How Perceived Career Advising Initiates Career Orientation of UAS Undergraduates in China: Career Exploration as a Mediator

In the context of universal higher education and labor market polarization, undergraduates in universities of applied sciences (UAS) face growing challenges in forming career orientation. Drawing on data from a UAS in China (N = 3,138), this study examines how perceived career advising influences students’ career orientation through the mediation of career exploration. Three key findings emerge. (1) Only perceived perspective advising (PPA) exhibits significant and stable direct effects on career orientation, underscoring the developmental value of structured guidance. In contrast, perceived emotional advising (PEA) and perceived growth advising (PGA) show no direct effect. (2) Both PPA and PGA positively associated with career exploration, whereas PEA exhibits a negative association. This suggests that when advising interactions are overly affective, they inadvertently reduce students’ initiative to explore. (3) Career exploration emerges as a robust mediator between advising and orientation. It fully transmits the effects of PEA and PGA and partially mediates the effect of PPA. This study enriches career development research by demonstrating the initiating role of perceived career advising in fostering career orientation through career exploration. It also offers practical insights for building career advising systems to actively foster students’ autonomous, cognitively engaged exploration processes.