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Abstract Can mentorship programs improve vulnerable women’s attitudes toward job search and early career prospects? We will run a randomized controlled trial to evaluate a tailored online one-to-one mentorship program targeted at female college students from socially vulnerable groups in Brazil. We hypothesize that structured one-to-one mentoring programs increase self-confidence, job search readiness, employment rates, job quality, and the potential for career growth of vulnerable college women. Can mentorship programs improve women's job search and early career outcomes? We will run a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an online one-to-one mentorship program targeted at female college students and early career women, with the majority being from socially vulnerable groups. We hypothesize that structured one-to-one mentoring programs increase self-confidence, networks, and job search readiness and, consequently, improve labor market outcomes of college-educated women, particularly from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Trial End Date August 31, 2025 July 31, 2026
Last Published January 09, 2024 10:42 AM October 19, 2024 04:18 PM
Intervention End Date July 31, 2024 December 31, 2024
Primary Outcomes (End Points) Confidence, job search readiness and expectations, internship/employment, re-employment and promotion, time to first job, wages. Self-confidence, job search readiness, professional networks, employment, job quality, earnings.
Primary Outcomes (Explanation) Self-confidence is an index with four questions based on Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1989). Question are: (i) I have a number of good qualities; (ii) I feel like a failure; (iii) I am able to do things as well as most other people; (iv) on the whole, I feel satisfied with myself. Job search readiness is an index made with self-reported job search readiness (ability to find job openings they are interested in applying for, prepare resumes, and deliver a job interview pitch) and a third-party evaluation of their CV and LinkedIn profile. The inclusion of this variable is pending funding for hiring graders. We will not include these evaluations if there are more than 50% of missing values. Job Quality: index based on five questions (formality status, job fits qualifications scale, job provide skill development opportunities scale, job with high salary growth potential scale, job amenities) Earnings: base salary plus bonus We will exclude survey questions for which over 90 percent of observations in the control group have the same value. When the question is part of an index, the question will be excluded, and the index will be calculated based on the remaining questions. If the question is the outcome or all the questions within an index have low variability, we will exclude the outcome and not test the corresponding hypothesis.
Experimental Design (Public) Our experimental design is a stratified random allocation of applicants into treatment (those who will receive the program) and control (those who will not) groups among the final list of eligible applicants. Our experimental design is a stratified random allocation of applicants into receiving an offer to the mentorship and not receiving an offer to the mentorship among the final list of eligible applicants.
Planned Number of Clusters 600 individuals 0
Planned Number of Observations 600 individuals 1139 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms 300 individuals to control and 300 to treatment (receive mentorship program). 589 ever offered a mentorship spot and 550 never offered a mentorship spot
Power calculation: Minimum Detectable Effect Size for Main Outcomes Employment: 13.40% Wages: 16.56% Employment: 11.8% Wages: 16.9%
Secondary Outcomes (End Points) job satisfaction, job characteristics, and wages trajectory. Role models, new goals and possibilities, salary expectations (reservation wages, salary expectation, would accept a job paying less than the expected salary), negotiation attitudes, job search efficacy, use of networks, bargaining power (successfully negotiated offer), human capital investment and career satisfaction.
Secondary Outcomes (Explanation) Negotiation attitudes: index combining three survey questions in a Likert scale (fear of looking greedy if negotiating a wage increase, fear of losing a job opportunity because of trying to negotiate the salary, and if they are willing to negotiate their job offers) Job search efficacy: index with two measures (ratio between interviews and applications, ratio between offers and applications) Use of networks: index with four survey question (number of job search allies, got job through referral, knew employer and job discovery source) Human capital investment: index with two questions (pursuing additional education and college degree) We will exclude survey questions for which over 90 percent of observations in the control group have the same value. When the question is part of an index, the question will be excluded, and the index will be calculated based on the remaining questions. If the question is the outcome or all the questions within an index have low variability, we will exclude the outcome and not test the corresponding hypothesis. New goals and possibilities: index combining three survey items (intend to pursue alternative career options, intend to pursue post-graduate studies, and intend to move to a different city or state).
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