Plan: Me – a practical tool for career decision making

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Katie J Dallison
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Theory ◽  
Career Interventions ◽  
Career Service ◽  
Practical Tool ◽  
The Subject

Due to the realities of modern career service provision within most universities, clients attend short (often one-off) career interventions. Hence, practitioners require simple, adaptable tools that are underpinned by career theory and can be explained easily, and empower clients to progress through their career journey independently. This paper explains a tool that has been developed from theory and through practice, and is now positioned to become the subject of further research and formal evaluation. This tool, referred to in the article as 'Plan: Me', takes a holistic approach to career decision making, integrating goal setting and allowing clients to map out a process of how they move themselves forward.

Understanding the career decision making of university students enrolled in STEM disciplines

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Dawn Bennett ◽  
Elizabeth Knight ◽  
Sherry Bawa ◽  
Alfred M Dockery
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
University Students ◽  
Career Commitment ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Pathways ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Alternative Career Pathways

This study investigated why university students choose to major in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine/health (STEM(M)) disciplines, and how their study and career-related confidence compares with that of their peers. The study engaged 12,576 students enrolled at Australian universities. The findings suggest that STEM(M) students’ career decision making is guided by their interest in the subject and their intentions to help people. Within the STEM(M) cohort, students in medicine and health were more confident in their career decision making than either their STEM or non-STEM(M) peers. Of interest, they were less aware of alternative career pathways and less prepared to reorient their careers should this be necessary. Female students reported greater confidence than male students in their career decision making, career identity, and career commitment. Implications include the need for career narratives beyond the STEM industries and for career development initiatives that are mindful of disciplinary and gendered differences.

Understanding the Career Development of Underprepared College Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber N. Hughes ◽  
Melinda M. Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Career Development ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Family Influence ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Theory ◽  
Underprepared College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the career development of underprepared college students using relational career theory. Specifically, the constructs of family influence, locus of control, and career decision-making self-efficacy were explored as they relate to perceived success in college. Significant correlations between external locus of control and family expectations, financial support, and values and beliefs were found indicating that greater family influence is related to external control. Additionally, higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy were related to internal locus of control and informational support from family. These findings support previous research as well as theorized relational career theory connections.

Childhood Environmental Adversity and Career Decision-Making Difficulty: A Life History Theory Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 106907272094097
Author(s):  
Hui Xu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life History ◽  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Ambiguity Aversion ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Childhood Poverty ◽  
Career Interventions

Although research has examined and supported the role of environmental adversity in career decision-making, little is known about the prediction power of childhood environmental adversity for career decision-making. To provide guidance for early career interventions, particularly in disadvantaged populations, the current study drew on life history theory and used a sample of U.S. college students ( n = 310) and a sample of U.S. noncollege individuals during emerging adulthood ( n = 308) to examine a mediation model involving childhood unpredictability, childhood poverty, career decision ambiguity aversion, and career decision-making difficulty. The results support the mediation of ambiguity aversion in the positive predictions of childhood unpredictability for all four factors of career decision-making difficulty. However, the results do not support the indirect predictions of childhood poverty for all four factors of career decision-making difficulty through ambiguity aversion but support the direct prediction of childhood poverty for lack of readiness. Therefore, the current study illuminates the importance of a predictable family environment during childhood for career decision-making during emerging adulthood and provides implications for the validity of life history theory in career decision-making, the development of ambiguity aversion, and early career interventions. Implications and future directions of research regarding childhood poverty are also discussed.

The Appropriateness of Super's Career Theory among Black South Africans

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham B. Stead ◽  
Mark B. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Career Maturity ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Theory ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black South Africans

The appropriateness of Super's career theory among black South Africans is discussed in terms of developmental stages, the self-concept, career maturity, and career decision-making. Suggestions are provided as to how these constructs may need to be re-evaluated and thus become more meaningful to career counsellors and researchers.

Social Class Fragility and College Students’ Career Decision-Making at a Private University

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-129
Author(s):  
Keaton C. Muzika ◽  
Aaron Hudyma ◽  
Patton O. Garriott ◽  
Dana Santiago ◽  
Jessica Morse
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Private University ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Interventions

The present study examined the role of social class in the career decision-making of undergraduate students attending a private university. Grounded theory was used to describe the process of social class and undergraduates’ career interests and plans. Interviews with undergraduate students ( N = 21) resulted in four categories and 13 axial codes. The grounded theory emerging from the data was labeled, social class fragility. Social class fragility captured the career goals and behaviors associated with participants’ striving for an acceptable career choice, based upon their social class contexts. The contextual factors described by participants included relational influences, social class consciousness, and vocational privilege. Results are discussed in terms of career interventions with college students attending universities that encapsulate upper middle-class norms.

Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy of South African High School Boys and Girls

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 694-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Eaton ◽  
Mark B. Watson ◽  
Cheryl D. Foxcroft ◽  
Wendy Patton
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
South African ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Social Cognitive Career Theory ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Theory ◽  
Social Cognitive Career

Social cognitive career theory suggests that males and females may not differ in career decision-making self-efficacy, but this statement requires extension of research to high school samples. The Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Scale–Short Form was administered to white South African high school students in Grades 9 to 11, of whom 368 were boys and 494 girls. No significant sex differences were found, suggesting that career interventions based on social cognitive career theory in high school need not be sex-specific in content.

Career decision-making difficulties among university students: does employment status matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulfattah Yaghi ◽  
Nizar Alabed
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
University Students ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
Career Decisions ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Interventions

PurposeThe study adapted the Career Decision Making Difficulties Questionnaire for the Arab world. The purpose of the study was to test a popular but scientifically unverified belief that people who were employed could experience less CDD.Design/methodology/approachCareer Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 500 university students to analyze CDD among full-time and part-time students and examine whether employment status determines to what extent they experience these difficulties. Univariate and bivariate analyses were used.FindingsEmployment status had no statistically significant effect on students' perceptions of CDD; 6 demographic variables were significantly correlated with CDD (gender, age, income, university grade-point average, satisfaction with the current major and social status); and students had dysfunctional beliefs about the career decision-making process, lack self-awareness, and had inconsistent information about internal and external difficulties.Research limitations/implicationsUniversities should design adequate career interventions before and after graduation and employers should implement human resource policies that reduce CDD and their negative impact on the workplace. Other methods of data collection and analysis could also be useful in the future, such as interviews. While scope of the study was acceptable, comparing countries and public versus private institutions could produce valuable findings.Practical implicationsThe study tested and validated ACDDQ which could be used as diagnostic instrument to design career interventions and training programs. Employers need to allocate resources in the recruitment process to help potential recruits to understand the nature of work, processes, and requirements. Educators need to provide better coaching and career education for students, especially those in senior years.Social implicationsUnderstanding career decision-making difficulties and factors that influence them will influence long-term human resource management, especially productivity, turn over and job satisfaction.Originality/valueThe study examined the important issue of difficulties in making career decisions among two groups of university students. With more employees go back to college for more education, it was not clear in the literature how career decisions might differ between the two groups. The issue was under-researched, especially within Arab countries.

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