Self-career Management: Intervention with Research Grant Holders

This article reports the findings of the assessment of the effectiveness of a self-career management intervention, named "Self-Career Management Seminar", specifically developed for, and implemented in a group of research grant holders. The program invites participants to foster their self-knowledge, the knowledge about advanced training opportunities, employment creation and attainment, as well as, life-career planning and decision-making competencies. The intervention was applied in 80 research grant holders (50, 62.5% experimental group; 30, 37.5% control group; 51, 63.8% women; Mage = 28.94, SDage = 5.83), at a public university in the northwest of Portugal, who completed measures of career exploration, and of career concerns, at a pre and post-test. Results showed equivalence between experimental and control groups, at pre-treatment, in almost all assessed dimensions. Furthermore, in comparison with the control group, research grant holders who attended this intervention had, at post-test, higher levels of career exploration. This study intends to emphasize the need for the development of intervention programs tailored to specific population groups, such as the research grant holders.