More than a Hobby: Marine Science Career Development through the Lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory

Abstract

Entering the UN Decade of Ocean Science there is high demand for a diverse marine science workforce, even as our understanding of what motivates people toward marine science careers is limited. To address this, we interviewed thirty ocean and marine science professionals across a range of jobs to identify a comprehensive series of factors that promote marine science career interest as well as factors that impact the choice to move into this career space. We then mapped those to the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) model of career development (Lent, Brown & Hackett 2002) and identified which factors most present themselves as positive drivers or negative barriers to choosing the career field. We identified two themes that promoted interest and career choice-making in the marine science field: 1) participation in ocean recreation and 2) access to informal learning experiences. Conversely, the major barriers for entry into the marine science field were 1) education costs including unpaid internships and 2) job competition and corresponding low pay in the field. Both of these barriers significantly impact underrepresented populations within this field. Elements of the SCCT model were utilized to not only devise the interview questions for this study but also the qualitative codes (inductive and specific factors) used to analyze the 16 hours of interview data. The four themes (positive drivers & negative barriers) that emerged from the data are presented within this paper, along with a model of the findings.

Keywords

• career
• career theory
• career development
• diversity
• equity