Does Attaining a Dream Occupation Make Youths Happy?

Abstract

Person-vocation (P-V) fit examines the match between an individual and his or her occupation, which has been shown to be related with critical outcomes related to job attitudes. The purpose of the current study is to provide an additional piece of evidence regarding P-V fit and its criteria (extrinsic job satisfaction, workplace satisfaction, and happiness) using longitudinal data of 1,041 youths in South Korea. While most previous studies examined P-V fit through the fit between vocational interests and characteristics of actual vocation, this study examined the fit between aspired and actual occupation both in its prestige levels to measure P-V fit. The study utilized information collected from two data points that were eight years apart: the first collected in 2004, when participants were high school seniors, and the second collected in 2012, when participants were in early adulthood. As expected, polynomial regression and response surface graphs examining the association between P-V fit and three criteria revealed that the levels of the three criteria increased as actual occupation matched with aspired occupation at a high-high fit compared to a low-low fit. On the other hand, P-V misfit did not have a systematic relationship with the three criteria. It was also discovered that happiness was the most relevant outcome, suggesting new and important implications regarding P-V fit and its criteria in youths’ career aspirations and attainment.