Early career selection is an important stage in a student’s life. It influences a number of decisions that he/she takes based on their career choices. Choice of a subject, a university, an institution, a company, a job profile depends on the career one chooses to pursue. Choosing the right career that you want to follow to help you get ahead in life is an important step when you are done with college. This is a big decision that you need to consider and it is start from when you’re an high school or grade 12 student. At this level students get to prepare their minds toward the course they will study in a higher institution, sometimes hard to know which one is right for your needs but whichever course a student choose at this time will have big influence on their career choice.
There are various factors affecting students career choice in their early high school. These factors are the are several major problems that many students may have to face when it is time to choose the perfect career to help them in the future. In fact, it is quite certain to find students confused or unaware of their career path, even after having completed their graduation. They seem unsure of the degrees they want to study or they already hold as it doesn’t given them a clear vision of what they want to do.
What is most important is to have a good and clear career choice at an early stage so that it allows one to excel and achieve better in the chosen profession but the factors affecting this desire are the major problems to find the best career for yourself.
Factors Affecting Students Career Choice in their Early Stage
What are the factors that affect the students in choosing their career? Factors influencing choice of career and major? Some factors affecting students career choice may include social and economic issues, peer pressure, parents expectation, academic ability, familiarity, economic stability, and influential people can all play a role in the career decision making. Lets discuss the most important factors affecting students career choice in their early stage:
1. Emulation of friends
Among the several factors affecting students career choice in their early stage, emulating friends is a common habit of many students and in the process students tend to take a career objective simply because they know someone else who is doing it.
Many times the student is not going to understand that the degree they choose to pursue is very important and that it is meant to relate to what kind of work they want to do in the future. They find themselves really lost in the crowd and will just choose to do what others are doing, not thinking about how that will affect them until it is too late.
2. Popular childhood dream jobs
Looking back to your childhood, can you remember your popular childhood dream jobs you had of when you later an adult? So many children know exactly what they will be doing as an adult until life happens, that is. What do you want to be when you grow-up? You may remember this question from your childhood, and it may have helped shape how you thought about careers then, as well as later in life.
3. Lack of counseling
Lack of counseling is one of the essential factors affecting students career choice in their early stage as these bring larger social and cultural context, including socio-economic conditions, cultural and social norms, gender roles, and lack of decision-making processes upon the students. If students are unable to get the right counseling and career guidance that they need. This can make it hard for them to choose the right career at the early stage that will get them ahead in life.
Without the proper career guidance while in school, the student is not going to get the valuable opportunity in order to learn all the different choices that are available based on their interests.
4. Racial and ethnic background
Racial and ethnic background, as well as the culture of the student’s regional area, local community, and extended family, may impact career decisions. Racial, ethnic background and culture are the factors affecting students career choice in their early stage because it often shapes the students values and expectations as they relate to many parts of their lives, including jobs and course of lives. To consider making the right career choice you must learn how to integrate your culture and career.
5. Social and economic issues
Many students career choices may take place within the context of society, social and economic issues. Events that take place in students lives may affect the choices available to them and even dictate their choices to a certain degree. Changes in the economy and resulting job market may also affect how students careers develop.
6. Inabilities to know skills and talents
The parents and teachers inabilities to recognize the skills and talents possesses by an individual student is one of the major factors affecting students career choice in their early stage.
The ability of a guidance to know the skills, abilities and talents and how they may fit a particular occupation of the earliest career development fields.
7. Parental Pressure
Choosing a career just to live up to the parents expectation is the most common decision taking by students at an early stage, which they tend to regret later. Most of the students from a particular career families are by default expected to choose a related career as their suited career course. Some who resist submit to the parental pressure leading to an unsuccessful career graph. Such influences under the garb of adhering to their guardians wish are considered unfruitful for the students in long run.
8. Peer Pressure
This factor is the easiest way of getting away from taking self decision. Most of the students want to follow the crowd to get to their destination. ‘Follow your friends’ is the most trending exercise visible during the selection of a university/college. Majority choice is considered the best choice. This mindset has increased the count in the mediocre group where students fail to succeed in their career and just keep on it with an average performance.
9. Fear of Failure
As a student, it is normal to be a little bit scared of failing. In that regard, you may make some bad decisions in the hopes of avoiding that failure, but these will make it more difficult to find the life that you want. If you change your mindset and start to see failures more as a stepping stone for success, you can open the path better than before.
10. Limited financial resources
Most students that have parent with limited financial resources worry that if they end up choosing a career that is based only on their interests, or they fail to secure a good job soon after their studies, then they are going to miss out on having any chance in the future.
This can make them feel like they need to hasten any career choice. They need to either get something right out of school, regardless of if it is something that they would actually like, or they have to take a career that is high paying so they do not end up in debt forever.
11. Choosing career based on personality
Most of the people choose their interest field on the basis of their personality and character. It can be the other way around also, when a career chooses them based on their personality. Here personality includes not only the outward presentation of a student but the perception he/she holds about society.
A good communicator, who has good command on his/her language skills, is more inclined towards a mass communication stream. Similarly, a good leader who has the capacity to influence masses chooses a management field. Personality traits always help in deciding a good career, for it is easy to hone the skills we already acquire.
