From Student to a Practitioner: How Students Transition to Their Post-University Life

Abstract

Students’ personal demands and personal resources are predictive of their (future) work experience and well-being. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether subgroups of students and young employees exist with a specific profile regarding the personal demands and resources, and how these different subgroups perceive their first work environment. Based on the Transactional Model of Stress and previous profile research, we expected four subgroups with a distinct latent personal demands and personal resources profile. We collected data from 1694 unique students, who participated once during their study time. From these students, 201 participants (11.9%) completed the questionnaire a second time after transitioning to the work field. We conducted a latent profile analyses before and after students transitioned from study to work. Finally, to uncover whether change in profile is common and can be predicted, we conducted a latent transition analysis. According to the results, four distinctive groups before and after the transition exist: the resilient, the vulnerable, the strict and the driven. The driven revealed the highest well-being and the vulnerable the worst well-being outcomes with the other groups in between. We are still in the process of analyzing which factors predict change and which factors predict stability in the profiles across the transition. Our study provides insight in the nature of students’ personal demands and personal resources before and after students transition from study to work, and shows how different groups of students perceive and experience their first work environment and well-being.