Relationship between Job Recognition of Postgraduate Students in the Field of Study with Their Future Orientation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of job cognition of students in predicting their orientation towards the future. The research method was descriptive-correlational, and the statistical population consisted of all postgraduate students of Education and Psychology faculty of Islamic Azad University (Marvdasht Branch). 200 of them were selected as a sample using Stage Cluster Sampling. The research instrument consisted of two questionnaires including job cognition (Quinn, 2000) and students' future orientation (Pace & Kah, 2002). Validity and reliability were calculated and validated through method of Item Analysis and Cronbach's Alpha. Data were analyzed by means of SPSS16 software, Pearson coefficient test, Friedman test, T-test and Structural Equation Modeling with LISREL 8.50. The results revealed that the students’ job cognition from the field of study positively and significantly predicted orientation of students towards the future. This conclusion suggests that Islamic Azad University should constantly promote students' cognition strategies towards the future of their field of study in the labor market in order to be able to provide a more purposeful path for their postgraduate students and future specialists in the society so that it makes them more appropriate and relevant career choices.