The Graduate Experiences of Tongans and the Quarter Life Crisis

This study is focussed on the immediate post-graduation experiences of Tongan graduates, an ethnic minority group within the New Zealand population. Does the fact that they are Tongan, and the anga faka-Tonga, impacts on their experiences ? For example as is well documented there is a prominence given to education as a way of contributing back to the family and community and also as a major status raising activity in the Tongan monarchical society. Findings were that for almost this entire group the post-graduation experience had been a difficult journey especially as views showed that they had little idea about the realities of the workforce. Some discussed how they had gone for 40 jobs and rather than be unemployed had taken ¿any job¿. The risk factor there, was that they had stayed in these jobs rather than try for higher level posts because of the risk of being unemployed again. Their inability to find a job also meant that their ego took a knock in that they would be perceived to be ¿like the uneducated¿ other.