CAREER PLANNING TENDENCIES OF STUDENTS: AN IMPLEMENTATION ON STUDENTS OF KARABUK UNIVERSITY BUSINESS FACULTY

Abstract

Almost 150 of the approximately 200 universities in Turkey have a faculty of management, which is also commonly named as faculty of administrative sciences and economics. Approximately 500 thousand students graduate from these departments each year and they step into the business life. The purpose of this study is to determine the career plans of sophomores studying in business or other relevant departments. In this perspective, the method of case study, which is accepted among qualitative research designs, was used. A document analysis was implemented for the case study. Moreover, the words and the themes which the students use to find out their career plans were classified. The results obtained from this study clearly indicate that students pay more importance to public sector exams or other standardized tests with the hope of finding a good job in the public sector, and therefore it is revealed that the university education focuses on institutional objectives which remain quite below the expectations of the sector. Furthermore, there is common belief that individual and patronage relationships play an important role in finding satisfactory jobs. In addition to the economic and political conjuncture, it may be stated that curriculum of education does not encourage students for entrepreneurship.