Individual determinants of it occupational outcomes

Extant research in information systems relies heavily on career anchor theory (CAS) as a lens to examine occupational choices and outcomes in information technology. Yet, the empirical results are inconclusive, and the power of the theory in predicting IT occupations is rather weak. With the growing demand for IT professionals, we need to examine other factors that can predict the IT occupational outcomes. In this paper, we draw on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and examine self-efficacy as a complementary factor to career anchors in predicting whether seekers end up with technical, business, or managerial occupations in IT. Specifically, we propose and test a model that combines variables from both CAS and SCCT theories. We use multiple discriminant analysis to measure the extent to which variables from both theories discriminate the IT occupations. The results show that our model predicts occupations with an accuracy rate of 82.2 percent (compared to 75.2 percent for the original CAS model). Our results also show that individuals who hold a professional role that matches their profile are more satisfied than those who do not. Lastly, we discovered that, from individuals who hold a position that does not match their profile, business-IT professionals are most satisfied.