SEMINAR
The Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources
Invites you to the following PhD Seminar, presented by:
Janet Ferguson
Principal Supervisors: Assoc Prof Janis Bailey and Dr Teresa Marchant
Title: Graduates’ Perceptions of their Attributes when Making the
Transition to Employment and Managing their Careers
Abstract: Limited research exists on graduates’ experiences during the transition from
university to professional employment in the changing world of work. This research explores
graduates’ experiences of that transition in both the context of current higher education
practice, with its focus on graduate attributes, and the context of more fluid careers than in
the past. Most research on careers focuses on traditional and alternative careers theories,
including boundaryless and protean careers, but does not include a consideration of new
graduates’ experiences of these careers. Similarly, research on graduates’ attributes is from
university and employer perspectives, not graduates’ perspectives. This mixed methods
research project will focus on new graduates’ perspectives, viewing them as active agents in
their early career development as they shape their graduate attributes to the workplace.
This research contributes to existing research in two ways, by integrating theory from three
disciplines of management, education and psychology, and by aligning careers theories with
the graduates’ attributes debate. There are three key aims to this research. First, to explore
graduates’ experiences as they make the transition to professional employment; second, to
discover if and how graduates’ attributes contribute to their career agency as they make the
transition; third, to identify and measure graduates’ career orientation during their early
professional employment.
Date: Monday 13 May 2013
Time: 1 - 2 pm
Venue: G06, room 2.35
Note: Tea and coffee provided.
RSVP by:
Thursday 9th May to:
k.decelis@griffith.edu.au