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This study aims to develop a substantive theory explaining hotel management students’ career choice process through happenstance learning during hotel internships. The central research question is: ‘What substantive theory can explain how hotel management students make career choices through happenstance learning during hotel internships?’ In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 hotel management students who had completed at least six months of internship experience. Data were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding. The results are as follows: First, 107 concepts, 29 sub-categories, and 5 categories were identified in open coding. Second, axial coding generated a paradigm model consisting of causal conditions, contextual conditions, central phenomena, intervening conditions, action/interactions, and consequences. Third, selective coding revealed the core category, ‘the process of defining career choice through repeated self-directed practice and internalization of happenstance learning,’ from which a substantive theory was developed through category integration. Academically, this theory explains career choice from behavioral and psychological perspectives, extending the concepts of agency and environment in happenstance learning to life-history and practice-based contexts. Practically, the findings highlight the need to foster happenstance learning and tacit knowledge acquisition in hotel internships while strengthening horizontal workplace cultures and career education grounded in experiential learning.
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