From Student to Graduate Employee: Identity Work and Control Online

Abstract

Career transitions accentuate the dynamics of identity work and control. In this paper we explore these dynamics in one early transition, as students seek to gain ‘professional’ employment after they graduate from higher education. Specifically, we consider how two important aspects of the contemporary context are formative in the identity work of graduates: the competitive nature of the graduate labour market and the use of social networking sites. Rather than a simple control-resistance dialectic shaping outcomes, we observed tensions and contradictions. In seeking to appear appropriately ‘professional’ and employable, students were simultaneously complying and resisting and there were clear limits as to how much autonomy was possible, given they were actively competing for scarce graduate positions. Our findings show that organizational control extends much earlier than previously understood, when students are first starting to think about how prospective employers may appraise them. In particular, the aspiration to be employed in work considered appropriate for a university graduate, and the context in which this pursuit is undertaken, is a key mechanism through which control operates in the identity work of those hoping to make the transition from student to employed graduate.