitudinally predicting salary by core self-
evaluations.
Regarding the subjective success indicator (career satisfaction)
we found supporting evidence for Hypothesis 5. Partici-
pants with higher occupational self-efficacy at graduation were
more satisfied with their careers seven years later than those
with lower occupational self-efficacy. This variable added 5%
of variance to the prediction of success above the included con-

48. trol measures. Replicating meta-analytical findings (Ng et al.,
2005) the impact of our social-cognitive variables on subjective
success is, hence, somewhat larger than the impact on objective
success.
Our exploratory test of the influence of career-advancement
goals at graduation on career satisfaction seven years later
revealed a negative impact. Although individuals with high
career-advancement goals became objectively more successful
they were nevertheless less satisfied with their careers than
individuals with lower career-advancement goals. This is a
novel
and provocative finding. One interpretation could rely on an
individual’s aspiration level. If the aspiration level is very high,
it
takes longer time to achieve it and hence it also takes longer
time to become satisfied with what one has achieved. This
would mean that the negative impact of career-advancement
goals on career satisfaction might disappear over time. Another
interpretation could rely on self-determination theory (Ryan &
Deci, 2000) and its assumption that ‘‘extrinsic” goals like
money and status are less rewarding than more ‘‘intrinsic” goals
like, for instance, personal growth or self-acceptance
(Schmuck et al., 2000). If this reasoning is correct, the negative
impact of career-advancement goals on career satisfaction
should remain stable over time. Further research has to test
these possibilities. In any case, the present data suggest that
high career-advancement goals enhance an individual’s
objective success, but not his/her career satisfaction.
Gender. In our specific sample of full-time working
professionals we found no gender differences in career-
advancement
goals; women were as interested in ‘‘making a career” as men.
However, despite the same GPAs at graduation women had
slightly lower occupational self-efficacy than men. This is in

49. line with prior research (e.g., Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987).
An important finding of our study concerns the gender effect on
salary. It is well known that women on average earn less
than men (Ng et al., 2005). However, these general findings are
often not controlled for field of occupation (i.e., whether men
and women work in fields of occupation comparable in terms of
salary), and they are also often not controlled for working
hours (i.e., whether women and men work the same amount of
time). In our present study we controlled for field of occu-
pation and working time. But even though we only included
participants working full-time and even though we controlled
for their field of occupation (i.e., discipline) we still found that
women earned less money than men (see also Abele, 2003;
Greene & DeBacker, 2004; Kirchmeyer, 1998). The gender
effect was highly significant three years after work entry and it
remained highly significant after seven years of professional
experience. Women’s somewhat lower occupational self-effi-
cacy did not mediate this effect. Interestingly, gender had no
influence on status. This means that in the present sample wo-
men’s duties seem to have been similar to those of men.
Nevertheless they earned less. We therefore can conclude that
the
wage gap between full-time working women and men is not due
to differences in career-advancement goals or occupational
self-efficacy; it is not due to the field of occupation; and it also
seems not to be due to the duties men and women fulfill in
their jobs.
In contrast, gender had no effect on career satisfaction. This
missing gender difference in career-satisfaction may be due
to shifting standards (Biernat & Billings, 2001). Because it is
well known that women on average are less successful in their

50. A.E. Abele, D. Spurk / Journal of Vocational Behavior 74
(2009) 53–62 61
careers than men, women may apply lower standards for their
careers than for men’s careers. Therefore despite of lower
salary they are similarly satisfied with their careers as men.
GPA and discipline. Even if findings on GPA and on the
disciplines our participants were working in are not the focus of
the
present research they are nevertheless worthy of a brief
discussion. First, it is interesting to see that the influence of
GPA on
career success was more or less negligible. Second, the
objective career attainments studied here were generally high in
fields like economics, engineering, and medicine, and they were
generally low in teaching. However, despite these marked
differences between disciplines in objective attainments we
found no differences between disciplines in career satisfaction.
We believe that this again has to do with different aspirations.
As we showed for career-advancement goals (lower in arts
and humanities and in teaching than in the other disciplines)
aspirations are different between disciplines. With lower aspi-
rations individuals will be satisfied with lower objective
attainments, and vice versa. Teachers are a good example. When
choosing this profession, future teachers knew that they will
earn relatively little and that there are only few possibilities
for promotions in the organizational context of schools. Hence,
they were relatively low on career-advancement goals
and seven years after professional experience teachers were as
satisfied with their careers as other professional groups.
Limitations and research perspectives. The present research has
limitations which open perspectives for further investiga-
tion. First, our sample was a highly educated one. Future
research should test whether the present findings can be
general-

51. ized for people with lower ‘‘human capital” (Ng et al., 2005) in
terms of education. Second, future research should consider
process variables possibly mediating the influences of self-
efficacy and goals. Third, future research should consider more
individual difference variables. As a recent meta-analysis
demonstrated self-efficacy effects, for instance, might be
attenu-
ated if personality is taken into account (cf. Judge, Jackson,
Shaw, Scott, & Rich, 2007). Fourth, future research should
repli-
cate and further analyze the negative impact of career-
advancement goals on career satisfaction found here in order to
study
whether this is a phenomenon limited to an early career phase or
whether it is a more stable influence. The gender gap in
salary is also worth further examination.
Another research perspective is the study of reciprocal
influences of career success, occupational self-efficacy, and
per-
sonal occupational goals. It is well conceivable that not only
self-efficacy enhances career success, but that also career suc-
cess enhances occupational self-efficacy. Self-efficacy theory
postulates such a cyclical nature of self-efficacy, goals, and
goal-
attainment (Bandura, 1986; see Kammeyer-Mueller, Judge, &
Piccolo, 2008, for self-esteem).
Summarizing, the present research shows that socio-cognitive
reasoning can be well applied to career-success research.
Since self-efficacy beliefs and personal occupational goals are
malleable individual differences these variables are also good
candidates for applied issues of career counseling and training.
Enhancement of occupational self-efficacy is generally useful.
Regarding career-advancement goals, however, the distinction
between more objective and more subjective career success

52. should be considered since highly ambitious goals in the realm
of career advancement might have both desired and unde-
sired effects.
Appendix A
Factor loadings for latent constructs estimated by the
measurement model.
Variable
Factor 1
Factor 2
Factor 3
Occupational self-efficacy at graduation
.73
.82
.74
Career-advancement goals at graduation
.91
.65
.76
Career satisfaction after seven years of professional experience
.83

53. .90
.69
Note. All factor loadings are significant on the .001 significance
level.
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The longitudinal impact of self-efficacy and career goals on
objective and subjective career successIntroductionSelf-
Efficacy Self-efficacy and Personal Goalspersonal goalsCareer
SuccesssuccessInfluence of Self-Efficacy self-efficacy and
Goals goals on Career Successcareer successPresent
ResearchresearchMethodOverviewParticipants and

60. ProcedureprocedureMeasuresResultsDescriptive
FindingsfindingsHypotheses TestingtestingDiscussionAppendix
AReferences