Recent graduates in the aftermath of the Crisis - A struggle between high expectations and crushing realities

Sammanfattning: Using qualitative interviews with twenty recent graduates, this study explores how participants understand and experience career in the aftermath of the crisis. Overall, this study suggests that several dominant theories and practical storylines surrounding notions of career and career development present a static view that fails to take important contexts into account. We aim to provide a deeper view by focusing on two contexts: Generational and economic. We outline two primary findings within this study. First we argue that recent graduates struggle between two understandings of career: traditional discourses, where career is seen as static and devoid of private concerns and, another understanding of career, which is more related to the alternative discourses, where career is dynamic, more complex and influenced by more factors than just the individual. Second we believe that these two different understandings are shaped by the discourses surrounding the generation and economic contexts.