14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by researchers from the Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the Yale School of Management, concluded that optimistic MBA graduates have better career prospects than pessimists, and also spend less time and effort looking for a job.
Ron Kaniel and David T. Robinson of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, worked with B. Cade Massey of the Yale School of Management, on this research, focusing on the effects of dispositional optimism (expecting the best possible outcome from any given situation) on job searches and promotions among MBA grads.
The researchers studied 232 MBA students, between 2005 and 2007, assessing their relative dispositional optimism and correlating their answers to the results of their job research.
The results of this study showed that optimistic MBA grads will have better career prospects than those with a pessimistic disposition, and they will also spend less time and effort looking for a job, since they will receive offers more quickly.
Once they get in the working world, optimists have higher chances of being promoted than their pessimistic colleagues, in the first two years of job, and they will also handle difficult situations in a more flexible way.
It seems that this 'luck' is not simply due to karma, and there are several reasons for which optimists outperform others in the job market.
It is only logical that individuals who are articulate and personable are also more optimistic, since they have learned that their interactions with others generally have favorable outcomes.
Otherwise said, good things happen to these people and this is what makes them even more optimistic, determining more good things to come their way.
You could say it's a vicious circle, but the kind that everybody wants in.
For this analysis, the researchers considered variables very carefully, and as Robinson said, “we included a special survey that measured how well-liked and outwardly charismatic these individuals were.
“Optimists certainly appear more charismatic to their peers, and more likely to be destined for success.
“But these measures alone do not account for the findings. Optimism is more than charisma.”
Massey added that “optimists are more willing to disengage from unrealistic courses of action, and re-engage in more practical ones; they are more willing to adapt, and this seems to be part of the reason for their success.”
The study results have been published in a working paper issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research.