Newcomers to the labor market who graduate during challenging economic times are less likely to find a suitable job when compared to graduates who enter the labor market in times of economic growth or prosperity. Also, these newcomers are more likely to experience job mismatch and underemployment (International Labour Office, 2011; Kahn, 2010). Therefore, and especially for young professionals, perspectives become less and less defined and predictable with time, whilst the transitions between jobs tend to be more frequent and difficult (Savickas et al., 2009). Such circumstances have triggered the interest of researchers to study work transitions and to understand the psychological resources that can help to deal with these difficulties. According to Ebberwein, Krieshok, Ulven and Prosser (2004), adaptive individuals have more positive attitudes concerning transitions, think about and plan fortheir future, anticipate and react to change and know how to achieve realistic goals. Career adaptability has been referred to as a central construct to cope with the predictable and unpredictable tasks and adjustments prompted by the changes in the work world (Savickas, 1997)

Given the importance of understanding the process of work transition among graduates, the present research explored the psychometric properties and the factor structure of the CAASPortugal-HE Form, a version of the CAAS-Portugal Form (Duarte et al., 2012) with a sample of Portuguese graduates. Also a relevant aspect is the understanding of what type of experiences can differentiate new graduates in terms of their ability to cope with the university-to-work transition. For this purpose, this study analyzed differences in career adaptability between graduates who reported (1) having a student worker status and regular students; (2) having work experience and graduates who reported not having work experience; and (3) having extracurricular experiences and graduates who referred to not having extracurricular experiences (4) anticipating difficulties in work transition and graduates who reported not anticipating difficulties in work transition.

The concept of career adaptability is conceived as helpful for individuals in managing career transitions. Career adaptability comprises four psychosocial resources (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012): concern, which enables individuals to be aware of and plan for a vocational future; control, which regards the self-discipline that allows individuals to become responsible for shaping themselves and their environment to deal with what comes next; curiosity, related to the tendency to explore possible selves and alternative scenarios; and confidence, which reflects self-efficacy managing career decisions.