Becoming an IT Person: Field, Habitus and Capital in the Transition from University to Work

Abstract

Transitions from university study to graduate work in new industries such as information technology (IT) are not well understood. As the IT industry is a significant recruiter of graduates and an important component of the UK economy, the transition into the IT profession needs to be understood better. In addition, understanding the transition into IT work may contribute to a broader understanding of transitions in the new industries more generally. We focus on three cases selected from a broader longitudinal project and take as our starting point graduates' perspectives on their transitions. We use Bourdieu's conceptions of field, habitus and capital to move beyond existing policy discourses which tend to concentrate exclusively on the qualities of graduates. Specifically, we argue that, to understand transitions we need to focus on the work and the organisational context (field), the habitus of the individual making the transition, and the resources (capital) that individuals may deploy. That is, individual transitions are better understood by considering field, habitus and capital and the interactions between them.The transition from university study into graduate work is not yet well understood (Dahlgren et al. 2006;Johnston 2003), particularly in relation to specific professions and/or industries. The policy discourse often adopts a 'learning equals earning' Vocations and Learning (2011) 4:133-150

Information Management graduates' accounts of their employability: A case study from the University of Sheffield

“…This suggests that a package of IM/IS competencies such as exist in degrees like the BSc is a highly employable package for working in IT. For graduates who took this path, life after graduation did not seem to have been a "very uncomfortable world" [29], a "swamp" [26] or "shocking" [7]. The few graduates that had gone in other directions were less convinced that IM made them employable.…”

“…This approach would see the transition from university to work as one step in a complex, on going process and as a trajectory between two communities of practice. Moving into work is a transition from fitting into ways of being a student appropriately, itself negotiated in relation to the values and assumptions of the discipline/institution, towards an appropriate identity in a workplace, negotiated in relation to local values and expectations [7,11,16,24,25]. The degree of alignment between these two identities shapes whether it is a smooth or rather discontinuous experience of change on entering employment [11].…”

“…Clearly, however, what constitutes employability in a particular sector will have its specific aspects; this is relatively neglected in the wider debate, but could be particularly important outside the context of well established professions [7].…”

“…We know a lot more about the IT industry than the information sector as such, though the complexity of the industry makes it hard to generalise about the skills required [7]. IT workers are usually graduates, but not necessarily in computer science or engineering [3].…”

Transitioning from University to Employment in Engineering: The Role of Curricular and Co-curricular Activities

“…Nevertheless, they believed that their university education helped them to attain content knowledge, as well as skills in problem-solving, time management, learning, and managing stress and heavy workloads. Similarly, English computer science and information systems students in a study by Clark, Zukas and Lent thought that their university education was generally valuable and relevant, though some of them found the computing aspect of their education peripheral to the tasks that they had to perform in their jobs [7]. Graduates seemed to utilize their learning about business and management to a greater extent than their knowledge of computing.…”