The employability of graduates of higher education has attracted the interest of the academic community in the European context and in the Portuguese context (Vincens, 1997 Verniéres, 1997; Marques, 2006, 2010, Alves, M., 2007, Alves, N., 2005, Chaves, 2010) due to structural and cyclical changes facing the job market and questioning the role of higher education in contemporary societies, which rely heavily on the knowledge economy (Giddens,2004).

Bearing in mind that graduates are heterogeneous groups, given the areas of training and resources they have for inclusion in the professional field, is becoming increasingly relevant look on the one hand, so compared, and secondly, in-depth discussions around areas in which employability is higher.

The present study focuses on graduates of the ​​"Engineering, manufacturing and construction," area according to ISCED 1997 classification, a group that is distinguished by a high rate of employability, being subjected to mediated discourses positive compared with graduates from other areas of training. However, the analysis of the situation before the objective and subjective work requires a greater focus, bearing in mind the relationship between aspirations and achievements (Bourdieu, 2001). This paper explains, in an objective perspective, the factual situation before the five years ending job training, and a subjective perspective, satisfaction with work, the importance attached to work in life, compared with the other spheres of social life and the work values ​​that give more importance (Herzberg, 1971, MOW Group, 1987, Schwartz 1999).

Technological advances allow the individual creativity, flexibility and differentiation in their profession, which will be reflected in their personal development but also in political and social development of a country. For this reason, in the context of work organization, with changes due to the convergence of several factors, such as internationalization and interdependence of economies, or the exploitation of technological advancement, the most characteristic groups of professionals «Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction», in which the balance of knowledge and technical skills and allows the integration of human activities, attitudes and interests of the organizations they work with an emphasis on techno-economic paradigm. In this sense, besides the analysis of employment status, the perception of the relationship between skills acquired at university and those required by the job market for graduates seems to point to the emergence of a socially constructed discourse in the workplace, where you can find bridges to the connection between the university and the labor market, with the analytical framework for the model of competence (Dubar, 2006, Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005).

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