Research was carried out with a sample of 173 university students who had a job while they studied. The horizontal fit of the student’s jobs (relationship between the content of the job and their studies) was measured two months before graduation, while their job’s quality as professionals was measured six months after graduation. The quality of the job was measured relying on its horizontal fit, its vertical fit (fit between the educational level of the subject and that required by the job) and the hierarchical level of the job position.

88% of the university students who, while studying, had a job related to the content of their studies, after graduation occupied jobs that required a university degree (high vertical fit), whilst this percentage was only 52% for subjects who, while studying, had a job not related to their studies. Additionally, 44% of the students of the first group occupied technical college or middle-level management positions, whilst the percentage was 18% for the second group.

According to Vicente González Romá, member of the research team and head of the Research Institute of Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development and Quality of Working Life of the Universitat de València (IDOCAL, for its Spanish acronym), “having a job with a horizontal fit while studying allows university students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired at the university to a real environment, to develop new competences that will be useful in their prospective jobs, and to establish contact with other professionals, thus contributing to the improvement of their human and social capital and of their employability.” Furthermore, he adds, the students with this kind of jobs are more selective when it comes to look for a job after graduating. Due to this and their higher human and social capital, “they are able to get higher quality jobs,” González Romá concludes.

Research was made within the framework of a research project subsidized by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref.: PSI-2013-47195-R). It is available in the scientific journal Career Development International.

Article:

Van der Heijden, B. I., Le Blanc, P. M., Hernández, A., González-Romá, V., Yeves, J., & Gamboa, J. P. (2019). The importance of horizontal fit of university student jobs for future job quality. Career Development International, 24, 239-256.