Should I change my career goal? First-year student career identity in the context of a social movement in Hong Kong

Abstract

The present study provides evidence of the impacts of unexpected external events on the development of late adolescents’ career identity. Data were collected from 15 first-year students in Hong Kong during April and July 2020. The data comprised a short survey, one piece of prompted narrative writing, and a semi-structured interview. Of the 15 participants, seven indicated that some aspects of their career decisions had changed, such as their career choice or their future workplace location. Three participants had some novel thoughts about their career development. Five mentioned that the social movement had not changed their thoughts about their future career, although it had influenced other aspects of their lives. Patterns of response were found in the Hong Kong participants with achievement and moratorium identity statuses and mainland participants with foreclosure identity statuses. The present study contributes to the studies on the contextual aspects of career development.

Keywords

• Late adolescence
• career identity
• freshmen
• social movement
• Hong Kong