Comparative Analysis of Students’ Career Choices in India-is Armed Forces a Prime Career Option for Indian Students

: In a student's life, taking the correct decision concerning the right career choice is critical. The career chosen must be in line with the expectations, else will result in a waste of efforts and resources. This article explored factors influencing correct career choice and at finding factors those influence students' career choices and whether youth take a career in the Indian armed forces as a prime option over other career choices. This study used qualitative methods to explore Maslow’s motivational theory application to armed forces careers, to find the aspirations, and build a theoretical framework for choices of careers. The study used the purposive sampling method to explore the students' choices. PLS-SEM and Anova (Post-Hock Tu-key tests) are used for data validation and analysis. The research finds armed forces are unable to entice eligible young people to join them as students are not inclined towards a career in the armed forces, in present conditions. The correct decision for the right career choice is important for any student and it has a significant impact on his future life and accomplishments. The wider choices available made it difficult to choose the correct path as intricately interwound influencing factors are plenty. There exists an imperative need and requirement exists to undertake necessary steps by the government to make the armed forces, a front-line choice.


Introduction
In a student's life, making the right career choice is critical. The career chosen must be in line with the expectations; otherwise, an inaccurate career decision will result in a waste of individual effort and resources in the wrong direction (Kleine et al., 2021). An early career decision is necessary and policymakers are also through various government as well as private sources encouraging youth to undertake a decision on their profession and become an earning member (Mabel et al., 2020). A good professional decision is also important for any student because it has a significant impact on his future life and accomplishments (Styśko-Kunkowska and Kwinta, 2020).
As India undergoes rapid and simultaneous social, demographic, economic, and technical developments, many industries offer diverse opportunities. With the abundance of choices accessible, students can pick from a range of job routes to develop their careers, reflect on their objectives and realize their ambitions. The availability of such broader options has proportionately enhanced youth ambitions, resulting in a paradigm change. With the availability of wider options, choosing the proper path has become difficult (Kumar, 2019). The influencing factors are plenty and these are intricately interwound as the real occupational world is different and presumably filled with mushy sort of things (Holland et al., 1967). These students, in their adolescent age, plan and prepare themselves for a role and take up a job, that uploads their dignity.

The Rationale of the Study
The Indian Army is the world's third-largest army, having demonstrated its mettle and professionalism in both war and peace. The Army has a diversified working environment, with its own organizational culture and specific difficulties and good leaders are essential to lead the soldiers into the war (Oberoi, 2008;Jayaram, 2020). However, the Indian Army is experiencing a general shortfall (Narang and Goswamy, 2015). Such a shortage is concerning for a country like India, which faces external threats from hostile neighbors as well as internal security issues (Kaur and Pingle, 2018). The top students from prestigious educational institutions lack the motivation to select the armed forces as a career option since they have other avenues available and are more interested in those options.

Relevance of Maslow's Theory to Armed Forces Career
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a person's wants must be met in ascending order for them to feel motivated. This means the initial or early goals of the person are considered to be in basic human needs which are outlined in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs (Gajderowicz et al., 2017). The theory is on the premise that every human being is born with certain needs. These needs may be categorized into different levels hierarchically, based on the degree of importance (Kaur, 2013). The fundamental need is categorized as physiological needs and then followed by safety needs, belongingness needs, one's esteem needs, and selfactualization as the final need (PTRanil and Sugathadasa, 2021). As the theory brings out that, one's most basic needs are met, in life, the human being wishes to move upward and with a desire toward more complex needs represented higher in the order of the hierarchy. Physiological needs and safety needs are lower-order requirements in the hierarchy of needs. These are linked to what any company has to offer in terms of pay, perks, and other benefits (Düşünceli et al., 2020).
Armed forces postulate a social-cognitive environment, a set of social norms, that fosters a work ethic, with a defined approach or attitude to work. Under the given circumstances, the Maslow theory's applicability to armed forces manifests in a variety of ways, depending upon the different circumstances. Maslow's theory can throw insights in a similar base for understanding, analyzing the career path of armed forces, and even embarking on this career pathway, with comprehension. "Hence any career pathway, including armed forces career also involves a systemic framework, which connects a series of academic credits, associated credentials, involving work experience, across the way in a learner continuum for every student persona" (Schulte, 2018).
As is well known, a career in the armed services provides substantial financial rewards as well as a sense of pride in one's uniform, all of which contribute to job satisfaction. The career in forces can be considered as fourth in the hierarchy, that is self-esteem. However, there is reason to support that armed forces are unable to entice eligible young people to join them. Choosing a job path is frequently accompanied by pressures of expectation and worries (Narang and Goswamy, 2015).

Literature Review
Career path planning is a lifelong process that requires the correct approach to achieve one's goals and ambitions. When it comes to picking a job path, the financial perks are extremely important (Al-Abri and Kooli, 2018). Career path planning will assist students in determining their long-term objectives and empowering them to develop a clear strategy for achieving these objectives. An appropriate career path entails a candid assessment of one's qualities, abilities, and interests. An honest selfevaluation of one's talent, and interest and an accurate assessment of one's abilities are necessary to select a suitable or appropriate career path (Watts, 2006).
For students and career counsellors alike, choosing the right career path is always a struggle. As a result, the decision-making process, in choosing a career option, must be thorough and planned in such a way that every student is prepared and involved in long-term career planning (Kemboi et al., 2016). Intrinsic, extrinsic, and intrapersonal factors may also be termed personal and impersonal parameters and are associated with the occupational choice that a person makes (Gokuldas, 2017). These forces are complex in nature and greatly influence factors of a person's initial vocational choices (Holland et al., 1967). These factors pave way for the career path. Such a career path is rewarded if career choice is based on individual personality type (Yvonne and Caldera, 2003). Such career decisions should be taken at the earliest in one's life else decision-making becomes complex as one grows older (Gati and Saka, 2001).

Pride in the Profession Selected as a Career
Career selection involves setting standards and subsequently pursuing personal milestones. Selfregulation plays a very significant role in career choice and choosing a challenging career requires a very strong motivating force. Such force infuses internally, upon taking pride in the career when socio-cognitively (Shane, 2003). Taking pride in one's work means, feeling completely satisfied with the job. An employee who takes pride in his work is a value addition by contributing immensely and providing quality services. Such Professional pride invokes a positive emotion which further exhibits evaluation or self-reflection and attitude of the employee toward one's occupational group. Job dissatisfaction leads to emotional imbalance which can also be termed as emotional dissonance, which may result in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and long run may lead to professional failure (Grandey, 2000).

Factors Influencing a Person's Professional Path
The ability to determine job skills and associated knowledge that may be necessary, as well as manage the direction of one's career, requires critical and careful planning of one's career path (Frank and Schmidt, 1986). Careful career planning allows us to cope with future career goals by devoting substantial time and effort to them, as well as tracking whether we are on a path or not. This aspect helps us in identifying one's skill set, strengths, and weaknesses and giving midcourse corrections that might be required or finding a suitable alternate career (Al-Abri and Kooli, 2018). These factors are further, made to fit in a three-dimensional framework comprising intrinsic, extrinsic, and interpersonal factors (Akosah-Twumasi et al., 2008;Agarwala, 2008). Students who are driven by intrinsic factors choose such employment or professions that professionally satisfy them (Kunnen, 2013). Such intrinsic factors are stimulus points relate to job satisfaction, own identity, and recognition in a profession (Richard and Ryan, 2000). Contrary, the students motivated by extrinsic factors are motivated by factors like an advancement in career, fringe benefits associated with the job that has been chosen, and the status of the selected job (Edwards and Quinter, 2011;Richard and Ryan, 2000).

Objectives
To investigate the factors that affect youth career choices and to find a position in the armed forces as a career option.
To comprehend the structure of motivation and the considerations that must be considered when deciding on a career in the armed forces.
To investigate the relation of intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors, and interpersonal factors such as the influence of parents and any such significant others, of the students that influence the decision of career choice is explored.

Hypothesis
H1: There is no difference when choosing a career as a student and all careers are equally sought H2: Male and female students prefer careers in the Armed forces equally H3: Students of all streams prefer a career in the Armed forces equally

Research Design
The choice of a profession is an important part of a late adolescent's identity formation for any student. Identity formation is also a significant developmental role in late adolescence, according to Erikson's life span stage theory (Kunnen, 2013). As a result, career options for this study, sector have been categorized as ICT and Management (Information, Communication, Technology, and Management), BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), Core engineering, Teaching, Entrepreneurship, and Armed Forces career. To obtain the results, a descriptive research method was used and students from colleges in Tamilnadu and Pondicherry (Southern India) were chosen for the analysis. A non-probabilistic approach under purposive sampling has been adopted for the study.

Sample Design
As the populace is a group of people or survey respondents who are to be gathered to collect information on factors to be considered for career choice, the students from various colleges in Tamilnadu and Pondicherry were selected from the arts, commerce, science, and engineering streams. The sample size is 320 students (male students as 160 and another 160 students of female). The purposive sampling method was used for proportionate participation of both genders. Also, qualitative analysis was used to determine the factors that motivate people to join the Armed forces and take that as a career, qualitative analysis ensures trustworthiness and enhances credibility (Ebadi et al., 2021). As such, interviews of commissioned officers of the armed forces, Associated NCC Officers of NCC, have been conducted. During interviews with senior service members, it was found that young people believe that life in the armed forces is difficult and that the risk to life is greater than in other professions. It demonstrates that physiological and safety requirements are not met in Armed Forces.

An Instrument for Data Collection
A total of 11 factors that determine the individual to choose a particular career choice were investigated and these factors were clustered into three groups, Internal factors, external factors, and intra-personal factors. These factors, are considered determinants based on Maslow's theory and will influence the youth to choose a career as per his needs and motivation towards the career. These factors ensure that human actions were driven and directed to attain the goal (Guo et al., 2019), (Wei, 2015). Internal factors consisted of Job satisfaction, Respect or Pride, Selfless service, and Cultural Identity. The external factors consisted of Future growth, Salary. Perks and Privileges, Status of the profession in society, and Intrapersonal factors consisted of Knowledge of the profession or Job being taken as a career, Performing the job, and any Risk as safety concerns. A theoretical model has been established to indicate the relationship of identified factors with career choice. The details are given in Table 1.

Theoretical Model
The theoretical model structure has been framed by using PLS-SEM software. PLS-SEM has been used to construct and show the relations. 'PLS SEM' has been chosen to analyze the factors, that lead to choosing the career option (Memon and Rahman, 2013). SEM depends on creating models, by expressing causal relationships by establishing the links between variables. PLS-SEM has been chosen over CB-SEM, as the Partial Least Square method is widely popular and used in many fields (Kock, 2015). The indicators have made three constructs, in the Formative measurement model. The construct relation (given as Fig. 1 in Black and White) explains the basic relationship of determinants with career choice. Composite reliability that testifies Construct reliability gives out how reliable the intended latent constructs of the measurement model have been verified through the PLS-SEM algorithm and the construct reliability and validity.
The result of Cronbach alpha, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and Rho-A is less than desired. The result is given in Table 2. The result in the exploratory case has to be at least above 0.6, to be termed satisfactory (Wan Mohamad, 2013), (Awang et al., 2010).
To ensure the model fit validity PLS-SEM has been facilitated with bootstrapping facility, that will draw subsamples in a very large number from the original data and the model will be estimated from each of the sub-samples. This results in developing a large number of model estimates and each model estimate can be used for standard error computing. In other words, through bootstrapping which is considered a nonparametric procedure, the statistical significance of different PLS-SEM results such as path coefficients, and Cronbach's alpha, can be tested.

Construct Reliability and Data Fitment Check
In the present system, we have used, bootstrapping method to create 10000 subsamples for complete bootstrapping. This means, that 10000 samples are created with each of 320 observations. Hence, each subsample generated has elements equal to the original sample and this reflection method creates an infinite population from a finite sample (Méndez-Suárez, 2021), with 320 observations. Bias-Corrected and Accelerated (BCA) Bootstrap is a very stable method, that produces relatively, very narrow Confidence Intervals (CI). This method does not need computation time to be intensive, further, the skewness and bias which is existed in the bootstrap estimates' distribution have been adjusted (Hair Jr et al., 2014). From this standard error, t-values will be used to determine the significance of each parameter. The t-values have shown the 'p-value as significant (refer to Table 3). Further, Confidence Interval Bias corrected values to be interpreted, taking 95% confidence interval, with original mean should be between 2.5% value to 97.5% value ie LB = α/2 * 100 and UB= (1-α/2) * 100. The result of the Average Variance Extract (AVE) in conjunction with the "Difference of estimate between observed statistics and the Bootstrap replicated median" as the correction factor of bias is as per the result given in Table 4. The sample mean is between = α/2 * 100 and (1-α/2) * 100, that is, between LB and the UB. Hence, confidently can declare that the model is 95% fit, hence confidently proceeded to declare that the model is fit (Streukens and Leroi-Werelds, 2016).

Findings of the Study
The existing model gives out that, the constructs were chosen to lead to the career choice and the data validation is considered perfect. With the variables as chosen factors, we compared the data to know the popular career choice of the chosen sample. The data has been compiled and modelled ANOVA (Post Hoc-Tukey) test, to identify the choice sector for the career. The details given above in Table 5 illustrate that the ICT and management sector has emerged as a priority career choice with a mean of 5.89 (with a standard deviation of 0.38) whereas the Armed forces career is lowest with a mean of 1.28 (with a standard deviation of 0.52). Out of the sample selected, only 5.95% of the youth is inclined towards the armed forces as a prime career choice. It's emerged that the armed forces are not a favorite career choice in comparison to the other career fields selected in the research. Table 6 gives out that the means are significantly different from each other. Q critic value indicates the significance of means and the armed forces category emerged as least preferred. Hence, The P-value rejects the H1: Hypothesis and can be assumed that there is a difference when choosing the career. T-test has been carried out to find Male vs Female students' (Table 7) inclination towards armed forces career and rejects the H2: Hypothesis and accepts that there is a gender difference in choosing the armed forces as a career. Further Table 8 gives out the humanities students' comprising Social and Commerce students' inclination vis-à-vis the students of Tech and Science students. The analysis rejects the H3: Hypothesis and accepts that there is a difference in choosing the career by different streams of personnel.

Results and Discussion
With the abundance of choices, students can pick from a range of jobs to develop their careers, which results in a paradigm change in social enterprise. The armed forces are the cornerstone and last bastion of any country, and the effectiveness depends on the diverse identities people join to strengthen it and act as a good social enterprise within a framework of democratic setup, rule of law, and respect for human rights. The study indicates that low inclination of youth toward a career in the armed forces. Only 5.95% of students are keen on a career in the armed forces which is lower in order of merit than other career choices taken study (Table 5).
T-test has been carried out to find Male vs Female students' (Table 6) inclination towards armed forces career. The P-value is 0.00029. The critical value is determined with a Degree of Freedom (DF) = 316 with α =0.05. The calculated 't' exceeds the critical value (t= 3.47 > t critic 1.64), hence the means are significantly different. By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely statistically significant and rejects the H2: Hypothesis and accepts that there is a gender difference in choosing the armed forces as a career. Further, a T-test has been conducted to understand Humanities students' by combining Social and Commerce students' inclination vis-à-vis the students of Tech and Science students, by combining Science and Engineering students. The details are given in Table 7. The P-Values is 0.000055. The critical value is determined with a Degree of Freedom (DF) = 158 with α =0.05. The calculated 't' exceeds the critical value (t = 3.96 > t critic 1.654), hence the means are significantly different. This difference is considered to be extremely statistically significant and rejects the H2: Hypothesis and accepts that there is a difference in inclination in choosing the armed forces as a career between streams of Humanities and Science & Technology groups. Table 8 gives out the analysis rejects the H3: Hypothesis and accepts that there is a difference in choosing the career by different streams of personnel.
The study brings out that the armed forces are not a frontline choice of career option. There is an immediate requirement to undertake necessary steps by the government to make a career in the armed forces attractive and becomes a front-line choice. One way is enabling cocreation with educational institutes, by facilitating an experiential and co-curricular education and supporting interdisciplinary collaborations for generating armed forces as a favorable option. Here exists an urgent need that, the government should promote this occupational group, to encourage youth to choose this career. State and the students should leverage mechanisms like National Cadet Corps (NCC) to use, create an aligned curriculum, and recognize training needs to support the continuum of available careers in the armed forces. Specially trained professionals should be engaged in a targeted effort to motivate and educate the students and parents about transition and what it signifies to the young adult. Such an effort can potentially enhance students' involvement at the very initial stage.
It's necessary to eliminate all barriers to understand the prospects of each career by the youth and the decision taken. An attractive career option ensures more inflow of human capital and thereby ensures better demographic diversity in the armed forces.

Conclusion
The career choice is an important milestone in students' life as it provides desired lifestyle and defines their status in society. A well-planned career path as such gives to lead a fulfilment of one's life without any conflict in his interests (Kuteesa et al., 2021). This study has been carried out in the southern part of India and the result of the study is limited to this geographical location only, as factors that indeed influence the youths' choices of a profession as a career, depends upon the cultural heritage of that geographical location, in terms of both individual and collectivist cultural settings. Though widespread opportunities exist for the youth to take a career in the armed forces, it is brought out during the research that present-day youth do not consider and do not opt for a career in the armed forces as a frontline option. The participation of youth in the military is essential due to their integrity, influence, and readiness to face any kind of challenge (Medani, 2013).
There is an immediate requirement to undertake necessary steps by the government to make the armed forces a front-line choice. Here exists an urgent need for the government should promote this occupational group, to encourage youth to choose this career. It's necessary to eliminate all barriers to understand the prospects of each career by the youth and the decision taken. An attractive career option ensures more inflow of human capital (Jeffrey and Flory, 2019) and thereby ensure better demographic diversity in the armed forces.
Hence, the findings of this study are useful and aimed at promoting a career in the armed forces among youth as popular and making it a front-line option over other choices available.

Author's Contributions
Thogaram Umasankar: Involved in the evolving of concept and design of frame work. Collected and collated, analysed and interpreted the data. Drafted the entire article.
Rajesh Mahajan: As a guide carried out critical review, advised modifications and approved the final draft into publication version.