Job-hunting Process Of The Returning College Graduates In Taizhou Zhejiang Province

This paper investigates the job-hunting process of the returning college graduates in Taizhou, Zhejiang from the perspectives of social capital and habitus. Both social capital and habitus are sociological theories put forward by Pierre Bourdieu. In this study, social capital refers to social networks and social resources one has utilized during the job-hunting process. And habitus refers to one’s durable and transposable dispositions which are acquired from his/her historical experiences and displayed in his/her way of thinking and speaking. This research will be done first by exploring how social capital works in the returning college graduates’ job-hunting process. Then it will apply discourse analysis in examining whether the target population shares certain kinds of habitus and how habitus works in this process. Finally, other factors, such as gender, major and regional factor, etc will be verified to provide further evidence for the research findings.Research data are collected from questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Quantitative analyses show the following findings:First of all, social capital and job-hunting process have a significantly positive relation. Secondly, family’s socio-economic status does play a role in this process. In addition, major and regional factor will influence individuals’ job-hunting. Besides, there are investigations about the frequency of certain items, such as, their reasons to return to Taizhou, ways to find a job, and the difficulties they’ve encountered, etc. In qualitative analyses, discourse analysis is used to explore certain habitus shared by the returning college graduates. The findings can be summarized into three aspects:be accustomed to the familiar social context in hometown is the key reason for them to return; habitus can be passed on from parents to their children; social networks mainly function in offering guidance. The thesis concludes with a discussion of its implications, limitations, as well as some suggestions for further research.