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Analysis of interview data

We have used two methods for analysing the material obtained the interviews. First, the career trajectory and experience of individual graduates has been examined as an identity narrative. That is, we trace the story presented by the graduate of their life and career, to try to understand how they came to be in the position they now occupy. This involves some degree of abstraction from the detailed story presented, so that key factors and events can be highlighted. We present three personal case studies here. Secondly, we abstract from the separate narratives some of the key issues and factors that appear to be significant for graduates in general.

The Graduates' Stories

Graduate LB: Leaving a traditional 'graduate job':

The first graduate whose story is presented is someone who was successful in gaining a place on a graduate recruitment and training scheme, but who chose to leave this. She currently works in a small training company.

LB graduated in 1996, with an Oxbridge mathematics and science degree. She chose to take these subjects 'for love of the subject really, not as a career path'. During her first year at university, she sought advice from the university careers service and undertook a psychometric test. The personnel field was suggested as an appropriate career; this also happens to be her father's profession. She applied to various companies for an opportunity for work experience, and spent a week shadowing the personnel director of a building society. Towards the end of her second year at university, she applied to the company for a summer job, and worked there for eight weeks in the personnel department. In her final year, she applied to a number of large companies, seeking a place in their graduate recruitment and training schemes. She had one offer, from a major grocery retailer, which she accepted.

Following the initial induction and training period, she was placed in charge of the counters section of the store to which she had been posted. She found that she was working very long hours, because of the need to cover for staff shortages. The merchandising, display and selling parts of the job did not interest her. She did not welcome the prospect of 3 years working in such an environment, moving from one department to another, before she would be able to move on to personnel work at head office. After about 9 months, she decided she would leave. She started applying for jobs, was interviewed for the second company to which she applied, and was offered the job. She resigned her job that afternoon, which was the beginning of her holiday, and started her new job two days later.

Her new employer is a training company, providing training through TEC funding for people who are unemployed. There are 24 employees. Her post is that of placement consultant, finding client companies to take trainees on work placement and monitor the trainees on placement. She had applied for a post of course administrator. This had been advertised as 'an ideal first job for a graduate seeking to go into personnel'; however, at the interview, the business manager discussed the placement consultant post and offered it to her. Most of her colleagues are graduates in their first jobs.

She is successful in her job, and is the only consultant that reliably gains commission for the income she brings to the company. She attributes this to the way she has organised her own system for recording trainee placements in client companies, so that accurate invoices can be sent for all placements. Her experience in her first job has made her 'more determined' to be organised. She drew up guidelines for trainees, to ensure good relations with client companies. She achieves a high level of repeat business. Her boss regularly 'bounces ideas' off her.

Her experience in her first job has been useful in terms of her confidence: 'if I can handle that I can handle anything really'; a colleague in her first job is rather in awe of the manager, 'scared' to ask for advice.

She is undertaking a personnel management course, and has just started to look for jobs with wider personnel work, preferably in a large company.

This graduate seems to have successfully maintained her claim on the graduate identity whilst moving from a large employer to a smaller business. There do not appear to have been any significant disaffirmation of that identity; rather, it is the aspiration to the occupational identity of a personnel professional that led her to choose to give up what was clearly a 'graduate job'. Her experience in her first job has reinforced her sense of someone who is able to deal with the circumstances in her second job. Her performance results in affirmation by her employer. However, she has no special desire to stay in a small business, and seeks a personnel management identity in a larger company.

Graduate SA: Finding and making an identity

The second case presented here is someone who did not obtain a job on graduation. A trip to his home country of Pakistan was a life-changing experience, and resulted in him rethinking what he wanted to do.

SA graduated in 1994, with a degree in Business Economics from a new university in the London area. He had no clear idea what he wanted to do, just a general idea of working in sales and marketing. After several months of writing 20-30 job applications per week, without success, he was persuaded by his parents to travel to Pakistan to visit relatives there. This was 'the most intense six weeks I've spent'. The poverty and deprivation made him realise the benefits and opportunities available in the UK. He was affected by the wishes of his relatives for him and his family to succeed. This led him to decide to 'make something of my life, to make a difference'.

Initially he took a short computer course to remedy what he saw as an area in which he was lacking. He then saw the opportunity to take a business course for unemployed graduates, in another city. After some difficulty seeking a placement after the course, he eventually found one with a black training provider. This got him involved in community economic development field. He began to apply for jobs in the field, and was offered a post as policy officer with a London-based black training and campaigning organisation.

The post was not specifically advertised as being for a graduate; however, the other employees are all graduates.

Initially, he was very unsure about whether he could do the job. Despite saying that he would take his time to settle in, he threw himself into his work. 'Every day it would be like I felt I had to prove myself to be in this job.' He is now more settled, has a sense of 'equilibrium' in his life. He has strong commitment to the values of community-led economic development.

This graduate started with considerable disaffirmation of his identity as a graduate. It was his experience in Pakistan, related to his ethnic identity, which provided understanding and meaning to what and who he wanted to be. He was able to develop this new identity by moving location, undertaking a course specifically for unemployed graduates, and finding a placement with a black community organisation. With this new identity he was able to gain entry to his current post, with an organisation to which he is wholly committed. Even here, he initially engaged in considerable attempts at 'display', attempting to demonstrate his claim on the identity. As he perceived that his claim was being affirmed, he began to reduce the extent to which he pressed the claim on the identity.

Graduate MC: from secretary to project manager

The third graduate started in a non-graduate job, as a secretary with an educational charity. She took this post on leaving university, because it was difficult to gain a graduate job during the recession. She 'hated' the job, saw colleagues doing more 'interesting work', and began to ask her boss if she could work on particular projects. She has now developed a very different, diverse job, undertaking mainstream work of the organisation.

MC obtained a Social Policy and Administration degree in 1992. Unsure of what she wanted to do, she chose public relations 'out of a hat'. She read about PR and began applying for jobs in the field. However, she began to question the appropriateness of choosing a career in such a way, and whether she did really want to do PR work. She had registered with recruitment consultants, and was offered an interview with the organisation for which she now works. The post, as secretary, was not advertised as being specifically for a graduate, but she believes that the boss did want a graduate.

She took the job intending to stay for just a short time. She hated the work, often refusing to do some tasks set by her boss. She saw the work that was being done by a couple of colleagues, a few years older than her, and wanted to do work like them. As she typed her boss's file notes, she was often the first to see his thinking on various matters. She asked if she could take on certain items to develop as projects, and so was able to get 'a few tasty, juicy' projects.

She was seen as successful in these and other projects. She dropped the secretarial side of her job after about a year; the two colleagues, whose work she aspired to, have now left and so her current role incorporates an amalgam of their responsibilities.

She is very pro-active, 'has ideas all the time', juggles many activities, and is also very active outside work. She describes herself as a 'big fish in a small pond'. She has considerable interaction with politicians, meets with senior executives in companies, organises events. This impresses friends and acquaintances.

She feels she's proven herself, but is now somewhat confined in her current job. She anticipates moving in the near future, but does not yet have definite plans.

The initial failure to obtain a 'graduate job' is ascribed by this graduate to the recession, which may serve to weaken the disaffirmation of graduate identity that such failure might result in. She attempts to give effect to her claim on the identity by selecting the profession of PR, but soon abandons this. Taking the job as secretary, she appears to attempt to distance herself from its non-graduate status by refusing some of the tasks. Two colleagues provide models for reclaiming the desired identity. Given the opportunity, she throws herself into the work and achieves success, so warranting a change of job. Her external contacts, and the activities she engages in provide high prestige in the view of her friends and acquaintances. Her claim on the identity has been affirmed, such that she no longer sees it as a serious issue in relation to her next career moves.

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