Article

Australian Journal of Career Development

2017, Vol. 26(1) 24–31
Influences on career identity ! Australian Council for Educational
Research 2017
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an international university DOI: 10.1177/1038416217697973

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Susan Mate
School of Management RMIT University Melbourne, Australia

Matthew Mcdonald, Arthur Morgan and Duc-Nhat Hoang

Asia Graduate Centre RMIT University Vietnam

Mita Das
Careers Centre University of Sydney

Nhung Dinh
Asia Graduate Centre RMIT University Vietnam

Abstract
This study considers the career identities of Vietnamese students studying at an offshore (Australian) university in
Vietnam. The students had completed the first module of a new career development learning program called Career
Passport. As part of the program, students were required to write a narrative on their ‘career story’ to reflect on their
experiences and synthesise their learning. The study drew on a social constructionist and narrative psychology approach
to explore the major influences on the career identity that emerged from the students’ narratives. The strongest
influence on the students’ career identities and career decision-making was family, which is in accordance with the
collectivist cultural values of Vietnam. Somewhat less expected was the effect of various media, such as film and tele-
vision. Despite the influence of family, the narratives reflect a strong desire to meet individual values, needs and interests
in what the students would like their future careers to look like. The latter two findings perhaps indicate that Vietnamese
students at an international university are more influenced by Western values and expectations of ‘career’ than their
counterparts who study at domestic universities.

Keywords
Narrative, career development learning, Vietnam, career passport, globalisation

Graduate employability is one of the most important
education issues in Vietnam, with research indicating
that university graduates lack the professional know-
ledge and skills that employers, both Vietnamese and
multinational, expect (Ketels, Nguyen Dinh, Nguyen
Thi Tue, & Do Hong, 2010; Montague, 2013; Nguyen,
2012; Pham Thi, 2008; World Bank, 2016).
Multinational organisations typically expect graduate
employees to take initiative, to be able to work inde-
pendently, critically analyse problems, show leadership
and be proactive (Nguyen, 2012); behaviours that might
conflict with the values of their upbringing, experiences
at the primary and high school level and their role in the
family. Vietnam’s education system is heavily influenced
by a centrally controlled political system in which
Confucian-based values of obedience to in-group
norms are common and traditional teaching methods
focus on memorisation and information reproduction
(Littrell, 2006; Tran, 2013; Truong, Hallinger, & Sanga,
2017). Additionally, collectivism is inherent in
Confucian societies, where decision-making is based
on group priorities, such as family interests, rather
than individual needs and concerns (Triandis, 1994).
In contrast, Western societies celebrate individualism,

Corresponding author:
Susan Mate, RMIT University, City Campus, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
Email: sue.mate@gmail.com
Mate et al.
which is highly valued in liberal democracies: students
with these values make choices on education and career
largely based on personal desires, skills and preferences
(Hayden & Thiep, 2010; World Bank, 2016). How do
these seemingly incompatible values combine when stu-
dents from Confucian, collectivist backgrounds interact
with Western-based education systems? Additionally,
after considering these tensions, how can the employ-
ability of graduates be enhanced in a way that is sensi-
tive to some of these values?
Career development learning (CDL) has the poten-
tial to build employability skills and is often provided
by Western universities (Nguyen, 2016; Tran, 2012).
RMIT University Vietnam is an English-speaking
campus that teaches the same curriculum as the
Australian campuses. The Vietnamese campus oper-
ates as a private, fee-charging university and most
undergraduate students come from middle- and
upper-class families. Only a small number of students
undertake part-time or casual work prior to or during
their time at university, and therefore they have little or
no work experience. Often, the only career advice a
student receives is informally through friends and
family (Ministry of Education and Training, 2010;
Quang & Dung, 1998; Tran, 2015). In 2015, the
Careers Centre at RMIT University Vietnam intro-
duced a new career development program, called
Career Passport, to help students make more informed
career decisions and transition more effectively from
university into the workplace. Career Passport consists
of three modules: (a) Explore, (b) Experience and (c)
Engage. Each module runs over 4 weeks and includes
both face-to-face workshops and online learning.
‘Explore’ helps students form a career identity and
relate this to possible career paths, including how to
make realistic career decisions based on labour market
demand. ‘Experience’ teaches students how to market
themselves to potential employers, and ‘Engage’ pre-
pares graduating students to identify employment
opportunities and understand recruitment processes.
Career Passport is a CDL program based on
Western education theories and workplace cultures.
As Hughes and Thomas (2005, p. 42) point out, ‘The
theories that underpin career education and counsel-
ling practice have been developed from a Western cul-
tural perspective’ principally because there is no
Confucian-based equivalent. The development of
RMIT’s approach to Career Passport was under-
pinned by constructionist theory. In particular,
Career Passport employed Savickas’ (2005, p. 48)
‘career adaptability’ model (as well as other
approaches as noted below), which is defined as the
‘coping processes through which individuals connect
to their communities and construct their careers’.
From this perspective, career identity development
(as a form of adaptation) and the formation of identity,
in general, is viewed as a process of learning and
meaning-making that is expressed in the structure of
a narrative (Polkinghorne, 1988; Sarbin, 1986).
25
Our analysis of the narratives collected from the
program drew on a ‘narrative psychological’
approach (McAdams, 1993, 1995, 2006; Murray,
2015). Narrative psychology is broadly social con-
structionist in nature as it attempts to ‘examine the
cultural structuration of individual experience’
(Crossley, 2003, p. 287). It assumes that learning is
an interaction between a person’s experiences and
their socio-cultural environment (Gasper, 1999;
Martin, 2006). In social constructionist approaches,
individuals shape their identities by drawing on his-
torical, social, cultural, political and economic
resources, of which their career identity is one part
(Guignon, 1993; McMahon et al., 2002;
Polkinghorne, 1988; Young and Collin, 2004).
The design of the Career Passport program was
underpinned by notions of career adaptability, narra-
tive psychology and social constructionism that
sought to provide students with a basis for reflecting
on their career identity within the culture of Vietnam.
The self-reflection element of the course was achieved
via a narrative exercise, which provided a means for
the researchers to analyse the students’ experiences
and develop a deeper understanding of their career
identity. Career narrative (i.e. storytelling) exercises
and narrative psychology methods are useful tools
for helping students and researchers make sense of
career identity and career decision-making
(Bamberg, 2010, 2012; Crossley, 2000; Del Corso &
Rehfuss, 2011; McMahon, Patton, & Watson, 2004;
McMahon & Watson, 2013; Singer, 2004; White,
1989, 1992). Studying stories as social constructions
enables researchers to gain insight into the experiences
that affect students’ decisions (Squire, 2008). It pro-
vides the capacity to consider individual differences,
cultural differences and the experiences of a cohort or
group (Mishler, 2000). Writing the story of one’s
career provides a means of ‘sense-making’, as it cap-
tures or displays the cultural understanding or trans-
formative stage through which an individual identifies
the ‘self’ (Bruner, 1990; Squire, 2010; Ricoeur, 1984).
By understanding the cultural aspects of career
identity, the Career Passport program could be
adjusted/modified to meet the students’ needs within
the Vietnamese context. Hughes and Thomas (2005)
advise that career practitioners consider the cultural
suitability of career programs using Leong and
Serefica’s (2001) cultural accommodation approach,
in which the first stage involves identifying cultural
gaps in an existing model. Thus, one of the aims of
this study was to explore what constitutes, or influ-
ences, the career identities of this group of students
and thus consider the appropriateness of utilising a
Western-based program for students in Vietnam.
Method
The method of analysis focused on the narratives
written by students as part of the Explore module of
26
Career Passport. On the last day of the program, stu-
dents were asked to write their personal ‘career story’,
from the initial development of their career identity to
their current stage of career decision-making.
The instructions that students received included:
What did you dream your future career would be?
Who or what influenced or inspired you? Write the
next chapter of your life story. Reflect on your skills,
values, interests and motivations. What do you want
your career to look like?
The participants were 31 students at RMIT Vietnam
who consented to participate in the research and who
undertook the narrative exercise. The study took a nar-
rative psychological approach to the analysis of the nar-
ratives by focusing on the construction of career
identity (Crossley, 2000). A central facet of this
approach is that researchers analyse stories as a con-
struction of experience and take into account the socio-
cultural aspects that influence the way the story is told
(Squire, 2008, 2010). The stories of the students were de-
identified to protect their identities and then analysed.
The narratives were analysed along two independent
dimensions: (a) ‘holistic’ (i.e. the narrative in terms of
overall plot or structure) and (b) ‘categorical’ (i.e.
words, sentences or paragraphs abstracted from the
text to highlight a unit of meaning; Lieblich, Tuval-
Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). Four researchers worked
independently to identify and evaluate the key themes
that emerged from the students’ narratives. They then
worked collaboratively to identify the degree to which
they had understood the relevance and prevalence of the
themes within the stories. We identified specific issues
that came to the fore, for example, themes universally
and continuously presented in the stories rather than
sporadic or discontinued themes. The researchers per-
forming the analysis had both Western and Vietnamese
backgrounds. However, the Career Passport program
was based on Western approaches to CDL and so the
students’ stories might have been biased by a Western
understanding (Personal Narratives Group, 1989),
which could be considered a limitation of the study.
Furthermore, the career stories were written in
English, which was not the first language of the partici-
pants (although students were required to have a high
level of English proficiency to be admitted to the
course), potentially limiting the participant’s degree of
interpretation and expression.
Findings and discussion
The 31 written narratives provided a rich source of
information regarding the students’ experiences. In
line with social contructionist and narrative psycho-
logical approaches, themes based on the overall plot
and structure of the narratives as they related to the
construction of identity were identified in the data.
Given this focus, three superordinate themes emerged:
Australian Journal of Career Development 26(1)
(a) career identity, (b) career decision-making and (c)
identification of possible career paths. Under these
three main themes, several subordinate themes were
identified regarding their influences. Vignettes from
the narratives are provided to highlight themes
drawn from the analysis.
What emerged from the narratives was that the
students’ career identities were largely situated in
Confucian and collectivist values that emphasise
family duty and obligation, obedience to in-group
norms and collective career decision-making.
Conceptually, this aligns with constructionist theory
and a discursive approach that views the formation of
career identity within particular ‘historical, cultural
and interactional contexts’ (LaPointe, 2010, p. 1; see
also Cochran, 1991; McMahon & Patton, 2016). For
students who are exposed to the values of a collectivist
culture, the self might be defined in terms of group
membership. Family represents the most important
groups in Vietnamese society (World Bank, 2016;
Kelly, 2008). Accordingly, students in Confucian
countries, including Vietnam, typically follow a
‘dependent’ decision-making style, which tends
towards subordination of personal goals and desires
to in-group goals, and values of hierarchy, duty and
obligation (Hayden & Thiep, 2010; Truong, Hallinger
& Sanga, 2017). The examples below demonstrate
how family and other social pressures influence the
career goals of Vietnamese students.
My life is mainly the hope from my parents and tea-
chers. The feeling of letting them down haunts me at
night. I studied to compete with other students day by
day without excitement.
My dream can change, and it usually changes, but
there is one thing cannot change in my heart, that is
my family. I can do any job, at any place, it doesn’t
matter because my purpose in life or the reason
I survive in this life is about my family.
My parents have invested not only lots of money,
but also other things (time, energy, etc.) for my
academic study. Because I know it and do not want
to disappoint my parents, for the past few years,
I have been trying my best to get the highest scores
at school, entering both local and national competi-
tions, doing my utmost to attain the highest achieve-
ments (Participant quotations).
The narratives indicate that students are heavily
influenced by their family and culture. It shapes the
career decision-making process through which mean-
ingful vocational choices are made (Fouad & Byars-
Winston, 2005). Indeed, Hughes and Thomas (2005)
argue that collectivism affects self-concept,
decision-making processes, career interests, career
maturity and career counselling processes. Super’s
(1990) lifespan/life space approach can be examined
with reference to individualism and collectivism
(Hughes & Thomas, 2005), and LaPointe (2010,
Mate et al.
p. 29) revised Super’s (1990) approach by employing a
social constructionist perspective, describing career
identity as a ‘practice of articulating, performing and
negotiating identity positions in narrating career
experiences’. From this perspective, career identity is
a co-constructed concept influenced by geographical,
socio-cultural and historical contexts. LaPointe’s work
provides a basis for understanding and interpreting
how Vietnamese students form their career identity.
Social values are mirrored in the role played by
family, and they create a powerful undercurrent
in the life of a student and the choices made about
which degree to study and which career to pursue. In
the present study, the role of the family was found to
be inextricably entwined in career identity and, cor-
respondingly, career decision-making processes.
Inherent in Confucian values are traditional gender
roles and a deep respect for the elder members of
the family, which includes both parents and grandpar-
ents and even great-grandparents. Indeed, the stu-
dents’ narratives revealed a strong reliance on family
as a source of vocational advice, which, in turn,
affected career decision-making. Parents might be
the most influential actors in this regard, as they
have a direct effect on the development of attitudes,
especially during the phase where young people start
to discover who they are and what they want their
future to look like (Rush, 2002). Family members
can all have their own opinions about good career
choices, and students will experience these influences
on a regular basis.
I received a lot of advice and suggestions from my family
and friends that significantly influenced my decision.
My parents just guided me and helped me to make this
decision. We came to the conclusion of choosing mar-
keting degree after long discussions, research and
evaluation of all benefits and drawbacks of this career.
As I was clueless about my future, I let my parents
decide for me. They told me to take a shot at learning
economics and finance because they thought that
finance matched my personality. I agreed. I am
passive, quite reserved, and not good at communicat-
ing, organized, always in time, and pleased with num-
bers. I think what my parents told me was true.
(Participant quotations)
Although many students appreciated guidance from
family members, some students wrote that family-influ-
enced decisions might not be entirely fitting for them.
At first, I was enrolled in the Information Technology
(IT) program. This was due to the fact that I was
unclear about which road I should go, and my
father also wanted me to follow his envisioned ‘road
to success’. I have tried my best to enjoy and make
use of that time at RMIT studying IT. Still it occurred
to me that this was definitely not my desired pathway.
(Participant quotations)
27
While the students’ narratives were orientated
around a collectivist, Confucian culture, from where
they acquired values from their family and social
groups, they also observed role models in the local
and international media that thought and behaved
in more independent and self-directed ways in their
career and life choices. Uncensored media content is
now much more readily available in Vietnam, and the
students’ narratives revealed the influence of this on
their career choices from various media, including
films, TV programs and advertisements.
I am majoring in marketing because when I was a
child I was amazed by OMG’s (Oh my god) TVC
(Television Commercial) (2003). The advertising
videos made an impact on me because they were so
hilarious and original.
I had another dream that I would like to be a police-
man because I love action movie. I want to be a hero
to help people around me.
When I was a little boy, I watched many movies
which showed operating procedures of the stock
market. Working in a financial company and estab-
lishing a company are two important objects in my
future. (Participant quotations)
This effect has been reported previously, for exam-
ple, Kohler and Edwards (1990) found that television
was one factor leading high school students to choose
nursing as their future career. Similarly, Hoffner et al.
(2006) observed that students’ dream jobs were
strongly related to the jobs of popular TV characters.
The results from both of these studies came from
Western students. The relatively strong influence of
media on career decisions of students in the present
study implies the appropriation of Western ideals.
The influence of media also highlights the importance
of quality CDL programs to direct students towards
more appropriate, realistic and personalised career
paths. We propose that this is as important for stu-
dents in the Asian Pacific region as it is in the West, as
global media affects all student populations.
Narrative-based CDL activities provide students
with some insight into the factors influencing their
career choices, and allow students to actively engage
in decision-making about future directions and to
pursue opportunities to develop their career in a dir-
ection that is aligned with their values, skills and inter-
ests. The career development process is one of
attempting to become more self-aware and choosing
a career that allows for the expression of aspirations
(Savickas, 1996). However, this idea revolves around
Western constructions of career identity, which are
more independent, autonomous, driven by personal
existential needs, and characterised by the expression
of an individual’s values, skills and interests. Giving
Vietnamese students the opportunity to consider their
independent career identity allowed them to reflect on
attributes such as their personal interests, capabilities,
28
goals and cultural values, potentially leading to
better-tailored career choices. Indeed, the exercises
undertaken as part of the Career Passport course
gave the students an opportunity to explore their
own abilities and passions, and support the construc-
tion of an independent career identity, as can be seen
in the following quotes:
Day by day, decision by decision, I gradually see
myself more clearly. I am independent, brave, and
creative. Now I know I do not want a lot of money
to purchase Channel or Gucci as I used to. I want to
work at an average income with work–life balance
and knowing that what I do does not harm anyone.
Right now I am trying to experience as much as I am,
as well as figuring out what I am passionate about.
I have explored myself more than I ever thought
I would, and have improved myself as a person and
an employee. I am ready and excited to find out what
lies ahead and to conquer every challenge I will face.
Throughout the process, new boundaries were tested,
new aspects were discovered. I slowly recognized my
strong points as well as my drawbacks. This lays a
sound foundation in my path toward the future.
(Participant quotations)
When students were provided with tools to explore
career paths, they found this a valuable exercise
because it empowered them to consider opportunities
they had previously considered to be beyond their
reach. Many students seemed able to identify career
options that aligned with their career identity in terms
of their values, skills and interests and motivations,
and seemed positive about the career path they were
looking to pursue.
After the first semester in university, I realized that I
prefer the public relations industry. I like writing,
solving problems. I also prefer activities related to
my interests. Therefore, I can pay attention and
passion to my work when exploring new things.
In the future I see myself as a successful manager of a
marketing department. According to my interests,
I wish to work in the business industry because it is
a fast-growing and developing sphere of marketing.
Another aspect that is crucial to me is that I wish to
work with people who are experts in their field. That
is why I motivate myself to study hard in order to
become a professional too.
I want to be an inspired person who can positively
affect other people. I want to run a business which
can combine my two interests (fashion and finance)
and open a shop. (Participant quotations)
The Career Passport program was designed to help
Vietnamese students understand their career identity
and thereby to assist their future career decision-
making whilst at university. The students identified
two key factors, namely family and the media, as
Australian Journal of Career Development 26(1)
the most influential in their career decision-making.
In addition, the students displayed an ability to also
consider their own needs, skills and desires in the con-
text of these factors, which indicated a more mature
approach to career decision-making hitherto not
recognised or understood.
Conclusions
Education is one of Australia’s largest export indus-
tries, and many international students, at both
onshore and offshore campuses, are from cultures
heavily influenced by Confucian and collectivist
values such as China and Vietnam. In the case of
this research study, we explored how students develop
a career identity through learning about themselves as
a part of their educational experience. Career identity
is formed and reformed over the lifespan, where it
adapts to continuous change in interpersonal relation-
ships, cultural values, technology and economic con-
ditions (Brown, Kirpal, & Rauner, 2007; Taylor,
2007). Career identity is comprised of a person’s attri-
butes, such as their interests, capabilities, goals and
cultural values (Kielhofner, 2007). However, the cen-
trality of family needs to be acknowledged if this and
other CDL programs are to be meaningful for stu-
dents from collectivist, Confucian cultures. Brown
(2002, 2003) states that cultural variables are not lim-
ited to personal values, but must be considered in
multiple layers of external influences that frame a per-
son’s background, opportunities and barriers. Cook,
Heppner and O’Brien (2002) advocate that career
counselling and cultural values are inseparable.
Higher education is an important business in the
West, and students from collectivist Confucian socie-
ties form a significant portion of the global student
population. CDL programs must be of high quality
and culturally appropriate if universities are to pro-
duce graduates with high levels of employability and
achieve the national economic impact to which they
and their governments aspire. If higher education is to
continue to play a role in facilitating graduate
employability across countries, it is important to
explore how graduates construct their career identity
in varied cultural contexts. Career development
practitioners need to consider students’ families in
the process and the effects of decisions on the stu-
dents’ connections in terms of cultural validity and
cultural specificity. Thus, we recommend that the
role of the family be integrated into CDL programs
for students from Confucian cultures such as the one
examined in this study.
The present study analysed the career narratives of
tertiary students early in their degrees and provided
insight into Vietnamese students’ career identity and
decision-making, including the importance of family
and the media, and the tendency of students to reflect
on individual (personal) considerations. With these
findings, the cultural appropriateness of the CDL
Mate et al.
program might be refined for Vietnamese students
and those from other collectivist backgrounds.
Referring to Leong and Serefica’s (2001) cultural
accommodation approach, new exercises could be
included in the Explore module of Career Passport
to teach students how to facilitate constructive discus-
sions with their parents on career decision-making.
The purpose of such exercises would be to educate
family members about the importance of career devel-
opment in terms of their child’s employability and
long-term occupational sustainability. Practical sug-
gestions regarding this conclusion will now be exam-
ined in more detail.
The Vietnamese students studied here were already
showing signs of adopting Western values in relation
to career, which they had taken from their lecturers,
the media and other students. However, rather than
encouraging students to view their career from a
purely Western perspective, one defined by meeting
personal existential needs and the potential problems
this might create, it would also assist students to con-
structively negotiate the career decision-making pro-
cess within the context of family. Strategies to achieve
this could include teaching students how to have
‘future career’ discussions with their parents to edu-
cate them that making the right career decisions is a
‘process’ that requires time and resources, such as
speaking with teachers/lecturers, conducting informa-
tion interviews and undertaking internships.
Educating parents can also be facilitated by educa-
tional institutions at open and information days
where careers consultants can run workshops for par-
ents and students to help them see career planning as
an essential element of gaining an educational quali-
fication (Khasawneh, 2010).
Thus, the ‘career story’ the students write at the
completion of the Explore module could be modified
to encourage reflection on the students own personal
values, interests, skills and goals, while acknowledging
the influence of Vietnamese social and cultural insti-
tutions with a view to them thinking about how they
might negotiate these competing values (Maree &
Molepo, 2016). This might be achieved by including
content regarding family duty and obligations, obedi-
ence to in-group norms and how to negotiate collect-
ive career decisions. Narrative exercises could thus
have the capacity to enable students to think about
how their career identity might be empowered or con-
strained by the characteristics of their historical, pol-
itical and cultural background. For example, students
could be asked to reflect on how their primary and
high schooling has come to influence their motivation
and worldview in terms of careers (Martin, 2006).
Producing a globalised commodity, which univer-
sity education has now become, involves further con-
sideration of approaches that enable effective
outcomes for the students that participate in the edu-
cation system. RMIT Vietnam has recently started a
program for the workforce that enables employers to
29
learn about the range of skills involved in mentoring
students whilst they are on internships. This provides
students with the opportunity in their placements to
also learn about working with mentors while raising
the quality and relevance of universities and govern-
ment learning institutes. The World Bank (2016) has
recommended that Vietnam, as one of the fastest
growing economies in the Asian Pacific region,
needs to enhance the quality of its education and
human resource development if it is going to continue
to successfully compete in the globalised economy.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This project was funded by an RMIT
Vietnam internal research grant.
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