1.1 Research Background
The higher education landscape in Malaysia has gone through significant changes as time passes by. A number of reasons are responsible for the high demand for higher education in Malaysia that operates both at personal and societal levels. At the personal level, higher education is considered to be the key to obtaining jobs that pay good salaries, confer social status and prestige, and provide avenues for social mobility while at the societal level, the Malaysian government is using higher education programmes to restructure Malaysian society to have a more indigenous population pursuing higher education, thus, enabling them to improve their livelihood later in life (Ghazali & Kassim, 2003; Yusof et al. as cited in Zain, Jan & Ibrahim, 2013). Based on the Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2015), between year 1990 and 2010, there has been a six times increase in Bachelor degree enrolment and the ministry expressed his aimed to expand the enrolment in the following years in Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025. All over the world, higher education is mostly sought-after because of its promise of better future prospects for degree holders (Zain, et al., 2013).
Based on the Jobstreet.com survey on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in Malaysia, the number of dissatisfied employees is relatively high as 74% of the respondents expressed that they were not satisfied with their current job in year 2015 although there is a slight drop of 4% compared to year 2012. This issue cannot be neglected as job dissatisfaction will lead to high turnover rate, job stress and lack of productivity. According to Judge, Heller and Mount (2002), job satisfaction is greatly affected by career choice. Normally, people is assumed to be more satisfied with the career they select, rather than ones they fell into, or were forced to take because of a lack of other alternatives (Godbey & Johnson, 2011).
Career is the sequential set of experiences and attitudes related to work that an individual has over the span of his or her work life while choice is separating or choosing one preferred out of many available things or selections (Abbasi & Sarwat, 2014). Career choice is one of the many vital decisions that every undergraduates will make in order to progress in their future plans. This decision will impart them throughout their lives. The essence of who the undergraduates are will revolve around what the undergraduates wish to do with their life-long work. The kind of career they pursue can affect their lives in various ways. For instance, it can determine where they live and the type of friends kept. It also reveals how much education one will have and determine the amount of money one will earn. What undergraduates want to achieve from a career may be different, some desire for high income; others want adventures while some others hope to serve people to make the world a better place. Every undergraduate carry the unique story of their past and this influence how they view the world (Olamide & Olawaiye, 2013). Choosing a career that is fit to oneself can make a difference between enjoying and detesting the career in future life.
In the opinion of Issa and Nwalo (2008), the career choice, subjects, and courses of study and the subsequent career paths to follow are usually a nightmare for prospective undergraduate students around the world. Choosing career choices that cannot be achieved may lead to frustration and displeasure towards the job. Aguiar, Pessoa, Camara, Perrier, & Figueiredo (2009) states that understanding the variables that lead to the career choice is significant because that decision establishes expectations for one’s future and may affect one’s satisfaction with the career. Therefore, factors that influence undergraduates’ career choice has to be identified in order to assist the undergraduates in making wise choice of career that match with their values to contribute to the society and nation.
1.2 Problem Statement
Millennials have a reputation for job-hopping (Gallup, 2016). Millennials are as those are born between year 1981 to year 2000 and their age group are between 17 to 36 years old ("Generational Differences Chart", 2017). This age group person usually are either in study or working stage. For individuals who are in working stage, researcher stated that those who are involved in job-hopping may suffer from "greener grass syndrome," which they begin to believe that anything would become better compared to the current situation. Individuals are indecisive toward their career. As a result, individuals find themselves filled with anxiety and a sense of urgency. They are not proactively seeking the right opportunity, they are merely reacting to their current circumstances (Chrissy, 2017).
In order to further understanding the root cause of career choice indecision among Millenials, there are some research studies related to those age group who are in school stage, and especially those who are studying undergraduate. According to Shahmir, Afidatul, & Rajoo (2015), students might not find it easy to make such a decision of career as they are still in a career field exploration level. Failure to decide what occupation to seek is known as career indecision (Abu, 2009). According to Lock (2009), nowadays graduates are faced with issues high rates of unemployment when they decide to seek employment in the labour market. Some students may decide to further study and may switch from one major career to another because of uncertainty and indecision toward their future career.
The figure above showed that the number of unemployment in Malaysia in year 2015 and 2016. The highest contribution was registered by the age group of 20-24 years old which is 37.7 per cent out of total unemployment rate in year 2016 (Uzir, 2017). Average graduation age for bachelor degree level in Malaysia is 24-25 ("Starting your Career in Malaysia Country Guide for International Students", 2017). It can be assumed that the most unemployed persons by age groups are fresh graduates in Malaysia.
Unemployment rate among graduate increased in Malaysia is one of the symptom shows that graduate lack of decision making toward their future career. Therefore, there should has one area to investigate student’s career development which is career choices that relate to one’s career decision making. Factor of influencing career choice among undergraduate is a part of research that worth to be investigated.
In the early years, there were some researchers stated that there are few factors may affect the career choice among undergraduates. However, these kind of researches are still ongoing and found out more factors which may influence the career choices among undergraduates. Salami (1999) found that many undergraduates make wrong career choices due to ignorance, inexperience, peer pressure, advice from friends, parents and teachers, or as a result of prestige attached to certain jobs without adequate guidance and career counseling. (as cited in Koech, et al., 2016). While Shahmir, Afidatul, and Rajoo (2015), stated that family influence, personal interests and economic considerations may affect career choice. There are still have many potential researches about factor influencing career choice among undergraduates worth to be investigated.
The research is still worth to be investigated and it is important for researchers to conduct a study within the context of Malaysia. Firstly, most past research papers regarding career choice in Malaysia were done 2 years ago (See, 2015). The research results of past research papers may be outdated and the current employment trend among young adults may differ from the previous researches. Hence, it cannot successfully reflect current young adults’ career choice. This research study is carried out in order to determine latest trend of undergraduates’ career choice.
Secondly, previous studies such as (Wilson, Jesson, Langley, Hatfield, & Clarke, 2006; Wong, 2008; Mao, 2013) have researched factors influencing career choice. Furthermore, most of the past studies mentioned above were not conducted in the Malaysian context.
As a conclusion, this study is worth to be conducted in order to identify the factors that will influence career choices among university students in Malaysia and find out how the findings of the study would affect the Malaysian undergraduates.