A Qualitative Exploration of the Outcome Expectations in Determining Career Choices of College Students

Choosing a college major is very crucial and challenging at college level because selection of college majors at this stage pave a path way for future career. Pakistan being a developing country; career counseling services are scarce for students. It is needed to explore while making choices about career majors what are the underlying perceptions and factors that students think they can get in terms of outcomes from certain careers. It is an important component in career development so that career guidance and counseling can be provided by considering these factors. Research question for this qualitative study was “What are the underlying outcomes for choosing certain careers that students expect? A sample of eighteen intermediate twelve grade undergraduate college students; nine males and nine female participants taken from public and private sector degree colleges were interviewed to get insight about their future career choices and underlying outcomes from these career choices. Results were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings indicated that participant reported medical, engineering, teaching, army and business as their intended future career choices. Moreover, after analyzing results through thematic analysis, outcome expectation was emerged as a broader theme categorized into three sub-themes 1) physical outcomes with sub themes of financial stability and job security 2) social outcomes (including social acceptance and service to humanity and 3) self-outcomes with sub theme of significance of work. Findings have potential implications for counselors and educators to have understanding of outcome expectations that may determine the career paths for students. In this way help can be provided to students for reexamining their beliefs and in turn broadening their career horizons.   Key words: outcome expectations, college students, career choices