The thesis titled “ Professional interests of students in both rural and urban environments “ consists of a theoretical and an empirical part. The thoretical part defines professional development as a process which starts in early teenage years and continues for the rest of one’s life. The professional guidance has an important role within education system in Croatia. Through professional guidance students develop an ability to solve a professional problem independently. The theoretical part also shows historical timeline of professional guidance in Croatia and the rest of the world. The activities relating to the professional guidance are particularly useful for the final year students, within 14-15 years old age range. Those activities help ascertain individual educational needs and get them acquainted with further educational opportunities/options. Pedagogical specialists are tasked with professional guidance of students in Year 7 and Year 8, establishing a close working relationship with Y7 and Y8 class teachers. Such a specialist has to be adaptable, accept changes within professional guidance and get to know each student very well. Family also plays a very important role in making a decision about a future profession. Parents input is paramount when it comes to choosing a future profession but it is very important they do not push their choices onto a child. Thus, establishing the relationship between parents and pedagogical specialist as well as between a school and parents is of the utmost importance. The aim of the empirical part is to examine the differences in professional interests between students in rural and urban environments. The results point to difference in deciding the length of future education. It was clear that most students reached their decision independently regardless of their environments. It was also clear that students from both the urban and rural areas used other sources of professional guidance and advice in almost an equal number. Those from urban areas, however, received a lot more professional guidance and advice within the school setting than rural area students. The results confirmed the correlation between the education level of parents and the student’s decision on the level/ length of the future education. The more educated the parent, the more likely their child will study for both the BA and MA degree. Conversely, the less educated the parent, the child is more likely to choose higher education courses or stop the education after BA degree award.