Career HOPES was a four-week group-based career development intervention that was administered to 64 participants over the World Wide Web. The entire study, including recruitment of subjects, administration of pretests and posttests, and all communication with and among subjects took place online. The intervention combined a series of four weekly interactive lessons with computer-mediated communication via a virtual bulletin board that was integrated into the Career HOPES Website. There were three experimental conditions: a control condition and two treatment conditions. The treatment conditions were identical except that a professional group moderator participated in the online group discussions in one condition; in the other condition there was no moderator. At the conclusion of the study, subjects in the two treatment conditions showed greater gains than control condition subjects in (a) career decidedness as measured by the Occupational Alternatives Question (Zener and Schnuelle, 1976), Cohen's $d=.54$; (b) self-knowledge as measured by the Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1989), $d=.58$; and (c) self-reported frequencies of career exploration behaviors, $d=.44.$ No statistically significant differences between treatment and control condition subjects were found on measures of vocational knowledge, career choice salience, satisfaction and comfort with current career situation, or satisfaction with future career prospects. Moderated treatment condition subjects showed greater gains than unmoderated treatment condition subjects in (a) satisfaction with their future career prospects, $d=.75$; and (b) self-reported frequencies of career exploration behaviors, $d=.75.$ Moderated condition subjects also rated the Career HOPES intervention as more useful than unmoderated condition subjects, $d=.57.$ No statistically significant differences between moderated and unmoderated condition subjects were found in gains on measures of career decidedness, self-knowledge, vocational knowledge, career choice salience, or satisfaction and comfort with current career situation. The study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting a successful career intervention and a rigorous evaluation study on the World Wide Web. Suggestions for improving the efficacy of future online interventions are offered
