Negotiating perceived employability as sensemaking in the context of undergraduate work integrated learning

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.