Graduates’ Careers

This chapter examines the notion of graduate careers. By examining the career of graduate workers in the four occupations, it argues that university education does not tend to be the direct driving force within the careers of graduates. There is nothing intrinsic about the graduate labour force that warrants set career paths. Characterizations such as the ‘boundaryless career’ can be associated with some graduate workers but it would be hard to associate the concept with graduate work or graduate occupations that graduates perform. Boundaries still shape graduate careers. There also exists great heterogeneity between and within occupations in terms of security and predictability.