Imagined Pathways and Interpretive Resources
Understanding Career Goal Confidence in the College-To-Career Transition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13089289 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel B Davis (0000-0001-6915-0523, San Diego State University, corresponding author), Richard N Pitt (0000-0003-2236-7260, University of California San Diego) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 44-64 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-20 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Currents (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2329-4965 • E-ISSN: 2329-4973 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/23294965261417233 |
| OpenAlex | W7125252099 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
Scholars have long documented disparities in students’ confidence about achieving their career goals, yet prior research often treats confidence as a function of structural advantage or individual preparation rather than an interpretive assessment of what futures feel attainable. We conceptualize career goal confidence as a judgment shaped by how students understand occupational pathways and the influences that make those pathways more or less legible. Using survey data from 2,080 undergraduates at a broad-access public research university, we examine how career goal confidence varies with the occupational goals students name and the influences they cite as shaping those interests. Although most occupational domains do not differ significantly in confidence once background and academic factors are accounted for, several domains show higher or lower confidence in ways that align with the clarity or opacity of their early career pathways. Confidence is also associated with interpretive resources: students who attribute their goals to mentors, to knowledge of day-to-day work activities, or to perceptions of occupational status report higher confidence than their peers. These findings suggest that career goal confidence reflects how students interpret the structure and meaning of the futures they imagine, highlighting the role of pathway legibility and interpretive access in the college-to-career transition
CLARITY · Function (biology · Futures contract · Low Confidence · Meaning (existential · Perception · Self-confidence · Career Development and Diversity · Higher Education and Employability · Higher Education Research Studies
The Great Upheaval
Paying for the Party
Parenting to a Degree
Applications of self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision
The Psychology of Working Theory.
On Conceptualizing and Assessing Social Cognitive Constructs in Career Research
Career Benefits Associated With Mentoring for Proteges
Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and Performance
Career Goal Setting and Goal Pursuit in Young Adults
“It gives you a better chance of getting a good job”
Intermediate Educational Transitions, Alignment, and Inequality in U.S. Higher Education
When choice is demotivating
Standards for Standardized Logistic Regression Coefficients
Uncertainty in Early Occupational Aspirations
Possible selves
Family Ties and Young Adult Career Goals
Second career teachers
Mastery and the Fulfillment of Occupational Expectations by Midlife
When Expectations Work
Possible selves and academic outcomes
Constraints into Preferences
The Relationship between College Major Prestige/Status and Post-baccalaureate Outcomes
Career Funneling
Sieve, Incubator, Temple, Hub
Time, Self, and the Curiously Abstract Concept of Agency
The Social-Origins Gap in Labour Market Outcomes
Why Do Some Occupations Pay More than Others? Social Closure and Earnings Inequality in the United States
Descriptive dimensions of US occupations with data from the O*NET
College for some to college for all
Imagined futures
| Highly cited | No |
|---|