From Classroom to Career: Understanding the Career Decision-Making Process of Psychology Alumni

Abstract

There is little research in the career decision making experience of psychology students in Thailand, especially with international programs like Joint International Psychology Program (JIPP). The purpose of this study is to explore the themes of JIPP alumni's career decision making experiences. The first part of the research is a quantitative survey of what career choices 15 alumni made in the year following their graduation. The second part is a qualitative interview with 10 alumni with questions replicated from Strappe (2021). The result from the first study is that most alumni chose ‘Work’ after they graduated even if they also chose ‘Intern’ or ‘Continue study.’ The themes observed from the interviews can be divided into 5 main parts, including uncertainty, change of plans, differences between alumni who joined the workforce and those who continue their studies, information for the JIPP faculty, and lastly, recommendations to the current students. Future research should further explore the career decision making experience of international psychology alumni in Thailand. Specific research topics could be explored further, such as the effect of bicultural experiences (Akosah-Twumasi et al. 2018), factors that affect the decision making process the most, and how alumni overcome the difficulties in the process. However, because of the lack of literature in Thailand, the first step should be collecting the fundamental statistical data on psychology undergraduate alumni’s careers in Thai universities, such as their employment rate and career choice following their graduation. This research clarifies the challenges of psychology students in   Including more alumni in future studies may help uncover a new or different aspect.