Lost in Transition: College Resources and the Unequal Early-Career Trajectories of Arts Alumni

Abstract

This article considers how college resources (academic abilities, social engagement, and career skills) affect the likelihood of a successful post-graduation job search. Using survey data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project ( N = 16,659 alumni who graduated between 1976 and 2015), we find that arts graduates are increasingly likely to be lost in transition. Over recent decades, the likelihood of experiencing a prolonged job search after graduation or initial employment in an unrelated field has increased. Yet, we find that higher levels of social engagement and career skills, but not academic abilities gained through traditional instruction, are predictive of labor market success. Female and non-White alumni report lower levels of college resources, longer initial job searches, and are more likely to find work in an unrelated field. Furthermore, gender moderates the relationship between career skills and job search length such that career skill development is associated with stronger gains for men than for women.

Cultural Capital: Arts Graduates, Spatial Inequality, and London’s Impact on Cultural Labor Markets

“…However, our current analysis has two important implications for arts graduates and their educators. The first is that the economic case for arts education must be rethought in the face of evidence suggesting arts education is yet to deliver a secure, credentialized, route into the CCIs (see Martin & Frenette, 2017, for more on unequal professional outcomes among U.S. arts graduates). The second lies in the defense of the art school and arts education.…”

The intern economy in the cultural industry: an empirical study of the demand side

“…These characteristics, in conjunction with their private for-profit status, allow galleries to easily integrate interns and could explain their preference for interns over employees, which gives them cost advantages. The art market (including art fairs and auction houses) could be quite appealing to aspirant workers, which may exacerbate the social class distinction in the cultural industry (Martin and Frenette 2017). As the Belgian capital (Brussels) is included in our dataset, internship practices in the visual arts may lead to the social class disparities as observed in other metropoles' cultural employment, such as in London (Oakley et al 2017).…”

“…Therefore, internships, especially extra-curricular and after-school, could make graduates dependent on parental assistance. Empirical studies have begun to report differences in post-graduation job outcomes (including positions and earnings) by socio-economic background (Martin and Frenette 2017;Oakley et al 2017;Witteveen and Attewell 2017), providing evidence for social class inequalities at the end of education.…”

“…As noted by Martin andFrenette (2017, 1492), any 'field that places a strong emphasis on social connections, self-promotion and assertive personalities could magnify inequalities by offering further advantages to groups that already enjoy an abundance of material and symbolic resources.' One such field is the cultural industry, in which success has been evidenced to be reliant upon the mobilisation of financial and social resources (Scott 2012), sometimes more readily accessible for graduates with affluent parents (Eikhof and Warhurst 2013).…”

Suggestions for Developing "Alumni Economy" Based on Organizational Management Method

“…Large-scale developed cities are more attractive to employment, which determines the number and level of talents. Alumni associations in large cities have a larger organizational scale, more alumni and a wider range of industries and occupations [7]. Therefore, alumni associations in large developed cities are often the focus of alumni work.…”