Perceived employability of business graduates: The effect of academic performance and extracurricular activities

•349 Portuguese working adults rated the employability of eight fictitious résumés.•Academic performance (GPA) is key to raise business graduates employability.•Extracurricular activities (ECAs) alone are not enough to overcome poor performance.•GPA and ECAs combined foster business graduates employability.•Résumés' content frames general employability perceptions about business graduates.

This study examines whether the academic performance and the participation in extracurricular activities affect the perceived employability of business graduates using an experimental between-subjects factorial design. Eight fictitious résumés of business graduates varying in terms of academic performance, participation in extracurricular activities and gender were rated by 349 Portuguese working adults. The results showed that a high academic performance combined with the participation in extracurricular activities resulted in higher perceived employability, whereas the participation in extracurricular activities combined with a modest academic performance resulted in lower job suitability but nearly identical high ratings of personal organization and time management, and learning skills. These inferences were unaffected by either applicant gender or respondent's characteristics. The findings highlight the prominence of academic performance that combined with extracurricular activities can be a valuable distinctiveness approach to ease the entrance in the labour market of business graduates.