Struggling, Adapting, Settling: Recent Chinese Graduates' First Transition Stage From University Into Workplace

• In Event: Changing Higher Education Through International and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

Employing a retrospective approach, this paper explores the changing experience of recent young graduates in transition from university through early career in digital economy sector in China. Drawing upon thirty-eight semi-structed interviews with graduates who were out of university for three to five years and were working in digital economy sector in China in 2019, this paper presents the first transition stage, described as ‘transition shock’, of young graduates. It suggests that young graduates are likely to experience two interlocked changes, change of identity from a mature student to a novice, and change of environment from university to the workplace. Suffering these two aspects of changes, graduates undergo three mental phases, struggling, adapting and settling.

Author

• Junping Cui, University College London