The article examines factors determining atypical forms of employment for graduates in Poland. According to the authors, labor market entry in Poland increasingly takes place through atypical – or flexible – forms of employment understood as any form of employment different than a permanent contract of employment. The role of atypical forms of employment in Poland has steadily increased since the country’s transition to a market economy in 1989, the authors say. Between 2001 and 2011, the proportion of these forms of employment in the 15-24 age group rose by 32 percentage points, while the average increase in the EU as a whole was only 3.5 points. International empirical studies show that atypical forms of employment can significantly influence many aspects of a professional career, the authors say. Some researchers argue that atypical forms of employment have a negative impact on wages (D. Bertrand-Cloodt et al. 2011; F. McGinnity et al. 2005) as well as on job satisfaction (M. de Graaf-Zijl 2005). Against this background, the authors set out to establish what individual characteristics determine the probability of atypical employment. They use logit models to identify individual determinants of short-term employment as well as of various forms of freelancing and post-graduate internships. The data comes from a special project administered by the Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, called A Study of the Economic Activity of Graduates. The authors identify factors that increase the probability of atypical forms of employment. The most prominent factors include having graduated after 2004, being a woman, having a low level of education, postponing your labor market entry, and getting a first job that does not match your education profile, Wincenciak and Zys say. On the other hand, graduates with a university education and those whose parents are better educated are more likely to find permanent employment, the authors say.