In the mid-1990s, situations in which the specialties that young people had acquired turned out not to be in demand became quite a widespread phenomenon, and the professional future of a large proportion of young people was characterized as uncertain. Surveys in that period showed that a majority of young people suffered from a deficiency of useful knowledge and practical skills that could enable them to compete in the labor market. Given the competitive labor market, at the beginning of the new century large numbers of graduates of colleges and universities, secondary schools, and primary professional schools found themselves without jobs. The changes in the needs of the market economy and industry, the new forms and means of the accumulation and transmission of experience and knowledge, and other factors have given greater urgency to the problems of young people's professional self-determination. Here, the authors explore the roots of these problems, particularly young Russians' perceptions about the value of education. They present three models of professional self-determination. (Contains 2 notes.)