With the large number of high school students engaging in part-time work, very little is known about the impact of this activity on employability, employment outcomes and career development. This paper outlines the context of this phenomenon in Australia, and reviews the body of empirical work that has been published in recent years, noting the…

One hundred and thirty final year high school students were administered scales tapping optimism/pessimism, self-esteem, external career barriers, career decision-making self-efficacy, career focus and career indecision. It was hypothesised, first, that cognitive style optimism/pessimism) would predict both internal (self-esteem) and external…