General Self-Efficacy and Career Aspiration: A Study Investigating its Influence on Career Decision Self Efficacy among Young Adults

Abstract

The focus in building a career will have different dimensions in each stage of one’s life cycle. Hence it becomes complex over a person’s life time especially when the transition from academics to industry happens. A study among post graduate students becomes relevant as they are at the prime of career exploration and hence can throw light on various influences that shapes the career decision stages. During this stage self-efficacy plays a very important role in a general way as well in the career decision alongside the career aspiration of the individual. This study focuses on exploring the factors shaping generalself-efficacy and career aspiration and further examines the influence of these two variables on career decisionself-efficacy. The study was mainly focused on the post graduate students who are in their career exploration stage of the career decision trajectory. The study found that persistency, trend seeking ability and institutional support shapes career decisionself-efficacy while career aspiration is defined by achievement motivation along with recognition focus and knowledge drive. General self-efficacy among the respondents were characterized by their career focus, confidence to solve problems and gather relevant information.Further the study identified that Career Decision Self efficacy is influenced mostly by career aspiration whileself-efficacy plays a relatively low influence. It is also understood that career decision self-efficacy does not differ with gender and work experience but differs with age and future plans among young adults.