Professional Expectations of Advertising Undergraduate Students: A Sexually Biased Profession? A Pilot Study with Students of Alicante, Murcia and Navarra

Abstract

In a work context characterized by a shortage of talent, to know pre-professionals’ work attitudes, during the anticipatory socialization process, could promote job retention for future graduates. Given the centrality of the advertising industry in the Knowledge Society, it is important to understand that one of its defining traits, moreover, common to other fields in the services sector, is that its production, non-physical or immaterial, depends on people. Therefore, in light of these evidences, we can say that human capital is nuclear for the competitiveness of the advertising industry. The overall objective of this paper is to explore the work expectations of a sample of 350 advertising undergraduate students. In addition, to ascertain if the students’ expectations of professions specially linked to the Knowledge Society (as is the case of advertising) are tied to a particular idiosyncrasy of it takes part of a generational trend, we analyze the work expectations of other university students. The results suggest that socialization process is related to individuals’ work motivations, so depending on what you study, your work expectations differ. The analysis by gender shows that socialization process may intervene in the sexual composition of the horizontal structure of advertising. If in the advertising industry women are overrepresented, among others, in the research department and the man does the same in the creative department, our students take this sexual distribution from university classrooms. In this situation one might wonder whether the sector's horizontal segregation begin to develop during the college stage and through what mechanisms (sexual or professional).