The emotional dimensions of international students' career development and transition experiences have often been overshadowed by a predominant focus on education as a pathway to employment. Prior research has focused on international students' human capital and competitiveness in the global labour market. Alongside credential-building runs a powerful emotional current, shaping and shaped by career transitions. The constant evaluation of progress toward career and migration goals is often accompanied by a shifting mix of hope, anxiety, pride, and uncertainty.
These emotions are not incidental. They emerge from changing circumstances, fresh feedback, unexpected challenges, and evolving aspirations. For many international graduates, the first year of post-study employment is a high-stakes balancing act, meeting employer expectations, adapting to workplace culture, and pursuing long-term migration plans, while carrying the weight of personal and family hopes.
This presentation explores international students' transition experiences through a secondary analysis of critical incidents, using reflexive thematic analysis to uncover how culture, context, and coping strategies intertwine. The findings reveal three interconnected themes under an overarching metaphor: travelling with emotions along career pathways. Emotions here are not passive reflections of events, but rather active companions that emerge during transitions. By foregrounding emotional experience, this research invites a more holistic understanding of international student transitions, one that accounts for both the actions they take and the feelings they carry. The presentation will offer insights for career services to integrate emotional awareness into support programs and outline new research directions that place emotions at the centre of career development theory and practice.