Russian students’ life plans: expectations and concerns in the professional field

This article is a logical second part of the sociological evaluation of the students’ value orientations and fears the first results of which were published in 2013 (1). Within the framework of an empirical research in the form of a survey on a sample of students at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, we suggested a format for operationalization of value issues in the professional field by ‘measuring’ the student youth expectations and concerns. The results of the survey showed, in particular, that the students’ worldview seamlessly combines quite diverse considerations: prestige-image orientation and substantive arguments while choosing a specialty and educational institution; pragmatic and idealistic assessments of their own skills; adequate perception of the situation on the labor market and commitment to the ideals of personal achievements in the spirit of the ‘American Dream’; focus on learning, understanding the need of experience and confidence that even without any professional experience they can easily and quickly find a job; fears of a professional failure, loneliness and poverty and the belief that their personal qualities do guarantee them from becoming losers.

pragmatic and idealistic criteria for making life decisions, student youth, empirical research, survey questionnaire, theoretical, empirical and operational interpretation, pessimistic and optimistic assessments of one’s own qualification, pessimistic and optimistic assessments perspectives in the labor market, pessimistic and optimistic assessments of chances to succeed in life