Purpose: This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of verbal self-guidance (VSG) and self-management on youth employability. It seeks to access the joint effectiveness of these interventions, grounded in social cognitive and goal setting theories, for youth job seekers. Design/methodology/approach: The studies used experimental designs involving participants enrolled in an undergraduate business cooperative degree program. Survey data assessing self-efficacy and anxiety were collected pre and post-training. Interview performance was also assessed in each study. Findings: In study 1, it was found that students trained in self-management and verbal self-guidance (SMVSG) improved interview performance and reduced anxiety. In study 2, it was found that self-efficacy and job search effort were higher in the SMVSG group relative to VSG alone. Research limitations/implications: For study 1, the only measure of employment was a mock interview. For study 2, a limitation was that approximately 25 per cent of participants failed to either complete the post-training survey or attend the interview. Practical implications: Overall the studies describe a relatively simple and low cost training intervention, and associated performance measures, that can continue to be used by practitioners and scholars with future groups of youth job seekers. Originality/value: The paper shows that these studies further support the effectiveness of VSG-based interventions for employability. The paper also shows the value of augmenting VSG training with self-management training in the context of youth employability. Furthermore, this research also considered anxiety, a key variable in successful employment that has often been omitted in the literature. (Contains 4 tables.)