Educational and Career Trajectories of the Russian Youth in a Longitudinal Perspective: A Case of University Graduates br

Education and labor market outcomes of the Russian graduates are vastly stu-died, including theiremployment status, salaries, types of universities and ma-jors they study. However, there is a lack of research of the graduates' typicalpathsin education and labor market, whether theyfitthe conventional trajectoryhighschool - university - permanentemployment. Another question is how socialbackground and humancapitaldifferentiate trajectories andpredict a path , whichgraduateopts to. In this article, we address both questions. Employing thelongi-tudinalpanel study "Trajectories in Education and Careers" we examine the nine-year trajectories of those who earned a universitydiploma by the age of 25. In ourresearch, we use sequence analysis to identify trajectories andregression analy-sis to estimate theprobability to follow each trajectorydepending on individualcharacteristics - socio-economic status and humancapital - whilecontrollingfordemographic variables. We identify ninetypical trajectories, including severaltypes of a linearpath, various career-oriented trajectories, a reverse and a delayedpath, unstable andnontraditional trajectories. This set of education-careerpathslargelycorrespondsto foreign studies, but the Russiangraduates' trajectories turn out to be smoo-ther. At the same time, individual factors of humancapital and socio-economicstatus moderate education-careerpaths. Theprobability of following trajectorieswithprolonged education (with a post-bachelor's degree) is significantlyhigherforhighachieving students. Entering early career trajectories is associated witha non-cognitive skill - openness to experience. Socio-economic statusdifferen-tiates two early career trajectories: "accelerated adulthood" for those with lowSES and "encouragedprofessionalization", which is associated withhigh SES. Following an unstable trajectory is not associated with either socio-economic sta-tus or academicperformance (cognitive skills) but is associated with low awar-eness about the field of study when entering a university (ill-informed choice)