Having learned about the students’ perceptions of the different factors that may influence their success in job-seeking and their level of confidence in skills readiness, I wondered if they had come up with any career plans and where they saw themselves progressing after completing college.
The questionnaire participants were asked: “To what extent do you have definite career plans?” The responses given to this question are summarised in Table 6.6. In these two samples of 200 students, only one in ten respondents had definite career plans at that point. A quarter had a “reasonable idea of what career to follow”, 43% of them only had a “vague idea”, while more than one in five of respondents did not have “any real idea”. Compared to the Riverside respondents, rather more Seaside students had definite or reasonable plans (12% and 27%), with fewer of them reporting that they did not have any real idea (18%). It seems that in general there was a disturbingly large proportion of students having problems forming their career plans. The interview comments will help to further elaborate the status of their career planning.
Table 6.6—To what extent do you have definite career plans?
Riverside (Public) Seaside (Private)
Percentage Percentage
Have definite career plans 8% 12% Have a reasonable idea of
what career to follow 24% 27%
Have a vague idea of
what career to follow 43% 43%
Do not have any real idea 25% 18%
Total 100 100
6.5.1 Career plans
When asked about their career plans and goals, some of the students stated that they had ‘not given it much thought’, or that they had not found the things that really interest them. Others commented that they just wanted ‘to get the degree for now’. Some had very vague ideas and relatively short-term plans:
Hao: I don’t like things that are too much trouble or too complicated. So, I imagine I will work as an office clerk or something like that and play basketball on the weekends. Yes, as long as I am happy.
Int: What kind of office work then?
Hao: I don’t know. Anything will do. I will work for whoever [whichever employer] accepts me.
Int: What about Jia?
Jia: I never had any real plans actually. [Laughs] I guess I can do a white-collar job, you know, running some errands or assisting people in the office. Something stable. Int: Just assisting jobs?
Jia: I don’t think I have what it takes to be in a higher-level job. I can only see myself doing assisting jobs for now. As long as the pay is ok, I will do it. (Seaside)
Interestingly, I observed this attitude of ‘I will work for whoever accepts me’ in other students’ statements as well. It seems that their first step into the workforce does not involve very mindful choosing or planning, but rather passively accepting whatever is available. A final-year student Qihan informed me of his situation:
Int: What kind of job do you think you will get after you finish college?
Qihan: Whatever I can find I guess, as long as someone is willing to take me on. Just today our counsellor messaged everyone that there is a job fair in the stadium for our soon-to-be graduates. I will go with anyone if they will offer me a job.
Int: What kind of companies and jobs will be presented at the job fair?
Qihan: I don’t know. I don’t think that matters. I would be so grateful if I could find anything. I am ok with anything. (Seaside)
Final-year student Xiu confirmed my observation and also pointed out that her classmates tend to plan their careers with very few strategies and often short-term perspectives:
Xiu: Many of my classmates, they think a job is a job and never think what next or how this will help them develop. That’s a problem. They are happy just to get a job and earn some money. Sometimes I ask them what they really want to do. They say they don’t know. So, they will apply for many different types of jobs in different fields, like this assistant or that trade clerk, and go to whatever kind of job fair in town, taking any job as soon as there is an offer available because they don’t know much about those jobs and don’t know what they want. (Seaside)
This situation of aimless job-searching and passive accepting was likely due to a possible lack of confidence among the students when facing the job market, as the findings indicate in the previous sections in this chapter. The perceived ceiling effect or their lack of skills readiness may lead the students to placing themselves at the bottom of the labour hierarchy. They constantly mentioned getting entry-level jobs with limited skills requirements that were ‘not too complicated’, or ‘running errands in the office’. Having lower perceptions of their abilities, they failed to actively plan or strategically choose for their long-term career development, as they may in fact not hold conscious hopes and ambitions for their futures.
Three of the four teachers I interviewed commented on this phenomenon of directionless and lack of planning among their students. Lei (a teacher) revealed her concerns about her students:
Lei (teacher): I think they are just aimless and not goal-oriented. They have no idea what they want to do in the future. At least the majority of them do not. Some had no interest in their major, but they also do not know what they would be interested in. (Seaside)
Ning (teacher) shared a similar view about her students:
Very few students have a clear idea about their future plans. Most of them are passive all the time. For example, when the time comes—in their 3rd or final years, they realise they may need this skill for a job or that a certain position requires that qualification. They never seem to actively plan and manage for themselves. (Seaside)
It was interesting to hear what the students had to say on this matter. Further discussions with the students were conducted in focus group sessions in order to find out what was really going on behind their seemingly ‘passive’ and ‘aimless’ career-planning.
6.5.2 Passive and aimless?
Some students confessed that they constantly found themselves so uninformed, unguided or ‘lost’ that they were not able to come up with any practical plans in that moment. In a focus group session at Seaside, the students were talking about their plans:
Zhichao: I kind of want to further my study after this. But I do not know where to look or what to do. I do not know of any resources I should look into. I am feeling a bit lost. Haibo: You know you need to make some efforts to achieve something. But in which direction? What can be achieved? What kind of efforts? How much effort? There is no predecessor or role model in this college saying that he or she is successful or has a promising early career, you know, someone you can look up to. Look at them [pointing at the 3rd year and final year students in the session], they are my seniors and still have no idea where next. So imagine how we feel. We are feeling even more lost. (Seaside)
Haibo pointed out that a lack of role models or successful predecessors in the college is one of the reasons for ‘feeling lost’, while Zhichao mentioned her lack of relevant information and resources. The students viewed the lack of peers to use as a means of comparison and to give them something to aspire to was a limitation. They did not have access to or understand the means by which they could achieve their goals.
Some students reported that this sense of disorientation they were experiencing was due to the fact that their curriculum lacked direction and their college life was in need of proper support and guidance.
Yuwei: I think we had to take way too many classes in the first and second year. Those classes are all over the place. This and that. We spent so much time in those classes that we didn’t have time to think about what kind of job we want to do. This can easily create confusion and uncertainty. I wish they [the college] had given us a clearer picture of the job options relating to this programme at an early stage, so we could have started with something we are interested in, instead of aimlessly taking all those classes. (Seaside)
The findings here relate to Section 5.5.2 of the previous chapter, which highlighted the lack of careers guidance and advice provided at the colleges. This seems to have contributed to the students being ‘passive’ and ‘aimless’ in their career planning.