This study investigated difficulties in career exploration and coincidental events that drop-out high school student athletes have experienced on career selection process through in-depth interview. To sum up, the results are as follows.
The first difficulty that students experienced in career exploration after dropping out was lack of a sense of purpose. Student athletes felt a sense of frustration and failure by unexpected drop out, and were at a loss at setting a new goal other than athletics when they lacked a variety of experience and had insufficient educational knowledge than general students. The second was lack of career consciousness and career information. Specific information providers, the director and coach, were negligent in providing information, and student athletes lacked understanding of themselves and showed poor information gathering capability. The third was unskilled time management and utilization. They lacked self-directed time management capability because their daily routine was controlled by athletic coaches when they played as athletes and are familiar with passive attitude. As a result, they spent time meaninglessly than collecting specific information for new career paths. The fourth was negative prejudice against athletes. A prejudice that they will have a lack of academic ability when they do not get recognition for their ability as athletes and return to being general students worked as an obstacle factor in career exploration as it deprived confidence and discouraged student athletes
According to the effect of coincidental incidents that student athletes have experienced after the drop out, coincidental incidents that research participants experienced as unexpected change of career, discovering aptitude through specific activity, information they obtained from others by chance, and specific help from others worked as positive factors in setting new career. Their career changed by unexpected incidents, but research participants quickly recognized that they cannot control the situation themselves and switched to the learning opportunity. Also, they put specific and behavioral efforts to make sure that negative outcomes do not take place during the process of preparing for a new career. This study identified that it can produce good results in a process of setting new career when students have positive thinking towards potential opportunities in unexpected situation and take a flexible attitude in coping with environment changes. It is important to prepare students with attitude and capability to explore careers themselves in various unpredictable environments.
Therefore, genetic talent and environment condition among 4 influencing factors of career-decision making suggested by Krumboltz are impossible to change, but this study identified that various learning experiences or improving task approaching skill are helpful in searching and selecting a reasonable career as they change personal view, emotion, and behavior.