Selection of an appropriate career by graduating students, who are about to be included in the work force of any nation, whether as employees of any organization or as entrepreneurs, is of paramount importance for the students themselves, persons dependent on them, the organizations they will be working for as well as for the national economy as a whole. However, the preference for any career is dependent on demographic factors like gender, place of domicile, medium of education etc. as well as certain other internal factors like cognitive ability, psychomotor skills and emotional ability. Moreover there are external factors like industry position, state of national economy and its integration with the global economy.An important factor is the way in which he / she has been trained from childhood to perceive the suitability of different career options available to them. Another important factor affecting the career preference of graduating students is the level of motivation the student is having in the matter and the factors which determines such motivation. Moreover dimensions of national culture, as professed by Hofstede (2011),is also a moderating factor in this context. This paper aims doing an extensive survey of concerned literature and identifying the factors which have been found to be decisive on choice of careers of the students and then to propose a conceptual model of career preference by considering other factors which have hitherto not been considered.

Keywords : Career preference, demographic factors, cognitive ability, psychomotor skills, emotional ability, motivation, conceptual model