Career decision to be an army officer & career decision self-efficacy

Career choice is the most important event in an individual’s life. A youth’s mind is full of aspirations about his career. It is influenced by various perceptions gathered over the years where career decision self-efficacy of individual plays a major role. The current study makes a sincere effort to identify the importance of career decision self-efficacy of the aspirants in connection with getting selected in defence forces. The selection categories namely screen-out, non-recommended, and recommended are identified on basis of the 15 qualities essential to be an officer in Armed forces. A total of Total sample of 408 (204 male and 204 female) wa randomly collected from the candidates who appeared for SSB at Bhopal and Allahabad. The respondents selected in this study were screened into two groups on the basis of the last day results of experts in terms of “Recommended” and “Not Recommended” on desirable psychological parameters associated with the desirable traits pertaining to be an Army Officer. These traits were to be tested by social scientists so as to affirm whether the requisite qualities to be an Army officer is possessed by the aspirants called for the interview or not. All the respondents were asked to respond on Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale- Short Form is developed by Betz and Taylor (1996). For career decision self-efficacy gender difference was noted on self-appraisal and problem-solving subscales. No gender difference was recorded on occupational information, goal setting and planning subscale. The total score of CDSE is significant at 0.05 levels indicating that career decision self-efficacy differs across gender as females scored higher than males, it was also observed that career decision self-efficacy differs across selection category. The recommended candidates exhibit higher career decision self-efficacy than screened out and not recommended candidates. The findings of the study have several implications for the educational institutes, coaching professionals, armed force selection personnel as well as researchers.