“If I won the lottery…”: work orientations of low-qualified young adults in Albania and Switzerland

Abstract

A qualitative study was carried out to portray the work orientations of 30 low-qualified working young adults in two contrasted economies: Albania and Switzerland. The analysis of their answers to the “lottery question” showed that most participants would continue to work, either to be busy, feed a passion, feel useful, or grow. In contrast to participants from Switzerland, Albanian participants would more easily modify some aspects of their work. Globally, findings reveal that participants’ current situations tend to differ from what they expect from work, which impacts the quality of their work integration and has critical implications for career counseling.