Teacher recruitment and retention remain a challenge, both in Germany and internationally. To help increase teacher retention rates, the current study investigated to what extent people's choice for a teaching career reflects a well-founded career decision-making process (e.g., collecting information about teaching). Participants were 357 student teachers who completed different measures. Results showed that career exploration and decision making self-efficacy, its sources, emotional support, field experience, and teacher motivation jointly interact to determine teaching career decidedness and future teacher self-efficacy. Implications for recruitment programs as well as for future research on people's choice for becoming a teacher are discussed. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.