Who enters a job quickly after graduating?: Results of a longitudinal study (BELA-E)

This study reports findings of a survey with N = 1500 respondents who had just graduated from university (majors in all university disciplines). The participants filled out a questionnaire in which they were asked to assess their occupational self-efficacy, motives (achievement, affiliation, power), occupational values, and gender role orientation (instrumental and expressive orientation). They also answered questions about their grades, length of studies, and whether they had already taken up employment. The research aimed to analyze the correlates of a faster or slower integration into professional life, and to generate hypotheses for a later longitudinal study. Within half a year after their graduation, 80% of respondents, who had studied subjects with an obligatory second phase (law, medicine, teaching), had a suitable position. Of the respondents who had graduated in other subjects, 47% reported that they already had a job, another 9% wanted to stay at university, and 44% did not yet have a job Compared with those without a job, those in employment had better grades, had studied faster, expressed less fear of failure, more occupational self-efficacy, higher instrumentality, higher career relevance, and more prestige-oriented occupational values. Occupational self efficacy and - to a smaller extent - grade points are the most important correlates of an early integration into professional life. There were significant differences between the disciplines. Persons who had graduated in technical subjects more often had a job than those who graduated in business or arts. Those with majors in natural sciences less often had a job, but more often remained at the university without an appointment. 53% of the men, but only 33% of the women, were in employement at the time of the survey. Women had the same average grade points as men, but somewhat lower occupational self-efficacy. This difference, however, did not explain the sharp difference in the percentage of female and male job holders.