Influences on school leavers’ career decisions – Implications for the accounting profession

Studies show that students begin to make their career choices during their secondary education and for many their educational and occupational aspirations are quite fixed by the time they enter their final school year. As the future success of the accountancy profession depends on its ability to attract high calibre students it should not overlook the significance of school students in its recruitment drive. A questionnaire requiring respondents to rate the importance of 26 factors, synthesised from research on professional career-choice decisions, was completed by school leavers in Ireland. They consider job satisfaction to be the most important criteria when selecting a career, followed by good working conditions and career aptitude. In contrast, neither their parents’ career nor the opportunities to work in their home area are viewed as important. Students intending to pursue an accounting career regard prestige and financial rewards to be more important than those who are not contemplating such a career, while the latter group rank work-life balance, good citizenship and self-fulfilment as more important. The respondents report that their parents and subject teachers are the only people who influence their career decisions with friends, relatives, guest speakers and interestingly, career guidance teachers having no influence.