Jean-François Guillaume

Professional Trajectory and Family Patrimony

Entering professional life and establishing a firm hold on a job position are often explained around notions such as integration, project and employability, which stress the role of the individual. Yet they actually also have a family dimension. When they try to find their way to the labour market, members of the younger generation will use strategies developed in order to ensure the durability of a social position. They inherit professional know-how, a system of values and a network of personal relationships as well as property and financial assets. In order to consider this transmission process, the author discusses a research that focuses on young Belgian peoples trajectories of professional integration. About 30 French-speaking young Belgian people were interviewed at some length, the information thus collected complementing the statistical analysis of various longitudinal data sets about the first 24 months after graduation. All had had some experience of professional integration, i.e. experience of work as salaried employees or as freelancers, but had not all secured a stable position. Researchers need to be aware of the theoretical and methodological implications arising from the juxtaposition between objective data collected in longitudinal surveys and subjective data written at the heart of biographical stories.