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Factors Influencing Professional Selection Choices: Evidence from Pakistan

This empirical study was conducted to identify the different factors that influence Pakistani student’s career choices. Five leading professions i.e. business and management sciences, medical, pharmacy, engineering and agriculture were selected to identify the factors. A survey was conducted using close ended likert scale type questionnaire on the sample of 523 students from mentioned background. Data was analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis technique. Smart PLS software was used for analysis. The result indicate that personal interest, self-esteem and societal influence were major factors that significantly impact career selection of business and management. For medical profession, self-efficacy and self-esteem found to have a positive influence. For pharmacy profession, growth opportunities, psychological factor, self-efficacy and self-esteem have a significant influence. For engineering profession psychological factor, self -efficacy and societal influence show positive affect. For agriculture profession, self-esteem, psychological factor and growth opportunities show favorable results. The findings will provide valuable information to policy makers and recruiters as to keep in mind the factors that affect students when they associated with these professions.


BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Profession selection is an important decision for any student. When we talk about the career choices or profession selection the question that comes in our minds is what the students would like to be and why? The answer of this question usually depends on student interest, parental background, environmental and societal influences etc. it means we can say that selection of profession for students will vary culture to culture, person to person and society to society. Mostly students choose such type of professions that have high market value, growth opportunities, job security, financial benefits and highly respectable in society. Doctors, engineers, pharmist, business managers are the people whom the students admired and wants to be like them. Moreover agriculture profession also taking attention of students due to market acceptability. All these professions have high demand among the students and higher education institutions provide opportunities to be specialized in these disciplines which ultimately help students in their career development.
Profession selection is the important element in today's modern life and highly competitive environment. Life revolves around different professions which gives identity and creativity, purpose and self fulfilment, it connects us with social networking (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012). Student life is linked with different experiences and attitudes related to that profession or field they choose. Any student who decides to select a particular profession two conditions are necessary for him/her. First, other career and profession options are available and secondly personal interest and preference is matter most between different professions (Agarwala, 2008a). Different profession selection options given to the individual or students are influenced by external factor such as economy, labor market etc. and internal factors include family, behavior, attitudes and background (Agarwala, 2008a). Environmental, political, economic, socio culture aspects are also affect the profession selection decisions of young students.

PROBLEM STATBMENT:
Selection of a career or profession that matches with your abilities, skills, interests and personality is a critical decision. Unfortunately in developing countries like Pakistan there is a lake of career consoling and guidance and students do not have sufficient knowledge Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 about their selected profession. In Pakistan the literacy rate is low there are many factors that could affect the choice of students. Sometimes the parents imposed their choices on students to select professions they decided for them. So there is a need to identify different factors that impact on Pakistani students in career selection process.
In Pakistan there is a shortage of research on profession selection context. This paper explores the factors that affect the Pakistani students in their profession selection decision. Questions like why students select their specific profession? What were the reasons behind their decision? Were their decisions under influenced or not? Is there any role of self-efficacy and self-esteem in their profession selection decisions? All of the above questions has been explored in this research.

GAP ANALYSIS
Based on the extensive literature review it has been observed that many researches has been conducted on career choices like (Jones and Larke Jr., 2003) who stated that father was a influencing factor in selection of agriculture profession in USA. Another author (Agarwala, 2008a) identify the impact of cultural values that affect career choices of MBA students in India. The author (Dick and Rallis, 2006) stated that societal influence is the most important factor in the selection of engineering profession in Rhode island, but another author (Ng, Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2008) confirmed that societal influence was not a significant factor in career selection process in USA. The author (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012) also stated that in Malaysia societal influence is not a significant factor for career selection. The author (Bai, 1998) identify the impact of market oriented economy on career selection process in Chinese universities.
In short all the above researches has been conducted on a particular profession and most of the researchers examined the cultural and market oriented impact on career selection.
Moreover all these researches have been conducted in a specific socio-cultural environment like in India, china, Malaysia, USA and the factors that is favorable in one country surely unfavorable in other country. In Pakistan the study conducted by (Nauman, 2014) explored the career influencing factors in Punjab regions which is obviously different in Karachi as Karachi is the biggest commercial city of Pakistan that have a population more than 20 Million, so the result of the study cannot generalized in Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 Karachi. Since Karachi is a multi-cultural city, so I order to fulfill this cross-culture gap, Students of Karachi needs to be included. Cultural diversity is an important aspect in career choice decisions that cannot be ignored. Moreover, the sample size of that study was relatively small and methodology was limited in comparing means that limits the scope of the research.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
There may be a number of reasons behind the profession selection decision of any student so there is need to identify those factors that affect career decisions. For the sake of this study we take a large number of students that have different educational backgrounds and interrogate them to identify the factors that influence them with the help of well-structured questionnaire. Following are the objectives of study:  To study the impact of factors that influence the selection of business and management sciences profession.
 To study the impact of factors that influence the selection of medical profession.
 To study the impact of factors that influence the selection of pharmacy profession.
 To study the impact of factors that influence the selection of engineering profession.
 To study the impact of factors that influence the selection of agriculture profession.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
 What are the factors that affect the students to select management and administrative sciences field?
 What are the factors that affect the students to select medical profession?
 What are the factors that affect the students to select pharmacy profession?
 What are the factors that affect the students to select engineering profession?
 What are the factors that affect the students to select agriculture profession?

Significance
Pakistan is facing a problems like poverty, illiteracy, corruption, energy crisis but except all, there are some other issues like career decisions that not give any importance from

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Career explorations have two dimensions first is self-exploration and second is environmental exploration. In self-exploration person has its own interest, values, attitudes, curiosity to understand his/her personality in order to search for a career match (Flum, Behavior and2000, 2000) and in environmental exploration people search other career options by gathering the information on job vacancies, attractive occupations and industries to take more careful decision of profession selection (Zikic and Richardson, 2007). When we combine both self-exploration and environmental exploration we get information about individual personal interest, experiences, abilities that match some specific profession or occupation and thus we achieve person environmental fit and career attainment (Ballout, 2007). Many researchers have focused different factors that influence profession selection decisions largely based on student interest, growth opportunities, individual aptitudes and past studies also showed many factors that affect profession selection decisions like occupational charm, societal influence, job security, academic achievements, salary, status and prestige, work autonomy etc (Nauman, 2014).
Three dimensional frame work has been proposed by (Carpenter & foster, 1977) are widely used in profession or career selection studies, these factors are intrinsic which means (interest in the job and personally satisfying work) second is extrinsic which means (availability of jobs and high paid salary structures) and third factor is interpersonal which means (societal influence like parents, teachers, siblings, friends) (Carpenter & foster, 1977) (Beynon et al., 1998).
According to (Meece et al., 1982) general model of academic choice, the factors that influence the academic achievements behaviors of students are past events which includes (past grades, past test scores and related experiences), socialization factors which includes (parents, teachers and counselors attitudes, their expectations and related behavior, Socializers provide their general experiences to encourage and hence the student achievement behavior and values or choices influenced by them), task value which means (attainment of goals, self-confidence, personal values, engaging in any particular task and self-perceptions ), task value also include intrinsic value which means (student interest and enjoyment in the course or activity they are engaged), the third component of task value is utility value which means (student desire to reaching a variety of goals although they are not so interested in a particular activity but they choose specific courses due to its long range usefulness and benefits) all above factors ultimately reached to the students achievement behavior which includes academic performance, academic choice and academic persistence (Meece et al., 1982). Similarly other authors (Jones and Larke Jr., 2003) have identified that father occupation is a most important aspect in career selection decisions of students, according to the author students whose father were employed in agriculture related occupation so most probably there is a chance that a child will pursue an agriculture related career and those students whose father were not in agriculture related occupation so a child will pursue any other professions, moreover college experiences, career fairs, internships, experimental exposure, cooperative work programs may have a positive impact on students profession selection decisions and if the job opportunities is limited and students will not be able to find their ideal career so they prefer other occupations. Parents, teachers plays a critical role in students career selection decisions because they act as a role model for any student (Jones and Larke Jr., 2003).
The author (Dick and Rallis, 2006) have also identified that parents and teachers are the most powerful personalities to encourage the students both male and female to choose science or engineering fields. According to the author money or income is a influencing factor for men and personal interest is a important factor for women to choose a specific profession (Dick and Rallis, 2006). Another author also confirmed that level of education of mother, father, male or female guardian and friends have also influenced the career decision of students, career or growth opportunities, prior and high school educational experiences and events are also the reason to choose agriculture field (Esters, 2005).
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 According to (Fouad et al., 2008) identified the contextual, cultural and personal variables that influence the career decisions. Several characteristics lie under the general domain of family influences which include family expectations. Families expect to work hard, do well in colleges or universities, and gain a strong education and expectations of success from students. Family obligations include that student taking care of their families, they are closed to their families and also gives a financial support to families either currently or in future. Some students career selection decisions also affected due to the geographical location because they are closed with their families and could not go far from their hometown or cities. Family values also affect career decision which include the self-sacrificing nature of family that forces the students to choose such types of profession in which they are able to help others like nursing (Fouad et al., 2008) family support includes the financial and emotional support that a student receives from their family members in the form of encouragement, confidence to do well. Cultural influences are also lie under the general domain which includes cultural background, cultural values, communication styles, respect of elders family members, family safety, discrimination related to gender or language etc. According to (Fouad et al., 2008) social structural factors also affect the profession decision which includes race, ethnicity and minority status. Role models can also affect the decisions because role model can be a person who contribute positively in the community and provide valuable services to the people. Role model directly or indirectly affect the career decisions, for students the role model can be their family members, teachers, guidance counselors etc. work values also affect the career decisions which means that people choose some specific professions on the basis of their abilities. Work values also included the working environment of any occupation and salary is the important factor to select any profession (Fouad et al., 2008), career goals also influenced the decisions which means finding enjoyment, excitement, opportunities and rewards are also important in any profession selection decision.
Personal interest and characteristics also shape the career choice decisions (Fouad et al., 2008). Another author also observed that parents are the role model for their children, parental support, beliefs, socioeconomic status of parents and parental encouragement all these factors shape the vocational training of teenagers (Ferreira et al., 2007).
Another author also expose that parents and older siblings have huge impact on student career choices decisions and aspirations because they are already working in a particular Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 profession and thus guided their children to join specific profession, moreover the subjects students studied in their schools or colleges level so most probably there is a chance that student follow a profession that relates with their subjects (Mutekwe, Modiba and Maphosa, 2017). Another valuable studies showed that under the societal influence father is considered to be a greatest influence of MBA students in India to shape their career choices decisions (Agarwala, 2008b). According to this study for management sciences student abilities, skills, competencies, education and training is the most significant factor to influence their decisions (Agarwala, 2008b). Moreover this study also explored the cultural values that affect career selection decisions. According to this study MBA students in India have both individualistic and collectivistic culture values which means those students who have individualistic behavior will value his/her own interest, they consider as independent of organizations, they give themselves a higher value on self-reliance, they are looking for their own advantage, they concern their own individual financial security, social status and career progression (Agarwala, 2008b). individualistic behavior students believes that they are responsible for their career decision and their future (Agarwala, 2008b). According to the study individualistic behavior students in India gives more important to material benefits like money, financial rewards, salary, social status and prestige. This study proved that Indian management students who have highly influenced in individualistic culture will not give value to family members, relationships and social networks while taking profession selection decisions, on the other hand those students who have high collectivism give value and take support from others like family members, teachers, siblings etc in their career selection process so father is considered to be a most influential person that shape the children career decision process in management sciences in India (Agarwala, 2008b), this study also expose two types of career orientations protean and conventional. Indian management students have a mix of both orientations. Protean individuals are those who managed proactively, they are self-directed, value driven, and career selection decision will not influenced by people.
On the other hand conventional orientation individuals are not self-directed, they measure the success in terms of objective factors like promotions, recognitions, money etc, so their profession selection decision influenced by success stories of others such as father, mother, etc (Agarwala, 2008b). This study also observed that for females students in India intrinsic factors are most important like skills and competencies for the selection Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 of management career but for male students extrinsic factors are more important such as financial rewards (Agarwala, 2008b). On the contrary another author (Ng, Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2008)explored that the influence of people such as family and non-family members, relatives have limited effect on career decision which means that societal influence has no significant relationship with career selection process. According to this author the expectation of US MBA students are " knowledge and competence" from an MBA program and US students showed greater value and success in their MBA program (Ng, Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2008). Moreover US MBA students also showed high scoring on individualism and collectivism behavior just like protean career orientation, and non-people factor which include (education and training, career benefits, luck and chance) also influenced the profession selection of US MBA students (Ng, Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2008). Similarly another author also exposed that family influence does not affect the career choices of engineering students (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012). The factors that affect the choice of engineering profession is job-fit which means the perception of individual personality that meets the job requirement and demands, job demands include (knowledge, abilities, skills) (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012), a student that have a good educational background in engineering have a possibility to select engineering profession because they believe that they have skills to handle this technical profession in future (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012). This study also confirms the another factor that is financial rewards in career selection decision likewise (Agarwala, 2008a). financial rewards and benefits are the positive relationship on the career choices among engineers (Choo, Norsiah and Tan, 2012). So human resource management have an important role in providing an appropriate job scope to engineering students to enhance their skills and capabilities and to motivate them. Conversely another author exposed that financial rewards and income is not a significant factor in the selection of pharmacy profession (Eiland et al., 2010), according to this study there is a perception of pharmacy faculty that students not choose this profession due to low salary in academia and high salary outside the academia that forces the students not to choose this profession but low patient contact was the most significant reason of students not to choose this field, this study confirms that 77% of the students said that low salary is not a reason to not to choose pharmacy profession (Eiland et al., 2010). According to the other studies growth or career opportunities is the important factor for students to choose pharmacy profession and Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 those students who have desire to help others, confidence in their abilities and have more knowledge of this profession are the other factors to select pharmacy profession (Flora., 2010). Gender influence has also been observed by this author that females supposed to be more concern, sensitive, empathy and compassion in nature so they select or prefer pharmacy as a profession (Flora., 2010).
According to the author (Adya and Kaiser, 2005) also confirms that student career choices affect by role models like mother, father, siblings, teachers etc. availability of technological resources and gender influence also affect career selection process (Adya and Kaiser, 2005). Similarly author (Stone, James R., III|Wang, 1990) also observed that parental occupation effect on children career choices. Another study explores that differences between project oriented and technical oriented engineers project oriented engineers are less concern with their reputation ,they are not interested in advancement, they want competent colleagues, creative freedom and challenging projects (Katz et al., 2002). On the other hand technical oriented engineers are managerially-oriented, they prefer management positions for the sake of status and prestige, salary and high power (Katz et al., 2002). Similarly the author (Kim and Cha, 2003) (Manuel and Hughes, 2006) revealed the factors that affect the teaching professions are (people personal fulfilment, they want to work with young people, they want a meaningful engagement with the areas of their career choices because they want to transform the lives of other people). Another study also confirms that the intrinsic career value, career choice satisfaction, planned persistent, planned effort and social contributions are the factors that affect profession selection decision (Eren and Tezel, 2010). According to the study (Chak keung and Liu, 2010) parents play an enormous role in student career selection process in china. According to the study parents in china concern about the status, prestige and welfare because of immature policies in china for example one child policy in china forces the Chinese parents to select profession that will generate high income and benefits to meet the life expenses and children's in China free their parents from worries of housing, medical and basic human needs (Chak keung and Liu, 2010). Chinese parents also influence their children to select profession that have status, honor so that parents feel proud in front of relatives, friends and society. Another parental factor is parents support which means if the parents are less supportive so the young people will avoid to select the profession like hospitality and tourism management (Chak keung and Liu, 2010). According to this study third factor is parental barrier which is in the result of low parents support. Another author empirically verified different factors that affect the career choices of accountants, attorneys, engineers and physicians (paolillo & estes, 1992). According to the author employment opportunities is the biggest factor that affect the career choices of accountant students, on the other hand for attorneys the most important factor is social status and least important factor is teacher influence, similarly for engineers employment opportunities is also important likewise for accountants and social status is the least important factor for engineers and for physicians parental influence or peer influence are the important factor while earning potential and work experience are the less important factors (paolillo & estes, 1992). The author (Wilkinson, 2006) observed the differences between men and women in choosing their first employment in civil engineering profession in UK. According to this study women considers the location of the organization more than men, women's want to live close and near to family and friends, so according to the author mobility is the factor that affect the civil engineering students of UK in the selection of their career paths (Wilkinson, 2006).
The findings of the another author also stated that for females in US, chance, luck or circumstances is the important factor in the selection of management career (Ng, Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2008).
Author (Bai, 1998) said that under the influence of market orientation economy the choices of university graduates affected. He observed that university students are confused between personal interest and interest of others, individual freedom and social responsibility, market competition and fairness, he observed that personal elf interest is the factor that shape their career decisions rather than societal interest (Bai, 1998). Like other professions, medical profession is also taking attention from young graduates due to its significant impact on society and on the lives of people. According to the author (kassebaum & szenas, 1993) explored various important factor that influence the specialty choices of medical students, these factors are intellectual opportunity which include (content of the specialty, opportunity for research, diagnostic problem), lifestyles , personality-fit to the specialty and interest in helping people, on the other hand like time and flexibility, clerkships, mentorship, faculty encouragement have moderate influence, moreover leadership and prestige are the most influencing factor for surgical specialties (kassebaum & szenas, 1993). The another study also confirmed the factors that affect the career choices in internal medicine these factors are practice environment, educational experiences, patient care, intellectual challenge, role models, personal/professional satisfaction, lifestyles and prestige (K.E. et al., 2008). Another author also exposed the facilitator and barriers of primary care in medicine, the author stated the common facilitator in high, middle and low income countries which are rural background, role models, working conditions, the author also stated the common barriers which are low income, lack of honor, limited research opportunities and medical schools environment in primary care (Puertas, Arósquipa and Gutiérrez, 2013). The author observed the intrinsic factors such as lifestyle, voluntary work, attitudes towards social problem and undeserved population in high income countries and extrinsic factors are influence of family, scope of medical practice, exposure to general practice and continuity of care (Puertas, Arósquipa and Gutiérrez, 2013). Moreover the intrinsic factors in middle and low income countries are intellectual challenge and understanding of rural needs and extrinsic factors are financial incentives (Puertas, Arósquipa and Gutiérrez, 2013). The author (Sanfey, 2006) explored the factors that affect the career choice of surgeons in USA are status, income, lifestyles and balanced lives. Just like medical, pharmacy, engineering and management sciences other professions are also taking attention of young graduates for example information technology. According to the author (Nielsen, 1998) observed that how national culture and cultural background divided the opinion to shape the students perception regarding IT as a field of study and employment.

THEORITICAL FRAME WORK:
The aim of this study is to identify the factors that affect the selection of various leading professions in Pakistan like business and management sciences, medical, pharmacy, engineering and agriculture.

Career theories:
According to the social cognitive theory, individuals who wants to maintain their own career behavior so three variables are required which is self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations and personal goals (Lent and Brown, 1996). Self-efficacy means the individual own beliefs and judgment on their skills and capabilities to perform certain task and activities which may include academic and work tasks (Hackett, Brown, 1994).
If the individual wants to attain self-efficacy beliefs, there are four sources to acquire the self-efficacy which includes personal accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, psychological states (Lent and Brown, 1996). Self-efficacy measures on  (Lent and Brown, 1996). Outcomes expectation are individual beliefs after the performance of the specific tasks, it also include the individual behavior about the consequences and results of the performance for example the outcome expectation of career paths can only be derived through direct or indirect learning experiences (Lent and Brown, 1996). Personal goals plays an important role in career selection decision. It involves the personal interest of an individual in a certain task in order to receive a positive outcome. According social cognitive theory self-efficacy and outcome expectations are reasons to which goals of the individual affected (Lent and Brown, 1996).
Holland theory on career interest on career interest and environment is also useful in profession selection. He conceptualized the vocational interest in to six typologies these are realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (Leung, 2008).
According to Holland personal interest play a major role in career selection process and career satisfaction. Holland also conceptualized vocational environment in to similar typologies for the selection of career and career satisfaction, individuals want environment in which they are free or able to show their skills and abilities (Brown, 1987).
The word ''congruence'' is used by Holland which means the compatibility of individual personality, interest and work environment in order to achieve the vocational stability and satisfaction (Leung, 2008).

Self-concept theory by super is also very useful in career development and counselling.
According to this theory self-concept is essential in career making process. Self-concept is made up of a number of factors which are personal experiences, physical and mental growth, environmental characteristics and stimulation (Tiedeman et al., no date). Super also provide the life stage framework which include growth stage, exploration stage, establishment stage, maintenance stage, disengagement stage (Leung, 2008). In the growth stage teenagers have to manage with career development tasks. For this career developmental tasks, career maturity will required in each developmental stages. The stages from growth to disengagement an individual may face many career transition due to environmental circumstances (Leung, 2008). The Super also stated the life roles such as child, student, worker, parent, citizen, homemaker etc, life roles changes as the individual passing through life stages (Tiedeman et al., no date).
According to the most recent theory of career development given by Gottfredson's theory of circumscription and compromise, there is a relationship between individual genetic characteristics and environment. Genetic characteristics of an individual plays a pivotal role in shaping the fundamental characteristics of person such as interest, skills and values, these characteristics is moderated by the environment (Leung, 2008). According to the Gottfredson's, if a person have ascendancy to construct their own environment then he/she is called the active agent (Leung, 2008), so career making is a self-creation process in which individual looked for different path or directions to show their native inclination with the circumference of their own cultural environment (Leung, 2008). Gottfredson's stated that career development is the process of circumscription in which the individuals withdraw other alternative professions for further examination. There are four stages of circumscription first is size and power, second is sex roles, third is social valuation and last is self-concept or unique-self (Leung, 2008). Gottfredson's theory said that career decisions of individuals influenced by social class (Tiedeman et al., no date). Gottfredson's gave the model for career guidance which is consisted the following strategies i, use of occupational or career information ii, experiences that allow students to perceive their personality related to career iii, judgment to build their own realistic career path iv, self-investment to select the desired career options successfully (Leung, 2008).
Another valuable theory for career development is career Anchors theory which is introduced by (Schein, 1978) in 1978. According to this theory ''career Anchor'' is the individual values, needs and abilities (Schein, 2001 5. Self-efficacy: student's belief on his/her abilities, decisions. They focused on positive outcomes on their profession selection decision. 6. Self-esteem: career choices is also affected by the desire of higher position, status, prestige, high influence on society.
7. Psychological effects: Sometimes people emotionally attached with specific occupations also they think that their quality of life associated with the profession they will select.
Dependent variables (Carrier choices) are:

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:
H1: Growth opportunities affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H2: Occupational charm affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H3: Societal influence affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H4: Personal interest affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H5: self-esteem affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H6: self-efficacy affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.
H7: psychological factor affect the selection of career choices for above mentioned professions.

DATA COLLECTION:
To attain the aim of this study, three well reputed and specialized institutions in each discipline were selected these institutions are: university of Karachi (uok), Dow medical university and health sciences (DUHMS) and NED university. For the management and administrative sciences profession data were form the department of Karachi university business school (KUBS), for pharmacy profession data were collected form the department of pharmaceutical sciences in university of Karachi, for agriculture profession data were collected from the department of agriculture and agribusiness management in university of Karachi, for engineering profession data were collected from NED university and for medical profession data were collected from Dow medical university and health sciences.

SCALE DEVELOPMENT:
For this study Survey questionnaire was developed consisted on seven independent variables influencing career choice decisions, however modification were also made to achieve the objectives of the study and to accurately measure the construct. The target audience were the students who currently enrolled in the following professions: management sciences, medical, pharmacy, engineering and agriculture. Valuable sample of 523 were collected from students through convenience sampling. All responses were measured in a Likert-scale 1, strongly agree 2, agree 3, disagree 4, strongly disagree. The content of the questionnaire was based on the variables taken from an extensive literature review of different authors (Agarwala, 2008b), (M Rosenberg -Acceptance and commitment therapy., 1965), (Nauman, 2014), (Smith, no date), (Ciarrochi and Bilich, no date), (Taylor and Popma, 1990), (Carpenter & foster, 1977), (Fejgin, Ephraty and Ben-Sira, 1995), (Mutekwe, Modiba and Maphosa, 2017), (Dick and Rallis, 2006).

SOFTWARE:
Smart PLS software used for data analysis.  The above table 2 shows the items mean, standard deviation and standard error. Mean value lies between 1.67 to 2.9 along with the standard deviation values between 0.612 to 0.923. All the responses of the items are in the range of average score.

STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING:
To test the study hypothesis we have used the structural equation model (SEM) whereas the testing has been gone through Smart PLS software. Moreover, to evaluate the indirect and direct effects of all the constructs the testing was done. The use of (SEM) structural equation model has been observed to be a foremost procedure that has been used below different regression models and methods (Barron & Kenny, 1986). It used to evaluate the structural relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables. It includes factor analysis and multivariate analysis. Moreover, the equation of regression targets at explaining each construct to assess the cause and effect relationship while all of the factors in the causal model could demonstrate their cause and effect at exact time. Likewise, the idea of using this model ensures to apply technique of bootstrapping which has been viewed as reasonable for both small and large sample size and does not require any kind of indirect effect (Hayes, 2013). In order to check the all direct and indirect effects, a technique has been implemented which is known as bootstrapping (Shrout & Bolger, 2002).

Measurement of Outer Model:
The goal of measure of fit in the measurement model is to study about the reliability and validity of the instrument and to check its reliability and validity we perform test of convergent validity and discriminant validity in software naming Smart PLS.

COMPOSITE RELIABILITY AND CRONBACH'S ALPHA:
Composite reliability and Chronbach's Alpha is used to show reliability of construct. Its value should be greater than 0.7. average variance extracted is the degrees which shows actuality or support the convergent validity (Square et al., 2013). As per (Hair, Hult and Ringle, 2017) AVE value should be greater than 0.5. Following are the reliability for each profession:

DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY:
Discriminant validity shows distinct concepts of items and their constructs (Square et al., 2013). Any single construct when differ from other construct in the model is called discriminant validity (Carmines and Zeller, 1979). Discriminant validity results are satisfactory when the construct having an AVE loading more than 0.5 which means minimum 50% of the variance was took by the construct (Chin, 2018). Values which are greater than 0.5 shows valid results but values which are negative shows reverse results.
Following are the discriminant validity for five professions as shown in table 13. 14, 15, 17 respectively.

MEASURING THE MODEL FIT:
Standardized Root Mean Square Residual defined as ''the differences between the observed correlation and predicted correlation of the variables constructs'' (Henseler, Hubona and Ash, 2016). So SRMR allows measuring the average degree of the differences between observed and expected correlation as an absolute measure of model fit criterion.
Its value should be less than 0.10 which consider a good fit value (Hu and Bentler, 1999).
Following are the SRMR value for each model which is lesser than threshold value shows goodness of fit of the models (table 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 respectively).

BOOTSTRAPPING:
Bootstrapping is one of the key steps in PLS-SEM which provide the information of stability of coefficient estimates. In this process a large number of sub samples are drawn from the original sample with replacement (Hair, Hult and Ringle, 2017

Path Diagrams:
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731    Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3400731 The results of our study is unique as compared to previous studies for instance, growth opportunities was a significant factor according to the research conducted by (Nauman, 2014) but our study showed that for the students of Karachi, personal interest, self-esteem and societal influence is significant for management and sciences profession. Similarly for pharmacy (Eiland et al., 2010) stated that salary is not a significant factor and (Nauman, 2014) stated that occupational charm is a significant factor, as compared to this our study revealed the new factor which is psychological affects in the selection of pharmacy profession. Similarly for engineering, (Wilkinson, 2006) identify the factor "mobility'' that affects the engineering students in UK, as compared to this our study identified societal influence is the significant factor in Pakistan. So in short the results of our study clearly showed that factors affect career choices is culturally induced.

CONCLUSION:
Profession selection was not so difficult in olden days, students choose profession of their parents but in this era, profession selection is a problem due to variety of occupations and their market demand.
This study examined more than 500 students from different educational backgrounds to identify the factors that affect profession selection, these factors are growth opportunities that affect the agriculture and pharmacy profession. Personal interest affects the business and management sciences. Self-esteem affects the business and management sciences, medical, pharmacy and agriculture profession. Self-efficacy affects the medical, pharmacy, engineering profession. Societal influence affects the business and management sciences and engineering profession. Psychological factor affects the pharmacy, engineering and agriculture profession.
The findings of our study have displayed and underlined the importance of "self-esteem" and "self-efficacy" in the selection of all above mentioned professions as these two factors show significant impact among all professions. It means people select professions that have high influence, status, prestige and lifestyle. The profession selection decisions of students are based on self-confidence, beliefs on their abilities and belief on the positive outcomes of the decision. The findings of the study support social cognitive theory given by (Lent and Brown, 1996). Other factors that identified in our study like growth opportunities, occupational charm, societal influence and personal interest, supports the three dimensional framework given by (Carpenter & foster, 1977) which is widely used in career selection, it includes intrinsic, extrinsic and interpersonal factors. This study covers the gap and open up the doors for career guidance and counselling in Pakistan.
Moreover this research provide insights to those students who wants to start their career by selecting the any of the above five mentioned profession. In addition, this research provide a valuable information and implications to the policy makers and industries recruiters as to what factors students keep in mind and their expectations when they decide to associate with these professions. The instrument of this research was administered in Pakistan which is a low income country so other developed or high income countries used this to test the cultural differences.