Noncognitive Skills and Job Match: Evidence from Military Applicants
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Authors
Pema, Elda
Mehay, Stephen
Tick, Simona
Subjects
Enlistment
Military applicants
Personality traits
Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)
Job matching
Military applicants
Personality traits
Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)
Job matching
Advisors
Date of Issue
2017
Date
2017
Publisher
Routledge Taylor and Francis Group
Language
Abstract
The study examines the effect of noncognitive skills on early career choices among young job seekers. Specifically, we analyze the influence of personality traits on the decision by military applicants either to choose the military or a civilian career option. We use a unique micro-level data-set of applicants to the US Navy and exploit the fact that many individuals who initially apply for military jobs eventually choose civilian careers instead. In this institutional setting, job candidates use new information to update their beliefs about the military job match. Personality traits are viewed as productive abilities that influence applicants’ expectations about the economic return to the job and occupational training offered by the Navy. The study finds that many of the 15 lower order personality facets associated with the Big Five traits are predictive of applicants’ job choices and provides suggestive evidence of a link between personality traits, job match expectations, and career choice.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2016.1234203
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Naval Postgraduate School
Funder
Format
23 p.
Citation
Enlistment
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.