International Graduates’ Exercising of Agency for Employability : A Decade-Long Journey

Abstract

Different factors drive students to pursue overseas study, such as better employment opportunities. Employability is used to describe the qualities needed for obtaining employment. It is an “active social process,” as one’s capitals and career identity transform with the labor market and job obtained. Using an open-ended questionnaire with five international graduates who pursued master’s level study a decade ago, this chapter investigates their enacted employability agency and related hindrances upon graduation. It also explores how the relations between the overseas study, their employability agency, and their present career. International graduates deployed various forms of capital when searching for employment in their home and host countries, and also when coping with personal and structural hindrances. Important aspects of exercising employability agency include the utilization of different capitals and social networks in the labor market, in addition to staying perseverant and flexible in coping with hindrances. Recommendations on bridging expectations and skills with the labor market are made in this chapter.