Earning a living via multiple income streams through a portfolio career is the reality for most music graduates. In the last 10–15 years, music conservatoires around the world have begun to recognise and respond to this reality in the way they train and prepare students for life after study (Bennet, 2008; Draper & Cunio, 2014; Rowley et al., 2015; Schippers et al., 2016). Conservatoire curricula is prescribed and controlled to ensure that students gain the skills required to build a career as a professional musician. Reforming conservatoire curricula to incorporate portfolio career training is an ongoing concern that is made more complex by the different conceptual understandings of what training for a portfolio career means (Latukefu & Ginsborg, 2018). This article contributes to the literature on how students conceptualise and make decisions surrounding their transition into work after graduation. It uses narrative analysis research to investigate the value of introducing career design into the curriculum of a Bachelor of Music. It incorporates narratives by students who took part in a series of interventions designed to increase self-efficacy and explores the role of career indecision in the designing of a creative career. Career indecision in this context relates to the inability of music students to conceive of what they wish for their creative career to look like after graduation, even when a decision is necessary. The narratives reveal how different factors such as family support, cultural and religious backgrounds and prior music education impact on their confidence and perceptions surrounding their ability to design and maintain a creative career. These narratives also uncovered the interplay of career exploration, career indecision and anxiety in the career decision-making process of undergraduate music students.

对于大多数音乐毕业生来说，通过组合职业通过多种收入来源谋生是现实。在过去的 10 到 15 年里，世界各地的音乐学院已经开始认识到这一现实，并在他们培训学生并为他们的学习生活做好准备的方式中做出反应（Bennet，2008；Draper & Cunio，2014；Rowley 等， 2015 年；Schippers 等人，2016 年）。规定和控制音乐学院课程，以确保学生获得建立职业音乐家职业所需的技能。改革音乐学院课程以纳入组合职业培训是一个持续关注的问题，由于对组合职业培训意味着什么的不同概念理解而变得更加复杂（Latukefu & Ginsborg，2018 年）。本文有助于有关学生如何围绕毕业后过渡到工作的概念化和决策的文献。它使用叙事分析研究来调查将职业设计引入音乐学士学位课程的价值。它结合了参与旨在提高自我效能的一系列干预措施的学生的叙述，并探讨了职业优柔寡断在创意职业设计中的作用。在这种情况下，职业优柔寡断与音乐学生无法设想毕业后他们希望自己的创作职业是什么样子有关，即使在需要做出决定时也是如此。叙述揭示了不同的因素，如家庭支持、文化和宗教背景以及之前的音乐教育会影响他们对设计和维持创造性职业的能力的信心和看法。这些叙述还揭示了本科音乐学生职业决策过程中职业探索、职业优柔寡断和焦虑的相互作用。