Exploring Undergraduates’ Needs for Career Information: A Qualitative Approach

Under the impact of global economic trend and industrial structure change, contemporary undergraduate may find it difficult to make career planning and occupational choice. While the undergraduates are in need of acquiring career information, university libraries could provide explicit resources to fulfill undergraduates’ demand. This refers to the so-called “career information service”. In this study, semi-structured in-depth interviews were deployed. The researchers interviewed 24 undergraduates in National Taiwan University to understand the need of undergraduates’career information. According to study results, uncertainty of occupational development is the intrinsic motivation of seeking career information; while the extrinsic motivation is the pressure from the urgency to make decision. Career information about general situation of different occupations and the future development of certain academic region were the most expected.The interviewees preferred paper, internet, and media resources, and they received career information mainly from acquaintance and the Internet. All of the interviewees approved that university libraries could provide career information services. pp. 82-100