Graduates’ experiences and perceptions of career enactment: identity, transitions, personal agency and emergent career direction

Abstract

This paper contributes to the contested body of work on graduate employability, employment and sustained career building. Educational establishments across the world are expected to equip students with the knowledge and skills for employability, sustainable employment and career development. The protean career concept and the boundary-less career model influence much of today’s career literature. To remain marketable, it is said protean careerists are able to repackage their knowledge, skills and abilities to fit the changing work environment. They are said to be ‘career actors’ who value their freedom, are flexible, believe in continuous learning and seek intrinsic rewards through their work. Hardly surprisingly, therefore, commentary on protean careers tends to emphasise the ‘winners’ in the employment marketplace. There are few critical studies that focus on the difficulties that others face when attempting to be ‘career actors’. Drawing on the work of Martin Buber and Homi Bhabha in particular, the research for this paper is focused on the way graduates perceive and enact their careers, the evolution of their careers and how building their careers involves crossing physical, cultural and psychological boundaries. The implications of the research findings for post-compulsory education are discussed.

Keywords:

• education for employability
• identity and careers
• career journeys
• the politics of careers and hazards of passage
• personal agency
• Martin Buber
• Homi Bhabha

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).