Bendassolli, Pedro FernandoSilva, Wesley Jordan Pereira da2025-03-182025-03-182025-01-21SILVA, Wesley Jordan Pereira da. Processos de significação nas trajetórias laborais de jovens diplomados no ensino superior atuando fora da área de formação. Orientador: Dr. Pedro Fernando Bendassolli. 2025. 177f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Psicologia) - Centro de Ciências Humanas, Letras e Artes, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2025.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/63036The expansion of higher education and changes in the world of work have created a scenario in which a degree does not guarantee employability. This dissertation explored the subjective implications of this reality for the way young graduates perceive and experience work. The aim was to investigate the processes of signification in the work trajectories of young graduates working outside their fields of study or unemployed, using the Trajectory Equifinality Model. The senses and meanings of the young people investigated using this tool were articulated based on memories, affections/disaffection, and dilemmas/tensions related to not working in their field. A two-stage study was carried out. In the first, of a quantitative and complementary nature, a questionnaire was used to describe the work situations of graduates from a public university. The second, qualitative, consisted of ten in-depth interviews. Intra- and inter-case analysis was carried out on the material produced. A total of 590 graduates responded to the questionnaire, showing that almost half (48%) work outside their field and/or in jobs that do not require higher education. The main findings of the second stage indicated that the young people used the meanings of job, career, and vocation to delineate their subjective experiences with work, which was seen as a career or vocation when related to their fields: if it was within their fields, work was associated with personal and professional fulfillment, a dream come true and the opportunity to help others. Outside their field, work was secondary and related only to subsistence. "Gaining" a field of study through a diploma transformed the relationship that the young participants established with work, what they expected from it, and what they wanted to achieve through it. In addition, the meanings “inherited” from the culture proved insufficient to structure the processes of signification, leading the young people to resort to hybridity or “stylizations”.Acesso AbertoProcessos de significaçãoJuventudeTrabalhomasterThesisCNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA