2025 Volume 76 Issue 2 Pages 140-158
In many high-income countries, the school-to-work transition has become increasingly unstable. Researchers have discussed whether adolescents or young adults have a clear idea of their future endeavors and the concreteness of that vision, which can significantly influence their post-graduation careers. However, the mechanisms through which occupational aspirations affect career outcomes remain underexplored. This study reevaluates the relationship between occupational aspirations and post-graduation careers by conceptualizing such aspirations as a form of “self-actualization orientation”―the desire to express one’s expertise through work―and by focusing on the institutional relationship between education and employment across different school types. Using social survey data that retrospectively inquire adults about their occupational aspirations during adolescence, this study examines the relationship between aspirations at age 18 and current income. The findings show that men who had no occupational aspirations at the age of 18 earn approximately 15％ less than those who had strong aspirations. However, this relationship is not reflected among women. Moreover, the negative association between the absence of aspirations and income is particularly evident among men who did not attend university, particularly those with vocational qualifications from junior colleges, technical colleges, or professional training colleges and those from vocational high-school tracks. Previous studies on “vocationally oriented status attainment” highlight that students select careers that are closely associated with their fields of study, particularly those within vocational high-school tracks. These studies implicitly assume that students aspire to be in jobs that utilize the knowledge and skills acquired in school. The findings of this study provide important theoretical insights by empirically testing this assumption, i.e., occupational aspirations are necessary for such status attainment.
