Negotiating perceived employability as sensemaking in the context of undergraduate work integrated learning
本研究通过分析会计专业本科生在工作整合学习中的主观经历，追踪其就业能力叙事的发展，揭示个体如何通过意义建构过程理解什么是具有就业能力的会计毕业生，对会计行业吸引新成员有参考价值。
As labour markets shift responsibility for navigating career transitions and employability from organisations to individuals, sensemaking around their own ‘perceived employability’ gains importance. Prior research suggests work integrated learning (WIL) experiences constitute a significant route to perceived employability for potential entrants to the accounting profession. The mechanisms through which this develops are less understood. Understanding of the impact of WIL on perceived employability, shaping individual career trajectories, augments efforts to attract new members to the profession. This study captures how representations of the world of professional accounting work are built, as entrants construct liminal places within that community. Through qualitative analysis of subjective experiences of transitions into, during and out of accounting-based WIL roles, ‘narratives of employability’ are tracked, charting contextualised sensemaking processes as individuals come to understand what an employable accounting graduate might be. Employability is positioned as a multi-dimensional construct involving reciprocal interactions between individuals sensemaking and organisational cues, highlighting how interpretation of key events informs individual agency and shapes career trajectories. Given rapidly changing workplaces and career concepts, this is an important mindset for graduates to develop. With rising concerns about recruitment issues for the profession, listening to potential entrants would seem an important first step. • Positions perceived employability as dynamic unfolding across career transitions. • Presents a lens allowing multi-stakeholder voices to emerge on ‘being employable’. • Evidences key mechanisms by which narratives of perceived employability develop. • Captures contextualised cues shaping reciprocal sensemaking interactions. • Shows the relevance of circular sensemaking loops to framing of career transitions.