The effects of internship duration and career feedback on career goal discrepancy: A research on maritime cadets

The number of studies investigating the importance of doing internships in the career planning of seafarers is quite limited. General indecision about career goals can cause stu-dents to become alienated from this profession and to give up. One of the antecedents that can lead to career indecision is negative feedback. The issue of whether the regulatory na-ture of the internship period has an effect on eliminating the indecision of seafarers who have not yet started the profession and who are doing internship seems to need to be exam-ined. In this context, a theoretical model has been developed to fill this gap and the ef-fects of compulsory open sea internship on career planning of maritime students are exam-ined. In the model, the problems and difficulties experienced by the students before and during the compulsory open sea internship and the quality of the education they received during the internship were also examined. Internship feedback, career goal indecision and internship duration were used as variables. The sample group of the research consists of Maritime Transportation and Manage-ment/Engineering and Marine Engineering students with associate and undergraduate edu-cation. A total of 159 interns were surveyed, 8 of whom were excluded from the scope of the evaluation due to lack of data. A total of 151 students, 15 women (10%) and 136 men (90%), completed the questionnaire for further analysis. Most of the sample consists of Marine Engineering undergraduate/associate degree graduates (16.33%) and trainees (60.1%). The rest includes Maritime Transportation and Management undergradu-ate/associate degree graduates (9.2%) and their trainees (14.37%). 47.33% of the partici-pants did their maritime internships thanks to their personal relationships and close connec-tions, 28.67% through their own efforts, and the rest through their universities and lecturers (17.33%). SPSS 23 and PROCESS Macro 3.5 were used in the analysis. In this context, seven hypotheses have been developed depending on the modeling. As a result, it is seen that all hypotheses are supported. Accordingly, it was concluded that the duration of the intern-ship had an effect. Even if the interns in the sample receive negative career feedback when they have a long-term internship opportunity, it is stated that career target discrepancies decrease, and this is statistically significant. The prepared questionnaire, like all research using questionnaires, may contain some perceptual bias to a certain degree. Considering the high rate of personnel turnover in the maritime sector, this study revealed that it is important for seafarers to do internships at the beginning of their careers in order to be able to make long-term career planning. For this reason, the study is also im-portant in terms of representing new suggestions and solutions.