Advanced forecasting of career choices for college students based on campus big data

Abstract

Career indecision is a difficult obstacle confronting adolescents. Traditional vocational assessment research measures it by means of questionnaires and diagnoses the potential sources of career indecision. Based on the diagnostic outcomes, career counselors develop treatment plans tailored to students. However, because of personal motives and the architecture of the mind, it may be difficult for students to know themselves, and the outcome of questionnaires may not fully reflect their inner states and statuses. Self-perception theory suggests that students’ behavior could be used as a clue for inference. Thus, we proposed a data-driven framework for forecasting student career choice upon graduation based on their behavior in and around the campus, thereby playing an important role in supporting career counseling and career guidance. By evaluating on 10M behavior data of over four thousand students, we show the potential of this framework for this functionality.