How Do You Imagine a Future You've Never Seen? A qualitative study on how university students perceive remote work and imagine their future careers through career orientations.

Sammanfattning

Remote work has become a standard feature of professional life, but little is known about how students approaching graduation interpret it and how these interpretations shape their early-career plans. This thesis examines how students from European business and economics universities perceive remote and hybrid work, and how these perceptions influence the careers they imagine for themselves. Drawing on Career Orientation and Career Imagination, the study explores how students connect remote work to their learning needs, identity aspirations, and expectations of professional development. Based on fourteen semi-structured interviews, the findings show that students value flexibility but see full remote work as risky during the first years of employment. Remote work is often perceived as reducing informal learning, mentorship, and belonging especially in prestige-driven industries, leading students to prioritize on-site or hybrid arrangements early in their careers. At the same time, students imagine remote or hybrid work as more desirable later on, when they expect greater autonomy and confidence. The study concludes that perceptions of remote work significantly shape how students construct future career paths, particularly by influencing when and under what conditions flexibility is viewed as compatible with early-career success.