Understanding the decision-making process people use when considering career options and how those decisions manifest can inform practice for individuals, organizations, and professions. This study explored individual paths and decision-making among student affairs professionals in an attempt to identify themes in career decision-making. This study is an exploration of how individuals make the smaller decisions about their current and future roles, not a study of attrition versus persistence. A better understanding of decision-making among student affairs professionals can inform practice for individuals, organizations, and the profession. The question driving the study was, how do student affairs professionals make career decisions? Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, 2012) provided the theoretical framework for this qualitative study. Fifteen student affairs professionals agreed to participate in recorded, semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed and interpreted through a SCCT lens focusing on three variables related to career development: self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and personal goals. Themes that emerged include individual considerations, professional experiences, timing of discovering student affairs, value placed on graduate degrees, frustrations related to compensation and opportunities, politics, shifting priorities, and thoughts of leaving the profession. Student affairs should be more intentional about recruitment and preparation of professionals in the field and career progression, as relying on happenstance as a method of entry into the field is not sound.
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