Challenging conventional thinking about ‘career’ in the curriculum

Maura O’Regan 23rd September 2009

This workshop in three stages

– Context

– Task

– Reflection

POLICY RESEARCH PRACTICE

Focus on student satisfaction and

destinations post-graduation

e.g. Tomlinson (2007, 2008),

O’Regan (2009))

Focus on the end result, Making

career decisions

Not linked to theory

Career is idiosyncratic,

subjective and contextualised

Linked to ‘old’ theory

Tend to see the student body as a homogenous group (one size fits all)

Simplistic view of career path

Is studying history. Only ‘slackers’ at his school didn’t go to university. ‘It was presumed that I would’…‘it was drilled into us’. Settles into university life very easily. Had wanted to travel for a year before university but felt from the family’s point of view, it was not a good time to go away.

Graduates with a 2.1 and moves back home. Goes travelling for three months and it ‘was the best thing I had ever done ever’

James

Does not ‘really want to do the graduate scheme….I’d prefer to start from a lower level and go up through the ranks…start from scratch’Would like to do ‘practical things – anything hands on really wouldn’t be too bad’. But ‘if there was a job leading from doing a history degree... I’d enjoy doing that. But I’m just not sure what sort of job titles there are’

Is accepted onto the paramedic training scheme and is ‘happy I want to do a job where I can make a difference and like help others. I think this time last year, I probably wouldn't have cared that much … And so I am happy that has changed. It really was travelling that made that difference’

Engineer,Journalist

I haven’t really got

anything in mind at the

moment. No. I haven’t decided

anything yet.

RAF

ParamedicCivil

service

Works in local government office during summer vacation which was ‘a bit boring’,

Does emergency training with the ambulance service to become ‘First Response’ trained and begins to consider becoming a paramedic. Thinks it will ‘be ideal. It will ‘be intense working in London as a paramedic. So I spent ages writing a personal statement…’

Comes back to a recession. He looks at the graduate jobs. ‘I either didn't particularly want to do or wasn't driven hard enough to do…I went for some interviews and the one thing they said to me at the end of it was, I lacked the drive to get these jobs’. He agrees and starts working in the local pub.

© Maura O’Regan September 2009

Takes a gap year because he doesn’t know what he wants to study at university. Trains as a croupier to as wants to work on cruise ships to combine work and travel. ‘Rushes’ into doing a cybernetics degree and drops out. Travels to Australia, comes back and works in casinos.

Trader,Accountant

Wants to be a trader but also do an accountancy qualification ‘because I don’t want to be a trader all my life…because you just burn yourself out. I’d like to set my-self up in my own business eventually’. His concern is that accountancy is a ‘mundane job’, ‘no buzz there, no yeah I got it!’ Begins applying for internships. Gets only rejections. Goes to the Palace to collect his Duke of Edinburgh award.

Proprietary Trader

Recruitment consultant –

Financial services

Buys a narrow boat. Starts his degree course. Does Duke of Edinburgh Gold award for which he coaches judo, learns how to horse ride, does motor cycle maintenance, plans an expedition. At university is on the student - staff committee. Is part of a fund management club where they plan where to invest their money.

Joe

Begins applying for investment banking roles in his final year. More rejections. Talks to university staff in his department about interview technique. Gets a First class degree and is offered a position as a Proprietary Trader. Pays £2,500 a month for his desk and all the kit. ‘It is high risk, high reward and it’s exactly what I want to do’…’ I think I'm going to learn more in like a week working there than I have on my degree probably, because it is relevant to what I'm doing’

Work on cruise ships

Visits university career service as wants a more interesting job with better promotional opportunities. ‘Couldn’t see myself getting into management’…didn’t want to ‘suck’ up to them. Decides to do a finance related degree, takes A level economics to get on the course. ‘Why didn’t I think of this years ago? Interested in finance from an early age – his granddad had his own portfolio of investments. Had ‘fantasy portfolios myself as a kid’

Trader

‘It’s like work, sleep and then get up… So yeah basically just, well it is a massive part of your life’. Makes £45.000 but after expenses has £15,000. After a year in London as a trader by mutual agreement he decides to leave. Starts looking for financial advisor vacancies. Realises he needs a qualification. Signs up for a distance CEFA. Takes a break from job hunting for a few weeks. Is approached by a friend and offered the opportunity to work as a financial services recruitment consultant.

Financial services advisor

© Maura O’Regan September 2009

Croupier

FUTURE FOCUS

LOW

HIG

H

CARE

ER R

ELEV

ANCE

LOW

HIGH

Orientated to LEARNINGHave made a smooth transition to

university

Are enjoying their studies

Value their studies and what they are gaining academically

Are relatively unconcerned about their career - it will come later

Orientated to INSTRUMENTALISM

Have come to university to get a degree to further their career ideas

Take a very strategic approach to their career and their future

Take advantage of every opportunity

Are aware of what they need to do to realise their career aspirations

Set themselves goals and targets

Orientated to INTROSPECTION

Have not made a smooth transition to university

Are anxious about fitting in

Worry about passing their exams

Need a lot of support as lack confidence and self-esteem

Orientated to HESITATIONHave made a smooth transition to

university

Are flexible, easy going and enjoy the social aspects of university

Know what type of career they want but realising it is too far in the future

Know what they need to do but never seem to get around to doing it

Leave things to the last minute but take responsibility for their procrastination

O’Regan, M. (2009) Career pursuit: towards an understanding of undergraduate students’ orientation to career Unpublished PhD, University of Reading

Group discussion based on O’Regan’s career pursuit model

Answer the first two questions as if you were an undergraduate student

Q1. Where do you see yourself in the model? Explain how your approach to study and career places you in that position on the model.

Q2. How happy are you with your position on the model or would you prefer to be placed elsewhere? Explain.

Q3. How can using empirical research inform policy and practice to enhance career related provision within the HE curriculum?

Now come back to the present time and answer this question. Please keep a written record of the groups responses and other comments.

Orientation to labour market (LM) (ends)

Non-market orientation

Ritualist next largest

group

Careerist almost half

undergraduates

Rebel none

Retreatist 2 undergraduates

Career as a life project, a vehicle for self development & personal fulfilment.‘Play the game’ aware of the need to conform to the rules of the market.‘Working their way up’ ‘do all you can’.Take an instrumental approach to developing their graduate profiles.Career progression is important – gaining on the ground experience. Use their knowledge of the LM to negotiate the demands of the LM.Female students entering male dominated professions –accountancy, engineering.

Work as a ritual process.Work is a means to an end, ‘something you have to do’. Place greater value on lifestyle and life projects operating outside the LM. They lower the stakes and ‘scale down’. aspirations, could be seen as managing the risk, progress more easily with more limited material rewards. Less ambitious expectations - ‘do all you need’ ‘settle for’ public sector work, Female students shy away from male dominated professions, go for lower demand, lower entry markets with anticipated smoother, more stable paths. Do take an instrumental approach to study and developing credentials.

Abandoning labour market goals and employabilityHave genuine feelings of anxiety and disaffection, developing a career is ‘daunting’ They want to extend their youth and continue to enjoy their loosely regulated lifestyles.Indifferent to the LM. Aware of the limitations of their hard credentials. LM was seen as corrupt and greedy, although their rebellion was passive.

The author would expect that they would abandon LM goals

Reference: Tomlinson, Michael (2007) Graduate employability and student attitudes and orientations to the labour market . Journal of Education and Work, 20(4) pp. 285-304

Ideal type orientation

Active Passive (means)

Group discussion based on Tomlinson’s ideal-type orientation model

Answer the first two questions as if you were an undergraduate student

Q1. Where do you see yourself in the model? Explain how your approach to work and career places you in that position on the model.

Q2. How happy are you with your position on the model or would you prefer to be placed elsewhere? Explain.

Q3. How could this model be used with undergraduate students in a higher education setting?

Now come back to the present time and answer this question. Please keep a written record of the groups responses and other comments.

Issues that have emerged today…

How might we take this forward?

Contact details: m.oregan@reading.ac.uk

In conclusion

It’s really not the end of the

world for me if I don’t get an amazing job

straight away… Monica

Maybe I rushed into making a careers

decision in my second year… Phoebe

I just don’t think it is important enough for me to start worrying about what I

want to do. I’d rather focus on other stuff that I think is more

important like studying - focusing on that as opposed to what I want to do in the

future…Billy