More Time Spent, More Job Search Success?: The Moderating Roles of Metacognitive Activities and Perceived Job Search Progress

Taking a self-regulatory perspective, we examined the within-person relationships between time spent in job search and search outcomes (i.e., the number of job interviews/offers received), focusing especially on the moderating roles of metacognitive activities and perceived job search progress. Data collection was conducted with 12 semiweekly surveys among a sample of 132 job seekers from a university in Southern China. Our results showed that time spent in job search does not necessarily lead to more interviews, and metacognitive activities moderated this relationship. Specifically, the positive effect of time spent in job search on the number of job interviews was stronger among job seekers with low levels rather than high levels of metacognitive activities. Nevertheless, after including perceived job search progress, the moderating role of metacognitive activities was stronger among seekers with low rather than high-perceived job search progress. We found that when individuals engaged in low levels of metacognitive activities and perceived low levels of job progress, they relied on time spent in job search to obtain job interviews and offers. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.