A new study from Hiroshima University has found that optimism about the future helps university graduates cope with reality shock in the workplace by encouraging job crafting and strengthening their career-related identity.
Reality shock refers to the distress many new graduates experience when workplace realities fail to match expectations. It can lead to disappointment, confusion, depression, anxiety, and reduced job retention.
The research was led by Professor Makiko Kodama from the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University and published in Sage Open on 16 December 2025.
The study investigated whether pre-employment career resilience influences how graduates adjust to working life. Career resilience includes the ability to cope with challenges, social skills, interest in novelty, optimism about the future, and willingness to help others.
It also examined job crafting, in which employees proactively adjust their tasks, relationships or perceptions of work to better align with their needs and goals.
The research had two main aims. First, it tested whether higher pre-employment career resilience reduces the likelihood or intensity of reality shock after starting work. Second, it examined whether, among those who experience reality shock, pre-existing resilience promotes job crafting behaviours that support the development of a stronger vocational identity.
Data were collected through three phases of longitudinal surveys. The first, conducted before employment, assessed career resilience and vocational identity. The second, after participants entered the workforce, measured job crafting, career resilience, vocational identity, and reality shock. A third survey focused specifically on participants who reported reality shock and explored which aspects of job crafting supported vocational identity development.
Usable responses for the first two surveys totalled 133 participants, comprising 36 men and 97 women with an average age of 22. The third survey included 27 respondents, eight men and 19 women.
Analysis addressing the first aim found no significant difference in pre-employment career resilience between those who experienced reality shock and those who did not.
However, findings related to the second aim identified optimism about the future as a critical factor. Among participants who faced reality shock, those with higher pre-employment optimism were more likely to engage in cognitive job crafting by reinterpreting their work in positive ways. This was associated with stronger vocational identity formation and professional growth.
“The results revealed that among pre-employment career resilience traits, individuals exhibiting particularly high levels of ‘optimism about the future’ were more likely to adopt effective coping strategies when confronted with reality shock,” explained author Makiko Kodama. “Consequently, they demonstrated greater professional growth.”
Kodama recommends that universities introduce programmes to build career resilience, particularly optimism, before students graduate.
“Identifying the psychological traits useful for coping with reality shock an adaptive challenge faced immediately upon joining a company enables the cultivation of these traits prior to employment,” said Kodama. “This, in turn, could prevent issues such as resignations arising from reality shock before they occur.”
The findings build on Kodama’s earlier research on career resilience in Japan, which linked optimism and coping abilities to fewer negative outcomes during workplace transitions. The study suggests that targeted interventions may improve graduates’ adjustment and support employee retention in competitive job markets.