Young Graduates Self Entrepreneur: Searching for Job or Creating a Company?

Precariousness is a rising condition of high skilled and knowledge work. The implementation of new kind of work contracts is supporting this movement. In France, a new fiscal regime for self-entrepreneur had been created in 2009. This consists of lower tax rate and simplified administrative procedure for small companies (turnover under 33 000 euros).

This communication presents the results of a research on graduates (master or PhD in social sciences) who enter the labour market by creating this kind of self-entreprise. It appears that they didn’t choose this scheme of work: it had been required by employers to low their labor cost, flexibly the working relationship and externalise administrative procedures. While graduates are administratively independents, their conditions of work are mainly those of salaried: in the firm, with fix schedule, prescription from the superior, etc.

In these situation that fuzzed and hybridised working regime and working conditions of independents and salaried, how are these graduates (as specific population of knowledge workers) adapted ? Their working conditions, activities, projects and discourses reveal different feelings about that situation. This paper will explore these three idea-types of young self entrepreneur: subordinated, independent, or in inclusion. To what extend does this situation trained them to become entrepreneurial worker?