Abstract
ABSTRACT This article answers the call for more research on Millennials’ experience of the graduate transition to work (GTW). Using an identity perspective, it investigates how Millennials explored and developed their career identities after the GTW, with a particular focus on traits often associated with younger generations such as boundaryless, protean and intrinsic motivations. Interviews were conducted with 36 Millennial graduates from U.k. and Irish universities. Findings confirmed that graduates largely avoided identity exploration until the GTW, with the latter perceived as a boundary experience and self-learning event. Four main themes of identity work developed from the data analysis: restraining the ideal self; reasserting the ideal self; revising the ideal self; and re-exploring possible selves. Participants appeared to increase their adaptability, self-drive and intrinsic motivation after the GTW in a way different from previous generations. Moreover, they continued to develop and change their career-identities long after the first few transitional years. Implications for Higher Education and organisational practice are accordingly discussed.
Highlights
While the links between work experience, graduate employability (Gbadamosi et al 2019), and vocational or occupational identity (Stringer and Kerpelman 2014) have been well documented, the link between work experience and career identity exploration is less well known
Findings confirmed that graduates largely avoided identity exploration until the graduate transition to work (GTW), with the latter perceived as a boundary experience and self-learning event
Analysis demonstrated that participants responded to the GTW by exploring and developing their career identities in four main ways: restraining the ideal self; reasserting the ideal self; revising the ideal self; and re-exploring possible selves
Summary
While the links between work experience, graduate employability (Gbadamosi et al 2019), and vocational or occupational identity (Stringer and Kerpelman 2014) have been well documented, the link between work experience and career identity exploration is less well known. Career identity comprises ‘the career aspirations, values and beliefs that inform our self-concept which enable us to answer the question “who am I”’ (Lysova et al 2015, 40). It transcends vocational and occupational identity and encompasses our overarching career values and motivations (McArdle et al 2007). The concept of career identity can be useful in the modern context where organisations no longer routinely offer lifetime employment and where individuals might have several different occupations throughout their career (Meijers and Lengelle 2012). Due to the lengthening of postsecondary education and delayed entry to the graduate transition to work (GTW), exploration is a
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