This paper is based on the assumption that the career success of political science graduates in Slovenia cannot be fully investigated without taking into account several macro-factors determining the social and political position of political science as a profession in general. Therefore, this paper will, firstly, frame the development of political science since its emergence within a communist country, taking into account four sets of literature: the literature on a professional project; modernisation; democratisation; and Europeanisation. In order to discover what determines the career success of political science graduates in the context of Slovenia’s independence and full integration into the European Union (EU) we will examine previous studies of political science developments, statistical data and surveys conducted among alumni since the end of the 1960s. The analytical framework for empirical analysis focuses on the factors co-determining the employability and the career success of political science graduates, primarily the following: a) the employability of graduates and the positions they occupy; b) the strengths and weaknesses of political science education as perceived by political science graduates in their work place; c) the position of political science as a profession compared to other competing profiles; d) the response to this feedback by the educational system.