Graduate dress code: How undergraduates are planning to use hair, clothes and make-up to smooth their transition to the workplace
Journal article
Authors | Fletcher, Beth, Hooley, Tristram and Yates, Julia |
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Abstract | This article explores the relationship between students’ identities, their ideas about professional appearance and their anticipated transition to the world of work. It is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 13 students from a vocationally-focused university in England. It was found that participants viewed clothing and appearance as an important aspect of their transition to the workplace. They believed that, if carefully handled, their appearance could help them to fit in and satisfy the expectations of employers, although some participants anticipated that this process of fitting in might compromise their identity and values. The article addresses students’ anticipated means of handling the tension between adapting to a new environment and ‘being themselves’. It is argued that the way this process is handled is intertwined with wider facets of identity – most notably those associated with gender. |
Keywords | Appearance; Career; Clothing; Gender; Graduate transitions; Identity |
Year | 2015 |
Journal | Industry and Higher Education |
Publisher | SAGE Journals |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.5367/ihe.2015.0261 |
Web address (URL) | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5367/ihe.2015.0261 |
hdl:10545/575924 | |
Publication dates | 01 Aug 2015 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 25 Aug 2015, 10:28 |
Rights | Archived with thanks to Industry and Higher Education |
Contributors | University of Derby, University of Derby and University of East London |
File | File Access Level Open |
File | File Access Level Open |
https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/942yy/graduate-dress-code-how-undergraduates-are-planning-to-use-hair-clothes-and-make-up-to-smooth-their-transition-to-the-workplace
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