Factors influencing career choices of MBA students

Abstract

In the olden days, Individuals had less choice in terms of the career that they wanted to choose. Career options were limited and pre-decided based on caste or creed during their ancestral times and they had to follow the footsteps of their parents. A priest’s son would become a priest and a cleaner’s son would follow his father and become a cleaner himself. There was barely any option to move out of the familial role. In the recent past, owing to widespread education, the choice in terms of career options has increased than ever before and it became possible to plan a career. People started focusing on managing their careers and thus career choice as a subject has attracted the attention of academicians and professionals. Most of the research by academicians is focused on understanding the effect of factors such as gender, ethnicity, family or friends (Rodrigues, Susan ; Jindal-Snape, Divya ; Snape, Jonathan B, 2011) in the choice of careers or based on motivational factors leading to careers in certain occupational groups such as accountants, teachers and health care professionals (Watt, Helen M. G. ; Richardson, Paul W 2007, Hayes, Ziette A.; Credle, Sid Howard 2008). Traditional research studies on career choices are focused towards identifying factors that motivate people to choose certain occupations. These studies help counselors to provide better career counseling to professionals and students. Our study on the other hand tries to identify the factors that influence the career choice of MBA students in India. The methods of the study are presented and the results are explored from an Indian context. The paper discusses the conclusions of the study based on the findings of the survey that was conducted for the purpose of our research. The aim of this paper is to examine the influence of job characteristics, personal demographic factors, family background and social & relational factors on career choices of management students in India.