"I CONFESS THAT..." A NETNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CAREER BARRIERS AND SELF-MANAGEMENT BY UNDERGRADUATES DURING PANDEMIC COVID-19

autogerenciamento e vivências de carreira de universitários durante a pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how perceived career barriers have impacted career self-management of undergraduates at a public university in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. This paper brings as a theoretical contribution the literature of Covid-19 pandemic and career studies with an emphasis on perceived barriers and career self-management actions. Following a qualitative approach, netnography was adopted as a methodological strategy by collecting posts from the “Segredos” page on the Facebook, which is a space for discussions by the academic community. Data were coded, analyzed and guided by content analysis with thematic categorization a posteriori. The results showed that in the face of the atypical context of contextual crises, students perceive numerous external barriers (education, economics, politics, financial restrictions and family condition) and internal barriers (mental health). With the pandemic context, career self-management has become more intense and complex. Students have been adopting productive and non-productive coping to face the perceived barriers. Limitations of this study and new proposals for future researches are indicated.