Adolescence is the age when individuals explore their identity and career. Both identity and Career Choices are largely determined by educational success. Education is considered the foundation of the future of an individual. By adolescence, students already focus on determining their career range, but not always a final choice. Students engage in deciding their careers through disciplines in minors and majors. A good career is also determined by good career planning.
According to studies, career planning is a substantial part of preparing oneself for the selection of education and a desired job (Damai et al., 2019). Career choice is a lifelong decision process for those who seek satisfaction from their work. Both internal and external factors play an important role in determining career choices. Final career choice depends not only on education but also on several cognitive factors, including aptitude, interest, personality, self efficacy. These factors determine whether the career choice made is a good fit for the long term or not.
Read More: How to Choose a Career: A Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Discovery and Smart Decisions
Factors determining career choices
1. Self-Concept
Career choices reflect how individuals perceive themselves. Life Span theory clearly states that careers are an extension of an individual’s self-interest. It includes their interests, values, strengths and aspirations. As a child, our idea about who we want to become was boundless, but later on, they were altered and shaped by our successes and challenges in school, family, sports, etc. Our self-concept is hence influential in determining our career choices. When a career aligns with one’s values and interests, it increases satisfaction. If not, dissatisfaction may be experienced.
Read More: Exploring Self-Concept, Authenticity, and Self-Esteem in Humanistic Psychology
2. Personality
Personality is the relatively permanent ways an individual behaves across situations. It plays an important role in the career growth of individuals. John Holland developed the theory of career choice, where he proposes that personality traits and vocational interests are related to each other. He suggests that people experience greater career fulfilment when their job fits well with their personality attributes. He categorised personalities into six types, also called the RIASEC categories: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. Each type has specific preferences and traits. For example, artistic types may prefer creative roles like music, graphic design, or writing. This model has been very helpful in career guidance practices, helping individuals identify a suitable career for them based on their personality (Batista et al., 2022)
Read More: What purpose does the Riasec model serve in the guidance of career planning?
3. Cognitive Bias
A variety of cognitive biases may operate when making career decisions. For example, the availability heuristic is the tendency to give more preference to options that are easily remembered or that easily come to mind. Individuals may choose careers that are more visible to them. Another bias includes confirmation bias, which involves looking for information that supports our ideas and beliefs. For example, a student may give up career options involving maths because they believe they are not good at it, but may ignore signs of improvement. Planning fallacy is another common bias involving the tendency to underestimate the time and effort taken to complete something. This is evident in poor planning and unrealistic expectations.
Some other factors involved are explained by the theories developed in career psychology.
Social cognitive career theory
Hackett and Betz gave social cognitive career theory, explaining three interrelated aspects of career development: how basic academic and career interests develop, how career and educational choices are made and how academic and career success is obtained. It incorporates a variety of concepts, including interests, abilities, values, and environmental factors. It consists of 4 models:
1. INTEREST MODEL where a child’s environment offers a range of activities and children are encouraged to perform well in certain specific activities. Practising these specific activities develops interest or the opposite, depending upon feedback, self-efficacy and outcome expectations.
2. CHOICE MODEL: Making career choices is not a single event but a process. Some choices may become more interesting over time, and others less attractive. It involves deciding a career path, taking steps and then performing.
3. PERFORMANCE MODEL performance depends on self-efficacy, expected outcomes, skills and environmental support.
4. SATISFACTION MODEL: It explains how people feel satisfied in their careers. It depends on a variety of factors like achievement of goals, positive work environment and alignment in job and interest (Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D.,2019)
Life space theory of career
Donald Super presented the life space theory of career. It was a prominent theory in career development psychology. He gave 5 stages of career development:
Growth stage (birth to 14 years): When you’re a child, you start forming your first ideas about what you want to be when you grow up. We look up to our parents or superheroes and decide to be like them. Ideas about career change are frequently at this stage.
Exploration (age 15 to 24): at this stage, we start exploring our interests, skills and values. We try out different areas of study and later different jobs. We try to figure out what suits us and are curious to try and explore new options.
Establishment Stage (age 25 to 44): During this stage, we are more focused on gaining experience, building a resume and gaining identity in our work. This stage requires making family and balancing career and personal life.
Maintenance Stage (age 45 to 64): At this stage, we are more inclined towards advancing our chosen career. We prefer building expertise, working hard to advance in our careers, and making long-term plans. Our career becomes a big part of who we are as a person.
Decline stage (age 65+): During this stage, we start preparing ourselves for the retirement phase. If we choose to continue working, working hours and responsibilities may be reduced. We start exploring new hobbies and interests again.
Read More: Journey of Human Development: Domains and Stages of Development
Conclusion
Making a career choice is a complex and long process, typically starting in our teenage years when we start exploring our career options. Life space theory proposes it to be a lifelong process. Career is shaped by a variety of factors, including education, interest, values and aspirations. But few factors like personality, self-concept and even cognitive biases may be undermined during the process of career decision making. Theories propose alignment between interests and personality as an important determinant of career satisfaction. It is also important to be realistic and self-aware. Awareness of psychological factors functioning in career decisions helps in making meaningful choices.
Read More: Interests vs. Parental Expectation: Why Indian Youth Struggle With Career Choices
References +
Hadiyati, M. A., & Astuti, B. (2023). Student careers: What factors influence career choice? Journal of Education Research and Evaluation, 7(4), 608–614. https://doi.org/10.23887/jere.v7i4.61686
What are cognitive biases? How do they shape career decisions | InWeSol. (n.d.). Inwesol. https://inwesol.com/blog/about-cognitive-biases-in-career-decision-making/
Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) – MarcR – home page. (2025, December 30). Marcr. https://marcr.net/for-career-professionals-and-learners/career_theories_a_to_z/scct/
Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2019). Social cognitive career theory at 25: Empirical status of the interest, choice, and performance models. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 115, 103316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.06.004
Super’s career development theory. (2006). Encyclopedia of Career Development. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412952675.n273
Super, D. (n.d.). Developmental self-concept. https://tahatu.govt.nz/api/documents/serve/245/Final_for_uploading_J56588_-_TEC_Career_Theory_Model_-_Super_01_FINAL.pdf
Super, D. (n.d.). Developmental self-concept. https://tahatu.govt.nz/api/documents/serve/245/Final_for_uploading_J56588_-_TEC_Career_Theory_Model_-_Super_01_FINAL.pdf
Batista, J. S., & Gondim, S. M. G. (2022). Personality and Person-Work Environment Fit: A Study Based on the RIASEC Model. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(1), 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010719
