Perceived Factors Influencing Career Choice of the Undergraduate Students of Public Universities in Bangladesh

People around the globe, especially the educated ones, have become very much concerned about their careers. University students in Bangladesh are generally treated as one of the most serious segments having the intention for selecting career paths. In this regard, several factors are having different levels of influence over the career choice decision. This study aims at identifying and ranking the factors influencing the career choice of undergraduate students of public universities in Bangladesh. The study is quantitative where the perception of 384 undergraduate students of public universities of Bangladesh has been measured to find the level of influence of multiple factors influencing their career choice. A convenience sampling technique was used to choose the respondents. This study finds several factors having a different degree of impact on the choice of career. Sixteen factors have been identified through an extensive literature review based on which students’ perception was measured using a five-point Likert scale. Out of these 16 factors, 5 factors have been found strongly influential, 6 factors have been marked as moderately influential, and the rest 5 factors have been ranked as a low influential factor as perceived by the respondents. However, no established scale was utilized to rank the factors rather it has been performed based on mean value developing a scale using the rule of thumb. After a careful analysis, the personality of the students has been identified as the most influential factor for the career choice with a mean of 4.28 and standard deviation of .962 whereas the influence of relative has been marked as the least influential factor with a mean of 2.67 and standard deviation of 1.426.

Career Planning -Career planning is a continual process of discovery in which a person gradually creates his or her professional idea as a consequence of his or her own value system's skills, talents, requirements, motivations, and ambitions. Career based planning is very methodical and complete process of focusing on career growth and putting plans in place, as well as self-assessment and opportunity analysis, and evaluating the outcomes (Manolescu, 2003). Everyone gets some alternative career paths out of which one path is selected as one's career and this selection process is known as a career choice. Career choice bases on some internal and external factors like gender, age, socio-economic status, birth order, religion, habitation, age, race, traits, personality, perceptions, mentor's influence, parental influence, social condition, education background, hobby, personal interest, physical structure, and so on as noted by different authors including Palmer, (1981); Ghuangpeng, (2011); Omari, (2014); Micallef and Gatt, (2018).
Importance of Career Planning -Successful careers are managed through a pragmatic and careful career planning. Selecting the right professional path is becoming increasingly important for young people in the twenty-first century since they must consider a variety of factors such as gender, age, parental guidance and peer pressure while making a decision. Career growth is a constant process of attracting the labor world, all the way to employment opportunities presented to them (Ferry, 2006). The worldwide changes of twenty-first century and the circumstances of the present age have created an environment in which virtually everything competes with one another. Students have to adapt with the fast changes of the contemporary world and this kind of adjustment necessitates a certain level of dedication, drive, and forethought. Within this context, career planning is very important at the very beginning of the educational journey. Choosing an unachievable career can result in aggravation. Scholars suggest that proper care and attention should be given while formulating career planning since career choice is correlated with job satisfaction. A lifetime negative consequence may occur if the career choice is worn (Zaidi and Iqbal, 2012).
Career Planning Process -Career planning has become one of the crucial activities, especially for the present generation because of the rapid transformation in society, economy, and technology. Career planning is the progression of designing and implementing a career. As all individuals have different personalities and preferences, it is tough to establish an exact step-by-step sequence for a career planning process. Lock, (2004) proposes the following career planning process evolving from various sources. Career Planning in Bangladesh -By considering the importance of career planning and development education, the Bangladesh government has initiated career education courses from secondary to tertiary education in the country (NCTB, 2018). Career education has a long history though it is a relatively new branch of knowledge in Bangladesh. However, for long, career-related education in Bangladesh has been initiated for ensuring the quality of graduates as well as to make them prepared for the globally competitive job market (NCTB, 2018; Milon et al., 2021).

Literature Review
In the extent of career choice, a good number of studies have been conducted across the world. The studies were conducted from different perspectives.
The following sections introduce the features which were found responsible for influencing the career choice of diverse types of people of different regions and classes. Personality -Personality is a vital trait in choosing a career and making a career decision. A relationship has been found between Holland's personality types and career choice (Aljojo, 2016). Three factors namely personality, environment and opportunities were studied to measure the level of influence on career choice of the seniors of Germantown High School, USA where personality was found as the most significant factor influencing career choice decision (Borchert, 2002). Holland's theory about personality and vocational choices postulates that people are most satisfied when occupational choices match their personalities. According to Holland's theory, there is a correlation between personality and the most appropriate work environment which will result in individuals experiencing successful career development, and happier and stress-free lives (Greenberg & Baron, 2008). The theory is based on six different personality types, and each is associated with a specific work environment in which the individual is most likely to thrive.  They also prefer to choose a career that provides them with training opportunities and working conditions than freedom or challenge of work. On the other hand, individualistic people are self-centered and desire to achieve their own goals, and they prioritize independence and challenge as more important than training opportunities or working conditions (Carrero, 2002). Baines, (2009) in his study describes that the factors which influence career choice differ from culture to culture. The career choice decision of western culture (individualism) is less likely to be influenced by others than that of eastern culture (collectivism).

Passion and Personal Interest -
Growth Opportunities -Abbasi and Sarwat's, (2014) study on Pakistani graduates shows that they give significant focus on growth opportunities while deciding a career. This is confirmed by the study of Myburgh, (2005) which found that promotion and career advancement are two of the most influential career choice factors for first-year accounting students.

Prestige of Profession -Prestige as an inherent
quality; It is sensed that certain jobs are more worthwhile than others, without being able to pinpoint exactly why. Eremie, (2014) has done a study on Nigerian students. This study based in Nigeria shows that both male and female students consider the relative prestige of the profession while choosing their careers.

Research Objectives
The study's major goal was to look at the factors that influence undergraduate students' career choices in Bangladesh's public universities. The following particular objectives were used to attain the main goala) To determine the factors that influence a person's career choice b) To determine the importance of various factors in determining career choice. c) To rank the factors according to their level of influence.

METHODOLOGY:
The study is descriptive and quantitative. A structured questionnaire was prepared using variables derived through extensive literature. The respondents were requested to express their perceptions on a fivepoint Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree). The total estimated population of this study is 2595299 as described in the UGC report. Using a sample size table considering a 95% level of confidence with a 5% margin of error, the sample size is N=384 (Singh and Masuku, 2014). The respondents were selected using the convenience sampling technique as it was found suitable in this situation where the respondents are very much scattered. Link of online questionnaires was sent to 450 respondents. Among the 395 responded, 384 were found suitable for use. Data have been analyzed using SPSS Version 24 though no sophisticated tool has been used. To rank the factors, researchers have developed a scale using the rule of thumb. Ranking of the career choice factors has been done using mean value only. Bachelor 5 th year students are from Medical, Architecture, Pharmacy, and some other disciplines of study. Out of 384 respondents, 239 are males, and the rests 145 are females. Respondents belong to diversified educational backgrounds. Respondents from arts, social science, and humanities have been categorized in the same group where the total number is 73. Out of the total respondents, 135 were from business studies background and 146 respondents are from Science, Engineering and Technology related fields and lastly, there were 30 respondents from the medical background who are students of different medical colleges. This table also shows the education level of the respondents where the maximum respondents are 4 th -year undergraduate students ( Table 1). From the above analysis, it is vibrant that the student's personality plays the most significant role in choosing the career for themselves as the mean of the respondents' response regarding the influence of their personality in choosing their career is 4.28 with a standard deviation of .962 which means that the dispersion of respondents' answer was .962 above or below the mean. The second strongest factor is financial benefits as generally expected. Influence from relatives in career choice has been identified as the least significant factor with a mean value of 2.67. Based on the above analysis, the following ranking of the factors can be made based on respective mean values ( Table 2). As per the perception of the respondents, their Personality, Financial Benefits in a certain career, Passion of incumbents, Flexibility in jobs, Prestige of Profession are the most considerable factors in career choice. However, the mean values of the strongly influential factors are very much closed to each other ranging from 4.13 to 4.28 ( Table 3).     Islam, 2020). It should be noted that though the security of a job has been categorized here as a moderate influential factor, the mean value of perceived influence is very much closed to those of strongly influential factors ( Table  4). The above five factors namely-Religion, Friends, Gender, Neighbors, and Social Groups, Relatives have been perceived to have a low influence on career choice where the influence of relatives is the least influential factor among all. Point to be noted that among the respondents, 145 were female (37.8% of total respondents), and still, the perceived influence of gender factor is only 2.88 which indicates Bangladeshi female students now feel fewer challenges in any kind of career than previous times ( Table 5).

CONCLUSION:
The investigation into the perception of the undergraduate students depicts that their personality has a very strong influence on their career choice decision. So, parents, teachers, policymakers must give attention to these factors while guiding them towards a certain career path. They have marked financial benefits in a career as another most influential factor. That is why, to attract quality graduates in a certain profession, competitive compensation packages have to be offered. Along with these two fac-tors, the passion of incumbents, flexibility in jobs, and prestige of profession have been perceived to have a strong influence. The human resource managers can consider these factors carefully to attract quality graduates. As perceived by the respondents, six factors namely-security of a job, established people, family members, need for power, teachers, and seniors have a moderate influence on career choice decisions. Finally, factors namely-Religion, Friends, Gender, Neighbors and Social Groups, Relatives have been perceived to have a low influence on career choice. Career Planning and Development has already been included in the syllabus of secondary level education by NCTB. The findings of this research can be included in that book so that teachers and learners can understand the factors that drive the students' career choices from the perspective of our country.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
At first, all gratefulness goes to the Almighty for keeping us healthy to complete this research paper. Gratitude goes to all the respondents who gave their valuable time for the survey and all others who directly or indirectly contributed in preparing this study.