Effects of a Brief Interest Inventory Intervention on Career Decision Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief interest inventory intervention on career decision self-efficacy in an undergraduate sample. A pretest-posttest equivalent group design compared students who completed an interest inventory and participated in two sessions of its interpretation, students who only completed an interest inventory, and students who received no career intervention. Participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale — Short Form before and at the end of the intervention. The results indicated that both experimental groups had significant gains on career decision self-efficacy, whereas no significant gains were observed for the control group. Although both treatment conditions were effective, the feedback group appeared to be more powerful in increasing career decision self-efficacy. By participating in a feedback group and completing the activities in their interest profiles, a client had the opportunity to be actively involved in his/her own career process instead of passively completing an inventory and receiving no feedback. As well, clients had the opportunity to check the interpretations of their profile and share their results with other clients having similar career difficulties.