To better understand the identity-shaping experiences of students during their school-to-work transition, we developed and tested a model of how students' future work selves change as they search for jobs. We propose that a job seeker's future work self becomes more or less salient depending on how they manage job search challenges. We further propose that change in future work self salience influences job search success through engagement in more effective job search behaviors. Results from a three-wave, three-month longitudinal survey of 539 undergraduate business school job seekers indicated that when they exercised higher levels of motivation control, their future work selves grew more salient. Further, as job seekers' future work selves became more salient, they conducted a more intense job search and used more focused and exploratory job search strategies. Higher job search intensity and a more exploratory strategy predicted more interview invitations, whereas a more focused strategy predicted more job offers. Finally, analyses suggest that future work self salience and job search behaviors mediate the relationship between motivation control and job search outcomes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

为了更好地了解学生在从学校到工作的转变过程中的身份塑造经历，我们开发并测试了一个模型，了解学生在寻找工作时未来工作的自我变化。我们建议求职者未来的工作自我是否会变得或多或少取决于他们如何应对求职挑战。我们进一步提出，未来工作自我显着性的变化通过参与更有效的求职行为来影响求职成功。对 539 名本科商学院求职者进行的为期 3 波、为期 3 个月的纵向调查结果表明，当他们进行更高水平的动机控制时，他们未来的工作自我变得更加突出。此外，随着求职者未来的工作自我变得更加突出，他们进行了更密集的求职，并使用了更有针对性和探索性的求职策略。更高的求职强度和更具探索性的策略预示着更多的面试邀请，而更专注的策略则预示着更多的工作机会。最后，分析表明，未来工作自我显着性和求职行为在动机控制与求职结果之间的关系中起中介作用。我们讨论了我们的发现的理论和实践意义。