Previous research in different national contexts has shown that individual preferences for certain job attributes, objective labour market conditions, subjective career prospects, and external encouragement shape doctoral graduates' career decisions. For Germany, where the number of awarded doctoral degrees is highest within the European Union and…

Multipotential students have multiple abilities, strengths, and interests, many of which could be developed to a high level. They can succeed in a wide range of careers, have many interests that they may wish to combine or decide amongst when considering their plans, often leading to indecision. Deciding on an academic major or career is a complex…

The paper seeks to understand the trajectories of students who defer entry to university. The study was conducted in Lithuania, a former Soviet Union republic. The phenomenon of a "gap year" is usually associated with young people, who decide not to enter higher education schools immediately after receiving secondary education, instead…

Although women are increasingly entering male-dominated careers, they remain strongly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations. While previous explanations emphasize the importance of individual preferences or family socialization, less is known about how the school context contributes to these…

This article examines sex segregation in higher education in Norway. The extent to which parent's education and occupation and students' grades have an impact on the choice of male and female dominated subjects is analysed. The analysis uses a framework which integrates socialisation and rational choice perspectives. The data used are from a…

Multinational organisations experience difficulties in finding managers willing to accept international assignments. This study has therefore focused on factors that can predict males' and females' willingness to accept international assignments, or to follow their partners on international assignments. Hypotheses were formulated based on the…

Very frequently, students and clients do not do what they say they will do. Decisions and plans made in counselling sessions are often not enacted. The career development field may be better able to address the chasm between rational decisions and actual behaviour by applying the findings of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics research is…

Recent years have witnessed a surge of studies examining the scope of professional responsibility. Building on these efforts, this conceptual inquiry explores whether Nussbaum's notion of a 'decent society', grounded in the premises of equal respect for persons and different conceptions of the good, and thus aspiring to afford all its members a…

An extensive body of vocational research has been dedicated to the topic of career-decision making behavior. Work is integral to human functioning, and all psychologists need to understand the role of work in people's lives. Understanding factors influencing work choices and helping individuals effectively make career decisions is the focus of…

This paper considers the problem of the lack of attractiveness of vocational and technical education via a review of legislation on counselling practices, implementing documents, and the social factors by means of which the education system can influence the individual's decision. It is apparent that legislation regulating the organisation and…

This article explores the influence of personal and professional experiences on the development of teacher identity. The holistic perspective in this article refers to the language teachers' exploration of their personal and professional experiences with the use of both conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit thought processes. Three language…

In this qualitative study, we investigated the academic major and career decision-making processes of honors college students who were declared as "exploratory" students in their freshman year at a large, public, midwestern university. We used semistandardized interviews and document analysis as primary data collection methods to answer…

The quest for engineers during the past boom and predictions of future shortages have focused attention on the low enrolment figures in science and technology (S&T) subjects. Normally, it is assumed that young people shy away from "tough majors" or make irrational choices, based on an absence of information. While not denying the…

Predictions from Polachek's theory explaining occupational sex segregation are tested and found to be false. The data do not show that women are penalized less for intermittent employment if they choose predominantly female occupations. There is no evidence that such a choice is economically rational. (Author/SK)

The chaos theory of careers emphasises continual change, the centrality and importance of chance events, the potential of minor events to have disproportionately large impacts on subsequent events, and the capacity for dramatic phase shifts in career behaviour. This approach challenges traditional approaches to career counselling, assumptions…