KEY FACTORS OF CHOOSING A PROFESSION: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT Shashkova O.V.a, Lanovenko Yu. I.a1

One of the main problems of most humans is professional identity. The career choice determines a person’s life and potential realization. To make the right choice, one’s should consider all factors that influence this process. The article presents an analysis of key factors of choosing a profession. All aspects of professional identity are divided into external and internal factors. External or objective factors do not depend on the individual, and influence from outside (social influence, job prestige, office location, salary, and others). Internal or subjective factors include professional attitude, enthusiasm for work, professional education, self-education, interest in work, professional skills. Also, the formation of the «self-identity» via which a person can use his strengths and improve his weaknesses plays the leading part. We tested the significance of external and internal factors in empirical research involving individuals aged 25 to 45. We used a semistandardized interview with the integrated Dembo-Rubinstein method, which allowed us to build a precise dialogue plan with the respondents and deepen their answers. We formed the list of suggested factors based on a preliminary theoretical analysis of the literature presented in this article’s introduction. As a result, we found the main determinants in objective and subjective factors. In general, we found that subjective factors prevail over objective in career choice. This conclusion was statistically confirmed using the Student’s T-test. Therefore, it is possible to attract people to work only by satisfying their internal needs. For these reasons, they are ready to stay in their professions, despite some external inconveniences. Moreover, it is for the sake of personal needs that they are ready to look for and change their jobs, professions, and lives.


Introduction
The problem of making a choice is known for every person. From childhood, we have to choose between what we need and what we want. We have to choose things, friends, places, interests, professions, and thousands of other things. Our life and future depend on the made decisions. And every decision bases on our reason or emotions (Lerner et al., 2015). On the one hand, the choice determines by a person's values (Kudinov et al., 2018). On the other hand, this choice should be real and possible to implement (Leontiev & Shelobanova 2001).
We want to focus on psychological research on how adults choose their profession, what factors influence them most.
Scientists studied this phenomenon from different racecourses (Ananev, 1980; Klymov, 2 0 0 4 ; A l e k s a n d r o v a e t a l . , 2 0 1 9 ) . I n t h e works of Baymetov (1996), Borovikova et al. (1991), Prjazhnykov (1996), such concepts as «professional the self-determination», «professional development», ''professional identity», and «choice of profession» are used as synonyms. The works (Lord & Brown, 2004;Retunskaya, 2012) analyze the factors of choice of future professional activity. Gurevych (1970) investigated professional suitability; Bozhovic (2001), Kon (1989) studied the age patterns of personality formation in the context of the choosing profession problem. An experiment of teacher surveys was considered (O'Shea & McGrath, 2018). Kunnen (2013) investigated the impact of The Saxion Orientation Project on the choice of professions on developing the personality of students who had problems with career choice. The Saxion University of Applied Sciences introduced this program in Deventer, the Netherlands. For 20 years, this career guidance project has been offering a four-month program for young people with career choices. This program aims to help students understand themselves, what matters to them, who they are, and whom they want to be. Moreover, based on this knowledge to choose a profession. That is, the program aims to stimulate the development of identity. It proved to be effective because almost all participants made a career choice after the project, and 85% (compared to 66% in general) followed this choice for at least one year. The other 15% said they had better make a new choice. The study compared the level of personal development before and after the program of choosing a profession and also compared this group with students who had no problems with choosing a profession. The study confirmed that participants showed a significant increase in commitment in the professional and personal areas and self-identity. Moreover, in research group indicators and compared with usual students increased, they had much lower indicators before passing this program.
A new model of children's and youth concepts of professional development was shown in Howard and Walsh's work (2011). It was based on a study of cognitive development and children's understanding of phenomena such as illness, violence, and ethnicity. The model includes six levels of thinking. Each level contains a complex formulation of career choices, which shifts from the emphasis on external observational objects or activities to the steps taken to select and enter a profession, taking into account the many factors involved in the career search. The model can be applied to many people, including youth, adults, and people with disabilities.
It should be noted that the phenomenon of «choice of a profession» is studied in modern psychology in the context of a broader problem -personal choice. It is the independent choice of values, the acquisition of internal integrity, and the construction of their own lives, in society, there is self-determination. Professional self-determination is one of the crucial stages of personal development.
Dukhnovsky S. V. (2020) studied the students' professional identity. Professional self-determination is a process that covers the entire period of the individual's professional activity from the emergence of professional intentions to retirement. Professional identity successes only if a person takes into account his professional desires (want), psychophysiological capabilities (I can), and the needs of the regional labor market (should) (Nykyforov, 1991;Betz, 2004 ).
Due to the formation of «I-image» in individual development, a person has an idea of himself. This idea includes • awareness of their physical, intellectual, natural properties; • the ability to properly assess their capabilities in setting and accepting the goal; • self-confidence; • adequate self-esteem; • ability to analyze the causes of success and failure. Such a system is based on higher self-regulation, which builds relations with the outside world (Berns, 1986).
In summary, we can say that all existing factors affect the process of choosing a profession. The purpose of our study is to identify the key factors of choosing a profession.

Methods and Materials
To conduct an empirical study, we used a semistandardized interview combined with the Dembo-Rubinstein method, applying Student's T-test to unrelated samples. This type of interview provided an opportunity to ask the questions on the list and clarifying questions to deepen the answer. The study involved 20 people aged 25 to 45 years. They had to evaluate the impact of given factors on their professional choice on a 10-point scale (contingent valuation method). According to the COVID-19 pandemic, recording took place on a dictaphone and in writing. The interview lasted 30-40 minutes.
We formed the list of suggested factors based on a preliminary theoretical analysis of the literature presented in this article's introduction.
We subsumed immediate environment influence (peer influence, parental influence), social environment influence (someone's influence), company status, convenient office location, salary level, educational level of parents, chance influence under ee Fig 2).

We introduced such indicators as «
, to track if the people could foresee the key factors of choosing a profession (they received from life strictly the coincidence of events that they predicted) see Fig 3. Results and Discussion Deepening the question of who from the immediate environment had the most significant direct influence on profession choice, Dembo-Rubinstein showed that the highest score was given to parent's influence and almost no score to the influence of peers. It turned out that in 75% of respondents, someone from the immediate environment works in the chosen professional field. Nevertheless, they were not directly influenced by their choice of profession. This means that people subconsciously follow the professional path in which they grew up.
A slightly less then parent's factor was the chance factor.  The convenience of the work location does not matter. Especially in the COVID-19 pandemic, now everyone works from home. Moreover, the home location completely satisfies the respondents.
Company status interests majority of the respondents, but is not crucial factor. Almost half of the respondents were dissatisfied with their salary. Nevertheless, no one said that they wanted to quit because of this. From this, we conclude that the level of salary is not a significant driver in choosing a profession.
Among the internal factors of choosing a profession in the first place is undoubtedly the attitude to work. In particular, we learned that all respondents are satisfied with their work for the moment and the majority work in the degree's field. The interview clarified that almost everyone knows the employer's expectations from them and considers it their duty to perform quality work. Most respondents have the opportunity to do theirs's thing.
The work and character suitability take second place. The majority of our respondents (about 75%) like to work in a small company of people, which they get at work.
An interest in work occupies third place among internal factors. Almost everyone is interested in self-education -reading professional books and periodicals. Also, this driver includes communication with employees outside of work. Furthermore, they have a real friend at work.
With a large gap from the first three places, we get the imaging the future factor. Less than half of the respondents dreamed of their work in childhood. They explain this by saying that they did not know about such a job being a child. Moreover, one girl could not believe being a tailor is so interesting («a variety of fabrics can be so mesmerizing»). Those who were less or not affected by this factor explained that they relied more on «today», not dreaming and not waiting for the right moment, but taking «now» everything possible.  The fifth factor is the professional education. The sixth factor -previous professional experience has the lowest score. This is explained by the fact that most respondents, having chosen a profession in their youth, remain in it. At that time, they did not have any experience that could influence.
A straightforward comparison between the expected level of influence of factors of choice of professions and their real influence is presented in Fig 3. Comparing the actual attitudes with the expected ones, we found that the latter was slightly lower. This indicates that people, in general, tend to belittle their skills.
Comparing the actual correspondence of the work and character suitability with the expected, we found an even more significant difference than in attitudes. That means our respondents' work coincided with their personality more often than they expected.
The professional education is the only factor where expectations are not high, but exceed: only 10% expected that education would have a worse impact than it turned out. Some of the respondents (35%) do not work in the degree's field, so they know that their education is not exactly suitable for their work.
An interest in work driver shows that actual work is even more colorful than expected.
Comparing the scores (see Fig 4), we see that the indi cators of internal factors of choosing a profession more than twice outweigh the external ones.
Applying Student's T-test to unrelated samples, we obtained the following value: T = 5.3. Having determined the marginal criteria for the reliability of the difference, we can say that the T-criterion obtained by us indicates the significance of the difference between external and internal factors' influence on choosing a profession.
This means that factors such as personal attitudes, the suitability of work to character, and interest in work are significant among our respondents. During the interview, no respondents expressed a desire to quit their job due to external factors as salary or the company's status. However, some later changed jobs or even retrained due to personal interests and attitudes discovered during life.
Interestingly, professional education holds one of the last places on the list. Firstly, it indicates that the general level of education in the country is not high. Secondly, each job has its nuances, and only by working skills and knowledge can be improved. Thirdly, the modern, fast-paced lifestyle with various professions that can be easily changed has a significant influence. Fourthly, modern educational programs promise if not to teach, then to give the basics of any specialty in the shortest possible time.

Conclusion
To conclude, we can say that modern people see the key driver for choosing a profession, not the salary, the company's status, or its location, but the opportunity to realize their abilities and interests. All this strengthens the detected trend in influencing the choosing a profession -interest. It is the interest in a particular field of work, the desire to learn about activities in this area that motivates to acquire knowledge, broaden horizons, overcome difficulties and obstacles, and influence the professional choice. R