The development of family companies can become a driver of the national economy and form mechanisms that overcome foreign economic barriers and political challenges. The purpose of the presented work was to study the dynamics of career preferences of students from Russia and Bulgaria (the comparison was made in 2021 and 2023). This empirical study was conducted within the framework of the InterGen project. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the most desirable thing for students in the two countries is to build their own business. The second most popular is working in a large company. The least attractive is the prospect of creating or continuing a family business. Comparison by year showed that for the University of Ruse the statistical differences are not significant. For University of Tyumen the career orientation "opening a family business" shows a significant decrease. This empirical result may indicate the ineffectiveness of government programs to popularize family businesses in Russia.