Career planning and workforce preparation during economic downturn: perceptions of graduating business students

PurposeTo gather insight into how graduating business students are preparing for the workplace and their future careers and how this has been impacted by COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 144 business students at an Australian university who had recently completed an internship and were nearing graduation took part in the study. Group A was surveyed before COVID-19 had emerged and Group B undertook their internships during a COVID-19 lockdown when the related economic downturn had become apparent. The responses were analysed using career construction theory (CCT).FindingsThis study concludes that graduating students do not generally place greater emphasis on career planning in times of economic downturn. However, they do devote more effort to job search and networking activities. They also display more career decisiveness and are less willing to seek out information about potential careers or their suitability for them. Their confidence in embarking on a career was not impacted.Research limitations/implicationsThis enables us to form a more complete picture of how graduating students perceive their work-readiness and the action they feel is important in order to improve their employability.Practical implicationsThis has implications for career practitioners and employers of graduates as it adds to the knowledge of employability and the decision-making process in times of economic crisis and is particularly important for the tertiary education sector as it seeks to better target initiatives to aid employability in graduates.Originality/valueThe results increase the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on early career development and argue that early-career decision-making is a specific area requiring investigation.