Career Preferences of Bangladeshi Public University Business Students

Abstract

Planning a career can be defined as a sequence of processes that build up a career. Choosing the right career is essential for business graduates, especially in this competitive age. This study aims to identify the career preferences of business background students of Public Universities in Bangladesh and the factors that influence their career choice, which will help the business policy maker. Both the structured and the semi-structured questions containing pre-coded and open-ended questions were used to development of the questionnaire. Likert scale and multiple-choice were also used in the questionnaire. For this study, we have 97 respondents as our sample size. We have done frequency analysis, ratio analysis, percentages, and means to reach our objective. The result shows that most business students prefer Government/Public sector jobs, especially Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS). Teaching is the second choicest profession for graduates. The key factors influencing career choice are authority and power, social recognition, job security, mental satisfaction, and payment. The most common constraints graduates face when choosing a career are a lack of practical education, subject-specialized jobs, practical education systems, unfair hiring process, and experience needed at an entry-level position. However, the findings of our study will help both students and policy maker about career-related issues. Furthermore, the in-depth extracted policies are recommended to bring more insight into the matter.