International Journal of Advanced Engineering, Management and Science (IJAEMS) Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: 2454-1311 | Vol-11, Issue-2; Mar-Apr, 2025 Journal Home Page: https://ijaems.com/ DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaems.112.17 This article can be downloaded from here: www.ijaems.com 193 ©2025 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Factors Influencing Career Choices Among First-Year Students: Focus on Hospitality and Tourism Management Janry Paul Aganon Santos, Mark Alvin H. Abad Received: 22 Mar 2025; Received in revised form: 19 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Apr 2025; Available online: 30 Apr 2025 Abstract— The study aims to investigate how first-year students select a career in the hospitality and tourism industry. As the industry is growing globally, it is important to know students' motivation, perception, and career expectations to create development plans in alignment with their goals. It is surveyed using the Likert scale, which investigates the factors that have significant influence, such as personal interest, family, industry growth, and education. The result shed the foundation for designing an individualized career development plan to encourage students' academic progress while contributing towards their prepared future in hospitality and tourism management. Keywords— Academic progress, Career choices, First-year students, Hospitality Management, Tourism Management I. INTRODUCTION Hospitality and tourism are among the world's fastest-growing industries, with many career opportunities. However, as noted by Qiu, S., Dooley, L., & Palkar, T. (2019), advice from teachers and counselors strongly influences students' decisions about careers in hospitality. Finally, it highlights the role of students' motivations, making navigating the terrain between external and internal trends worthwhile. Korir, J., & Wafula, W. (2021) showed intrinsic factors like expectations for a career that are desirable and extrinsic factors like support from family, which influences Kenyan hospitality students. Its emphasis on considering social and economic contexts involves examining external influences (e.g., family, societal). This study investigates the factors that impact first-year students in Nueva Ecija to take up careers in this industry. Kahraman, O. C., & Alrawadieh, D. D. (2021) illustrate the influence of perceived education quality and self-efficacy on the career decisions of hospitality students. It is also quite illuminating to consider what role educational curriculum plays in determining students’ career paths. The research study aims to build a relationship between personal interest, family support, industry growth, the curriculum's effect, and its influence on students when choosing their careers by focusing on motivational and external factors. Anthony, G. (2020) The Career Aspirations of Undergraduate Hospitality Students in Ghana. He notes that perceptions about the industry and an unclear picture of potential career pathways serve to deter students from pursuing careers in humble hospitality. This aligns with investigating the impact of personal enthusiasm and field expansion. These findings will inform the formulation of a customized career development program that will aid students’ learning journeys with a pathway to success in the evolving hospitality and tourism management landscape. Objectives 1. Demographics of First-Year Students as a Hospitality and Tourism Management Career. 2. What motivates first-year students to pursue a career in hospitality and tourism? 3. How do external conditions, like industry expansion and educational curriculum, make students choose hospitality and tourism as their career? 4. What challenges do first-year students have to reaffirm their decision to pursue the industry? 5. How can a career development plan be developed that meets the needs of students and aligns with career aspirations in hospitality and tourism based on the findings?