Going beyond getting a job: Graduates’ narratives and lived experiences of their career development

Abstract

The most common definitions of graduate employability emphasise the possession of understandings, skills and attributes necessary to acquire graduate level work, perform adequately at work, and to build a career (Hillage & Pollard, 1998). University key performance indicators for graduate employability tend to focus on the proportion of graduates in full-time employment a few months after course completion (Jackson & Bridgstock, 2018). This chapter takes as its starting point that neither the dominant skills-based definition of graduate employability, nor the established key performance measures, are adequate, and that higher education institutions may be doing themselves and their learners a disservice by continuing to use them. We draw upon Business and Creative Industries graduates’ narratives about their career trajectories up to five years after course completion, exploring individual accounts of the value of professional relationships, and career experiences as they transition beyond university, to tease out a more nuanced conceptualisation of graduate employability. This emergent conceptualisation embraces longer time frames for career launch, and evolving career identities. It confirms the importance of the subjective indicators of success advocated by Jackson and Bridgstock (2018), incorporating graduates’ own aims and goals, and recognising the different ways that they can add value. Finally, it acknowledges that employability is influenced by a wide range of factors beyond the graduate’s skills and knowledge. By sharing graduates’ narratives and lived experiences of their early career trajectories, this chapter starts to suggest how universities can better foster graduates’ capacities to make meaningful and productive contributions through work and life.