A study examined the personal, social, and institutional factors that facilitated the career development and career choice of 11 African-American and 9 Latino juniors and seniors (12 females and 8 males) who were attending a large Midwest university and who had successfully identified and acted on their vocational plans. The students had all volunteered for the study and had maintained college grade point averages of B or better. The students participated in informal semistructured interviews focusing on retrospective factors that affected their career development/choice. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed in a three-phase analysis performed by four coders. Goal orientation and strong self-confidence were cited as major success factors by 95% and 85% of the students, respectively. Other important factors were as follows: influence of role models at home and school, desire to be a role model, challenging high school curriculum or extensive college preparatory program, and internships/work experience. The importance of efforts to develop and sustain minority students' personal/academic confidence before college, sustain their parental support, provide them with a variety of role models in a variety of contexts, and use critical life events as learning experiences to help shape their career development were emphasized. (Contains 47 references.) (MN)