An Engineering Major Does Not (Necessarily) an Engineer Make: Career Decision Making Among Undergraduate Engineering Majors

Abstract

This study uses a mixed-methods design to investigate students' career decision making at two U.S. undergraduate institutions. The research question was, "To what extent do students who complete undergraduate programs in engineering intend to pursue engineering careers?" We surveyed senior engineering majors about their post-graduate intentions, and later interviewed a subset of the seniors about their career intentions. Only 42 percent of students surveyed reported that they definitely intended to pursue a career in engineering, 44 percent were unsure, and 14 percent were definitely not pursuing engineering. We observed significant institutional differences. Interview data reveal the quixotic nature of many students' decisions about their careers; strikingly, students were vacillating between multiple post-graduate options late into the senior year, even into summer. Implications are discussed for further research and ways engineering departments can influence students' career decisions.

Becoming Boundary Spanning Engineers: Research Methods and Preliminary Findings

“…20 Still other studies have drawn attention to the disproportionate impact of internships on engineering students, including in terms of predicting increased retention in engineering degree programs, as a factor in career decision-making, and as a key mechanism for development of professional competence, to name a few salient themes. 21,22,23 Looking beyond the engineering education literature, one can also find engineers as subjects in broader studies of college-to-career transitions. 24 Andrew's accounts of his educational and work experiences also open a small but insightful window into professional engineering work, confirming what scholars of professional practice have been suggesting for quite some time, namely "that the social and technical are almost inextricably tied up together" 13 (p. 120).…”

Disciplinary Influences on the Professional Identity of Civil Engineering Students: Starting the Conversation

“…Therefore, as the civil engineering discipline grew as a profession, so did the reasons for formally educating future civil engineers. As undergraduate engineering educators, we hope that students obtain the necessary competencies to enter into the engineering workforce; however, it is also important that students begin to align and negotiate their identities with those of the profession to create their own professional identity throughout their educational experiences [22,[34][35][36] . In this section, we describe three key disciplinary advancements and their influences on civil engineering education: 1) the development of the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) Body of Knowledge, 2) establishment of professional credentialing systems, and 3) the creation of the ASCE Code of Ethics.…”

What Does It Mean to Be an Engineer? A Comparison of Adult Students at Three Institutions

“…Work by Lichtenstein et al found that a minority percentage (42%) of seniors definitively planned on pursuing an engineering related career following graduation. 12 Undergraduate engineering programs must try to do better to foster engineering identity development so that professional persistence is improved and the workforce is provided a steady stream of capable degreed engineers from a variety of backgrounds.…”