Magnitude of career confusion among college students in India: An empirical report

In the early 1900s, America started its initiatives in the field of career choice with an innovative concept, ‘right person for the right job’. This motto was well-received by the American society and further became a unique focus of Euro-American educational system. Following this, aptitude (the inborn talent) together with interest was given high precedence in higher education and young people selected their career accordingly. Countries that accepted this new paradigm stands out globally whereas countries that adopted the conventional naive concept ‘anybody can do any job’ struggle to achieve the desired target. Even after a century has passed, the Indian education system is not able to cope up with the concept and perform poorly in human resource management. Many factors like social status, easily available job opportunity, parental pressure, peer influence drive many young people towards specific streams of study. Once they complete their studies in this scheme, end up in career confusion and struggle in the profession and life. In this framework, this study is aimed at identifying the magnitude of career confusion among college students and, suggests some substantial solutions to social workers, psychologists and educators in guiding young people to build a modern society in the Indian subcontinent. This empirical study collected data from four states of India. Students, parents, teachers and fresh employees were studied. Based on the results, the authors discuss the need for a paradigm shift in thinking and acting so that career confusion can be reduced to a greater extent.