Can University Success and First-Year Job Performance Be Predicted from Academic Achievement, Vocational Interest, Personality and Biographical Measures?

Abstract

Factors associated with university success and with first-year job performance were sought. All entering sophomore students ( N = 970) over a 7-yr. period completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, California Psychological Inventory, and a 145-item biographical inventory. Grades and achievement scores were retrieved from university records. One year after their graduation, participants' supervisors described their job performance. Stepwise multiple regression determined variables associated with high grade point average and high job performance. Inventories were used as predictors separately and together. Students' self-reports of high-school academic performance accounted for 15 to 20 percent of the 30 to 35 percent of variance explained in achieving nursing and university GPAs. Personality variables added 3 to 5%, and interest variables 1%. The best predictors of job performance were GPA and the biographical inventory. More than 92 percent of the variance in performance was explained in 11 of the 12 performance equations when all prediction inventories were used.