limited, look to employment in the West as a mark of success. This
heightens the brain drain (the out-migration of highly educated or
skilled workers) and related difficulties in economic development.
The many relevant differences between nations, as contexts for
occupational choice and career development, cannot be addressed
here. Nonetheless, it is important to point out that national con-
texts are critical in this regard. At the extreme, there may be no
such thing as occupational choice as we know it, if, as in premod-
ern hunting and gathering or even agricultural societies, the work
that an adult does is primarily determined by age and sex. Only
through comparative study can investigators become aware of the
ways particular features of contexts determine the timing, charac-
ter, and outcomes of vocational development. We now examine
particular features of schools and the labor market, with emphasis
on the United States.
Structural Features of Schools
Sociologists consider the structure of educational institutions and
the labor market as important in shaping careers, so they seek to
identify the ways institutional arrangements affect individual expe-
riences, opportunities, and career outcomes. Across the life course,
these institutional arrangements link family background and edu-
cational attainment, as well as initial and later placements in the
occupational structure (Kerckhoff, 1995b). In this section, we
describe how this occurs. Occupational goals and preferences are
certainly of interest, yet sociologists also look at how the options
from which individuals choose, as well as interests and preferences
themselves, are subject to structural influences.
Someeducationalstructures are thought to perpetuate existing
social inequalities in career outcomes across generations and to pro-
duce additional inequality as well. Both organizational features
within schools and differences between schools shape the distribu-
tion of educational outcomes (Lee, Bryk, & Smith, 1993), having
implications also for career outcomes. Much of the focus within
A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 43