Career boundaries and employability perceptions: an exploratory study with graduates

This study focus is on career boundaries to graduate employability in a crisis economy. The underlying theoretical framework focus on career boundary theory and perceived employability. The empirical findings are based on a small-scale qualitative study that includes five focus group interviews conducted with Portuguese graduates of both genders in the academic fields of Business and Management. The analysis reveals that graduate employability is constrained by four types of career boundaries: (1) Organizational and work-related boundaries; (2) Contextual and labour-market boundaries; (3) Personal-related boundaries; and (4) Cognitive-cultural boundaries. This article contributes to the literature by highlighting the diversified nature of the career boundaries that graduates encounter in both external and internal labour markets. At the policy level, the findings underline that the issue of graduate employability requires a concerted effort among governmental entities and Higher Education policy-makers, as well as employers, and cannot be the sole responsibility of the individual.