Analyzing Interviews on Career Choice

Classification of Factors Influencing Career Choice and Attribution of Responsibility

Abstract

This study aims to show the direction of the analysis of interviews on career choices, which reveals how people determine reasons and assign responsibility for the same. Past research has found subjective or internal factors to affect career choices and has also argued the issue of responsibility for（especially risky）career choices. However, previous research has ignored how people themselves find and explain the factors behind their choices while neglecting the fact that people also face the issue of where to assign responsibility for their choice. This study shows that, from an ethnomethodology standpoint, peopleʼs methods of figuring out reasons and assigning responsibility for their career, as well as drawing their experience of career choice, are analyzable.

The study analyzed data derived from interviews with vocational high school students. The first studentʼs answers revealed their reasoning behind their high school choice, based on an underlying pattern of a common process of choosing a vocational high school. The second student took responsibility for being a jobhopper by explaining her lack of effort to gain a full-time job. Finally, the third student, who had been interviewed every three years, showed changes in his career plans and evaluation of career choice by modifying his description of external circumstances（his motherʼs retirement）and his volition. By describing what students and interviewers do in an interview, the analysis revealed the manner in which they explicate reasons for their career choices and clarify who is responsible for the same.