Professional mentality in the age of intelligence: How does cynicism moderate the impact of AI awareness on employees' career development?

The National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award KL2 Mentored Career Development Programs purpose is to facilitate career transition for junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai internally tracks the progress of its scholars. Therefore, trainees might feel less inclined to openly discuss their challenges or successes, potentially due to concerns about privacy or fear of repercussions. This study aims to assess the impact of KL2 programs on scholars' career progression, with a focus on mentorship and curriculum effectiveness. A survey was designed to evaluate scholar experiences and outcomes, encompassing metrics on career satisfaction, program experience, and mentorship quality. The participant group included 32 former KL2 scholars who graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai prior to 2024. Quantitative and qualitative analysis were utilized to evaluate the relationships between program elements, such as mentor-mentee relationships, program experiences, and career satisfaction factors. Overall, a response rate of 53.1% (17/32) was achieved. A significant majority of participants (70.6%) emphasized the extreme importance of mentor-mentee relationships in facilitating their career success. Participants expressed overall satisfaction with the program but desired enhanced skills in grant writing and statistics. Burnout and work-life balance challenges were reported by 74% (11/15) of the responders. Our findings revealed that mentor-mentee relationships have a major impact on future career success. Mentor accessibility, additional competencies, and skills to manage work-life balance can further facilitate long-term success of KL2 program scholars.

Empowering excellence: Navigating self-efficacy as a self-management competency for crafting pharmacist success.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting workforce and posing an unprecedented threat of job displacement. However, our understanding of AI's role in shaping individual career development is limited. This study provides insights into AI and career development within the context of first-generation college students (FGCSs), a marginalized group that is arguably among the most vulnerable to the career disruption of AI. Employing mixed methods, this exploratory study examines the effects of FGCS status and career anchor on individual concerns about AI’s career impact and the perceptions of FGCSs and non-FGCSs regarding their career development. Using survey data from 70 students at a minority-serving public university in the United States, the quantitative analysis shows that FGCS status is positively associated with individual concern about AI’s career impact, whereas prior ChatGPT experience is negatively associated with this concern. However, we did not find evidence that a student’s career anchor affects their concerns about AI’s career impact. Meanwhile, the qualitative analysis revealed four themes that highlight employed FGCSs’ reliance on college education to change to a professional career or prepare for entrepreneurship. Our follow-up study revealed four types of individual attitudes toward AI’s career impact and suggested that the attitudes are influenced by generational status and career stage. We compare FGCSs and their peers in terms of career stage, career development and attitude toward AI’s impact and propose intervention strategies to help FGCSs mitigate AI-related job replacement risks. The study contributes to research on the AI impact on career development of a marginalized population. • We present a mixed-methods study of perceived AI's risk in shaping individual career development. • The study adopts career anchor lens and focuses on a marginalized workforce. • First-generation college students (FGCSs) are more concerned about AI’s career impact. • Four types of attitudes toward AI (negative, positive, neutral, and mixed) were revealed. • Three intervention strategies are proposed to help FGCSs mitigate the AI risk on career.

Childbearing decisions are a pivotal factor shaping the future professional and personal trajectories of nursing students, profoundly influenced by a confluence of socioeconomic, cultural, and individual factors. This qualitative descriptive study explores the childbearing attitudes, intentions, plans, and their underlying influencing factors among university nursing students in China. The empirical material was generated from semi-structured interviews conducted between November 2024 and March 2025, with thematic analysis applied to the data. Four major themes emerged: a polarized value perception of childbearing, framed as either a path to life fulfillment or a "high-risk event"; childbearing as a rational choice contingent upon constructing a "safe zone" of economic, professional, and psychological readiness; the critical influence of key relational actors, including partners and grandparents; and the structural pressures of the macro-social environment, such as high rearing costs and gender culture. The findings indicate that contemporary nursing students have transformed childbearing decisions into a cautious evaluation of a "high-risk life milestone," with procreation predicated on achieving an ideal state of readiness-a threshold significantly elevated by a desire to "surpass the previous generation." Consequently, effective pro-natalist policies must move beyond mere financial incentives to address the structural barriers and deep-seated anxieties related to career development, gender equality, and workforce support within the healthcare sector.

The association between subjective socioeconomic status and future decent work perception: A moderated mediation model.

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the relationship between algorithmic stigma and work engagement among platform workers. Hindrance stressor appraisal is proposed as a mediating variable, while job autonomy and fairness perception are introduced as moderating factors. The data were collected from a two-wave survey of 297 platform workers. The results indicated that algorithmic stigma is negatively related to work engagement, and that hindrance stressor appraisal partially mediates the relationship between algorithmic stigma and work engagement. Furthermore, job autonomy and fairness perception moderate the positive link between algorithmic stigma and hindrance stressor appraisal, and also moderate the mediating role of hindrance stressor appraisal in the relationship between algorithmic stigma and work engagement. This study not only extends occupational stigma research into the realm of algorithmic management by proposing and validating the concept of "algorithmic stigma" with technological embeddedness, but also uncovers the stress transmission mechanism through which algorithmic stigma influences work engagement from a dynamic perspective of resource gains and losses. The findings offer practical guidance for platform enterprises to mitigate the adverse effects of algorithmic stigma and enhance workers' work engagement and sustainable career development by optimizing algorithm design, increasing job autonomy, and improving procedural and distributive fairness.

In the job market these days students and professionals have difficult finding the right career path. They also struggle to make a resume and learn the skills they need. The problem is that the tools available for this purpose are scattered across different platforms so it is tough to keep track of progress and get a personalized plan. SkillNect is a platform that helps with this. It is a website and mobile app that puts everything in one place. This includes looking at resumes making a plan for your career tracking your skills and even practicing for interviews with a computer. It also has parts to help you develop as a person. The people who made SkillNect used React and React Native to build the parts you see. Node.js for the parts that do the work behind the scenes. They put it all on Amazon Web Services (AWS) so it can handle a lot of users. The system uses computers to look at resumes and give advice on careers. This helps people get from school to a job. SkillNect gives people help with their careers that's just, for them, based on data and organized.

This study aims to: 1) examine and analyze the influence of career development and work environment on employee performance, 2) examine and analyze the influence of career development and work environment on work motivation, 3) examine and analyze the influence of work motivation on employee performance, 4) examine and analyze the influence of career development on employee performance through work motivation, and 5) examine and analyze the influence of the work environment on employee performance through work motivation. The research was conducted at the Legal Affairs and Cooperation Unit of BNN, with a sample size of 60 respondents. The sample collection technique used a questionnaire. The data analysis method employed descriptive and path analysis. The research results show that: 1) career development and work environment influence employee performance, 2) career development and work environment influence work motivation, 3) work motivation influences employee performance, 4) career development does not influence employee performance through work motivation, and 5) the work environment does not influence employee performance through work motivation. The work motivation variable cannot mediate the effect of career development and work environment on improving employee performance.

Orientation: Pay transparency has gained prominence as organisations seek to enhance fairness, trust, and talent retention. While international research demonstrates that transparent pay practices shape employee attitudes and behaviours, limited research has examined how transparency is experienced in contexts marked by historical inequality, such as in South Africa. Research purpose: This study explores how pay transparency influences employee attraction and retention in South African organisations by examining employees’ and human resource professionals’ lived experiences of transparency practices. Motivation for the study: Despite legislative efforts to promote equitable remuneration, wage inequality and distrust surrounding pay decisions persist in South Africa, which is shaped by apartheid-era labour legacies. Qualitative research examining how transparency is interpreted within this socio-historical context, and how these interpretations shape fairness perceptions and retention decisions, remains limited. Research approach/design and method: An interpretivist qualitative approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants across multiple industries. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify patterns and shared meanings. Main findings: Five themes emerged: perceived fairness and trust; clarity in reward decision-making; preferred transparency principles; career growth and development; and managing internal pay equity. Pay transparency influenced attraction and retention primarily through procedural and informational justice, rather than distributive justice alone. Participants valued structured openness regarding pay principles, criteria, and salary ranges, without necessarily disclosing individual salaries. Practical/managerial implications: Organisations should adopt structured transparency models and strengthen explanatory communication to enhance trust and retention outcomes. Contribution/value-add: The study provides context-specific evidence from South Africa, demonstrating the centrality of procedural and informational justice in shaping employee responses to pay transparency.

In the field of ESP (English for specific purposes), needs analysis is considered essential and remains a key component of course design. The purpose of this study is to investigate the needs of engineering students, examine teachers’ perspectives on ESP courses, and identify the most effective approaches to developing courses that meet the specific needs of engineering students. This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. Data collection consisted of semi-structured focus group interviews with ten engineering students in the first phase. Then, 68 questionnaire items were established from the qualitative results and distributed to ninety (N=90) engineering students from different majors. Furthermore, one-on-one interviews were conducted with two instructors who taught an ESP course to engineering students. Results revealed that most students strongly agreed that the ESP textbook was highly effective and well-aligned with both their learning needs and the course syllabus. They especially highlighted the vocabulary section as one of the textbook’s main strengths. Most students perceived that the textbook would be valuable for their future career development. Both students and teachers emphasized the importance of enhancing vocabulary and listening skills in ESP courses. While students viewed vocabulary development as vital for academic and professional achievement, teachers highlighted the need for additional practical tasks focusing on grammar, speaking, and listening. The results suggest that ESP course design should place greater emphasis on discipline-specific vocabulary and authentic communication skills to align more closely with learners’ needs and prepare them for future professional contexts

ABSTRACT Hong Kong SAR, a global education hub, lures numerous scholars for career development. Data show that 69.3% of its academics are non-local, and they hold half of the leadership roles in major universities, which is rare in any other place. Mainland Chinese scholars are the predominant non-local group, and their number has even surpassed that of locals recently. Guided by career capital theory, this paper formulates an analytical framework with seven indicators to investigate the features, opportunities and challenges of mainland Chinese scholars in Hong Kong SAR. Then, the documentary analysis approach was used to collect the headcounts of all academic staff by categories, 979 academics with leadership roles, and the academic trajectory of 363 mainland Chinese. Findings indicate that mainland Chinese scholars own extensive global networks and career capital and are increasingly representative in STEM and business fields. They are more well-included than other non-locals, but still face challenges. Meanwhile, some benefited from local policies that support locally nurtured talents. This paper not only draws an overall picture of mainland Chinese scholars from a career capital aspect to fill in gaps in academic mobility and career development literature, but also offers practical insights for institutional talent management and maximising scholars’ resources.

Academic hospital medicine faculty possess diverse interests and pursue a variety of career pathways. Faculty development programs are essential for career advancement; however, a lack of alignment between individual faculty needs and development activities can impede career development efforts. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have examined whether clusters of faculty exist with similar development needs, for which tailored faculty development "packages" can be offered. To determine whether distinct clusters of faculty with shared development needs can be identified and to explore faculty-level factors associated with these clusters. We conducted a survey study among hospitalists at seven academic institutions from November 2023 to September 2024. We generated a comprehensive list of 33 potential faculty development topics and asked survey respondents to indicate whether each topic was important to them, choosing as many as applied. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to classify faculty into distinct clusters based on their selection of desired development topics. A total of 136 faculty (median age 38 years) participated in the study. LCA identified five distinct groups as the optimal solution: (1) Master clinician (29%), (2) medical education scholar (11%), (3) clinical investigator (24%), (4) educational leader (22%), and (5) operational leader (14%). In a representative sample of academic hospitalists, we identified five distinct latent classes of faculty based on their preference for faculty development topics. These results can be leveraged to curate specific packages to optimally align faculty development offerings with diverse faculty interests and career trajectories.

Background Addressing intensified labor market competition, this study validates the multidimensional structure of future employability and examines its underlying sequential capital conversion process-a critical objective for higher education-within a non-Western cultural context. Methods Data from 1,304 Chinese undergraduates were analyzed using a rigorous structural modeling approach: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Multi-Group CFA (MG-CFA) to establish Measurement Invariance (MI) across gender, and Sequential Structural Equation Modeling (Sequential SEM). The validated four-factor model comprises Human Capital, Psychological Capital, Social Capital, and Career Development. The successful MI test permitted robust latent mean comparisons. Results Multi-group analyses revealed significant gender differences in resource possession: males excelled in Human Capital, while females reported significantly higher latent means in Psychological Capital. The sequential mediation analysis demonstrated that Human Capital significantly influenced Career Development through the sequential mediating roles of Psychological Capital and Social Capital. Crucially, Psychological Capital was identified as the pivotal psychological engine in this conversion process, serving as the foundational resource that facilitates the mobilization of social capital and subsequent career development. Conclusion This research provides robust empirical support for a dynamic, integrated capital conversion model. Theoretically, it advances capital theory by demonstrating the sequential interplay between cognitive, personality, and social factors, underscoring Psychological Capital as the pivotal engine that facilitates this conversion process. Practically, the findings suggest that higher education interventions should prioritize psychological resilience and self-efficacy alongside traditional skill-building to design gender-sensitive programs that optimize resource transformation for sustainable employability.

This meta-analysis examined the effectiveness of online career counseling interventions on career-related psychological outcomes. Fourteen studies ( N = 1,721) published between 2016 and 2025 and using experimental, quasi-experimental, and pre-experimental designs were synthesized with a random-effects model. Effect sizes were calculated as Hedges’s g . Heterogeneity was assessed using Cochran’s Q and the I 2 index, and publication bias was examined through funnel plots, Fail-safe N, and Duval and Tweedie’s trim-and-fill procedure. Results revealed a large overall effect (Hedges’s g = 1.650, 95% CI [1.171, 2.130]), indicating that online career counseling significantly improves outcomes such as career adaptability, career decision-making self-efficacy, job search self-efficacy, career confidence, career decision status, perceived employability, career calling, career development, and career awareness. Moderator analyses showed that cultural orientation and number of sessions explained variability in effect sizes, with stronger effects observed in collectivist contexts and in briefer interventions (6 or fewer sessions). Overall, findings suggest that online career counseling is a promising approach for enhancing career-related psychological development. However, substantial heterogeneity highlights the need for more rigorous comparative research to clarify the conditions under which these interventions are most effective.

ABSTRACT Trust is the key for social media influencers to successfully persuade their followers and maintain their monetization capabilities. Considering that latent followers and existing followers place different emphases on trust toward social media influencers, this paper explores how social media influencers choose matching recommendation types when recommending products to latent and existing followers, that is, to enhance the trust of followers through heterogeneous recommendations, so as to increase their word‐of‐mouth intention and ultimately achieve effective product promotion. This paper conducted three scenario experiments to verify the hypothesis. This paper found that episodic recommendations for latent followers and semantic recommendations for existing followers could enhance their word‐of‐mouth intention. And these effects were only present under conditions of high influencer‐product fit. Moreover, this paper verified the mediating role of goodwill trust and capacity trust. This research not only enhances the application of human memory and the concepts of new and repeat customers in the relevant research of influencer marketing, but also provides practical guidance for career development of social media influencers, precise personalized push on social media platforms, and the selection of social media influencers by enterprises.

ABSTRACT This study investigates gender differences in analysts’ work effort by exploiting the exogenous shock of China’s universal two-child policy. Using 151,389 analyst reports from 2010 to 2021, we find robust evidence that the increased childcare responsibilities induced by the policy lead to a greater reduction in work effort among female analysts relative to their male counterparts. These effects are more pronounced for analysts with lower education and less experience, and for those covering non – state-owned, financially constrained, or less digitally advanced firms. Further analysis shows that, following the policy’s implementation, female analysts display lower forecast accuracy and are less likely to be recognized as star analysts. These findings underscore gender differences in workplace performance and enhance understanding of how family obligations shape career development.

ABSTRACT The modern labour market is witnessing a profound shift in the nature of work, with an increasing number of individuals holding multiple jobs and engaging in hybrid entrepreneurship. Despite this trend, policy frameworks continue to lag, often failing to recognise and address the complex needs of these workers. Through a critical analysis of existing literature and policy frameworks, this research highlights the challenges faced by multiple jobholders, including issues related to job security, benefits, legal barriers, and work-life balance. It argues that current policies, designed primarily for traditional single-job employment, are inadequate for addressing these challenges. The paper proposes policy adaptation and reforms that acknowledge the diversity and complexity of contemporary work arrangements. It suggests the need for flexible and inclusive policies that provide protections and benefits commensurate with the evolving nature of work. This includes revising definitions of employment, enhancing social safety nets, and implementing measures to support work-life balance and career development of hybrid entrepreneurs and individuals holding multiple jobs. Ultimately, this research underscores the urgency of aligning policy with the changing realities of work to ensure that all workers, regardless of their employment arrangements, have access to fair and equitable working conditions.

This community-based project centered the voices of fifteen publicly identified immigrant artists to better understand how to promote their career development and wellbeing. The project was guided by the Collaborative Immigration Advocacy framework for action-oriented collaborations and the framework of community-engaged vocational psychology research. Written reflections/interviews were coded and analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research - Modified (CQR-M). Results from analysis highlighted 7 categories across 2 domains: (1) The impact of systemic barriers on artists who are immigrants, and the impact of barriers caused by intersecting systems on the professional development and wellbeing of immigrant artists (i.e., harm from anti-immigrant hostility and tokenism, erasure, guilt, isolation), and (2) What helps immigrant artists thrive and promote wellbeing (i.e., an accepting community, opportunities for self-expression, confidence in cultural identity, strength from joy and self-exploration). These findings have implications for research, theory, practice, policy change that enhance the conditions for emerging artists who are immigrants to affirm their wellbeing in the context of trauma and an anti-immigrant policy.

Editorial: Advancing Human Resource Development Research, Practice, and Literature: Significance of Learning, Engagement, and Career Development in Increasingly Technologically Integrated Workplaces