The impact of Brexit: When politics and career dreams collide

As the next generation of graduates prepare to enter the post-Brexit world of economic uncertainty, is “getting a graduate job” their priority? And what does a “graduate career” mean nowadays? The substantive impact of Brexit on the UK labour market is, as yet, far from clear (Institute for Employment Studies, 2017; BBC News 2018). However, large scale quantitative surveys of UK undergraduates, from predominantly Russell Group universities, suggest that up to three quarters of graduates believe it will be harder to find graduate employment because of the Brexit vote (e.g. UK Graduate Careers Survey, 2017), with 77% believing that there will be fewer opportunities to work or study overseas (Trendence UK, 2017). Focussing on the findings from a small-scale qualitative research project, which seeks to better understand the impact of political events on career decision-making by exploring the impact of Brexit on the career aspirations of final year undergraduate students at the University of the West of England, the article presents a more nuanced understanding and provides an insight into how these students will aim to use their career choices to “heal” what they perceive to be the negative impact of the Brexit campaign and the UK’s subsequent decision to leave the EU.The findings reveal the centrality of emotion and values, and determination, adaptability and even optimism are the unexpected findings of the research, and serve to balance, or even contradict, the predominantly negative media reporting on graduate prospects