Predictors of job search intensity among college graduates

This study examined the connection between personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness) and two strategies for job search: networking (family, friends, etc.) and general search (want ads, employment agencies), making use of Costa and McCrae's five-factor model of personality dimensions. The relations between the two strategies and length of unemployment, age, and gender were also investigated. The sample consisted of 126 college graduates from the center of Israel who were applying for unemployment benefits. Results indicate a positive correlation between extraversion and conscientiousness on one hand and networking on the other. A positive correlation was also found between openness and the general search strategy. Two regression analyses were performed employing the three personality traits as independent variables, with the dependent variable of networking in the first and general search in the second. Neither yielded significant multiple correlations. A negative correlation was found between length of unemployment and job search intensity for both strategies. Gender and age produced no correlations with either strategy.