The objectives of this study is to investigate which path the final year students would opt to go for, when it comes to their preferences of working area right after they graduate from university. This is to further see the perceptions of these students towards deciding on having a career upon graduation. It is also to examine the perceptions of generation Y towards their future choice of career. Data for this study are collected from final year students from various area of study in University of Technology MARA.
The main issues to be explored by this study are: a. What are the factors that affect the career decisions of the final year students? b. Is there a gender bias in selecting a career among these students? c. Is it important that students be attached to an organisation as soon as they graduate?
2.0 Literature Review
According to Terjesen, Vinnicombe & Freeman (2007), the process of graduate employments would begin from the publicity and advertising made by organizations to communicate values and images that would deem to reflect the objectives of the respective organizations. The researchers found that there is a need to have better knowledge of the flow and dynamics in making recruitment decisions. Therefore, this research had looked into the job preferences among Generation Y full-time undergraduates from the top 22 UK universities who are, at the time, unemployed. The research had revealed that among these undergraduates, male respondents would stress more on getting high-paid jobs. All respondents also expressed concerns on whether having enough degree skills, hence having good CGPAs, so as to be able to work with good organizations.
In the study of Erdogmus (2002), the focus was on a group of professionals, where these groups of employees have a broad range of career interests. However, the researcher believed that working with an organization would be fully driven by employees expecting a prospect
References: Danziger, N. and Eden, Y. (2007). Gender-related differences in the occupational aspirations and career-style preferences of accounting students. A cross-sectional comparisons between academic school years. Career Development International. Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 129-149. Erdogmus, N. (2004). Career orientations of salaried professionals: the case of Turkey. Career Development International. Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 153-175. Feldman, D. C. and Whitcomb, K. M. (2005). The effects of framing vocational choices on young adults’ sets of career options. Career Development International. Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 7-25. Moy, J. W. and Lee, S. M. (2002). The career choice of business graduates: SMEs or MNCs. Career Development International. 7/6, pp. 339-347. Nabi, G., Holden, R. and Walmsley, A. (2006). Graduate career-making and business start-up: a literature review. Education and training. Vol.48, No. 5, pp. 373-385. Tam, M. (2002). Measuring the effect of higher education on university students.Quality Assurance in Education. Volume 10, No. 4, pp. 223-228. Tanova, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M. and Inal, G. (2008). The process of choosing a management career. Evaluation of gender and contextual dynamics in a comparative study of six countries: Hungary, Israel, North Cyprus, Turkey, UK and the USA. Career Development International. Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 291-305. Terjesen, S., Vinnicombe, S. and Freeman, C. (2007).Attracting Generation Y graduates. Organisational attributes likelihood to apply and sex differences. Career Development International. Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 504-522.