The refusal of offered jobs

This paper aims at understanding why graduates from the University of Padua refuse jobs that are offered to them. Job refusals can be due to a mixture of recklessness and ambition, which together induce graduates to risk waiting for something better, but such refusals might also be a symptom of the ineffectiveness of the university system in the formation of professional profiles suitable for the job market. It will be shown that refusals are mainly due to already having a job position, often a better position than the one offered. Data also show the existence of two opposing situations: on the one hand, some graduates with marketable degrees can afford to sort job offers, while other graduates, whose degrees are weaker on the job market, have to make their way through job offers that are not always adequate for their educational investment.