Career Advising For Japanese College Students Studying In The United States
Abstract
Making a decision on one’s career path can be a major challenge, especially for new college graduates who do not have any prior professional work experience. For international college students studying in the U.S. with a future plan of pursuing a career in their home country, the career decision-making process may pose additional challenges due to its process within a multi-cultural framework. This research paper explored the unique challenges that student advisors faced when providing career guidance for college students studying in the U.S. who may be returning to their home country upon graduation. Both of my research subject groups, student advisors and college students, were all Japanese natives. Career guidance was provided in the U.S. and it was based on a Japanese career guidance model commonly used by Japanese colleges and universities. My research data was collected from questionnaires via email from both research subject groups. These questionnaires were compiled with open ended questions and were designed to triangulate research findings. The subjects of these questionnaires included what were the challenges that my research subjects faced, how they resolved those issues, and what was their evaluation on the effectiveness of the career guidance model utilized. Although the research findings indicated that this career guidance provision had positive impact and the guidance model was proven to be an effective tool, there were many challenges that the student advisors had to overcome to bring out desired results. The case of this career guidance model implementation provides us some insights as to the potential issues, as well as some possible solutions that the student service provider can employ when the model is applied outside of the original cultural environment.