Exploring How Engineering Internships and Undergraduate Research Experiences Inform and Influence College Students' Career Decisions and Future Plans

Abstract

Does engagement in high impact practices such as technical internships and undergraduate research influence engineering students' career decisions and future plans? And how is learning that comes from these high impact practices related to "school learning"? These high impact educational practices have been shown to increase the rates of student engagement and retention in higher education. While access to and participation in these activities is often unsystematic across various institutions, these practices have been shown to benefit college students with diverse backgrounds and learner qualities. This paper establishes a context for understanding the characteristics and attitudes of students who participate in internships and undergraduate research by drawing from analyses of the first administration of the Engineering Majors Survey (EMS), a longitudinal study designed to examine engineering students' career objectives related to creativity and innovation, and the experiences and attitudes that might influence those goals. In addition, using interview data from product development interns at a single engineering firm, we add insights into the specific skills that interns identify as learning in their internship and suggest connections between school-and-work learning. The more general picture of the impact of internship and research experiences (from the EMS), complemented with a "deep dive" into the learning that happens in internship experiences (from the interviews) provides a solid starting point for future exploration of how high impact practices such as internships and research experiences might be better integrated into a student's educational development.

Research-informed teaching for assessing BIM courses during COVID-19 and beyond

“…I learnt a lot during the process”. This finding corroborates that of Power et al. (2018) in which it was found that one of the main skills gained by engineering students on internship and doing research in a company is learning new software tools (programming, computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering).…”

“Do I even belong?”: Internships as gendered career socialization experiences in engineering.

“…In line with positive trajectories for career development, participants used internships to build skills, better understand career options, clarify their interest and understanding of the engineering workforce, and assess how available roles align with their values. This information shaped participants’ future goals by affirming existing interests, illuminating new options, or providing insight that led them to reassess interests and goals—all of which align with prior research about the role of internships (Lapan & Smith, 2023; Liu et al, 2018; Powers et al, 2018; Samuelson & Litzler, 2013).…”

“…Nearly 55% of 2016 engineering bachelor’s graduates participated in at least one paid internship during college—the highest of all fields (NCES, 2017). Overall, internships have been empirically associated with improved academic performance (Binder et al, 2015), higher employment rates (Jackson & Collings, 2018; Nunley et al, 2016), a greater likelihood of entering a career related to one’s degree (Jelks & Crain, 2020; Powers et al, 2018), and higher salaries (Wolniak & Engberg, 2019). Internships also help students gain experience, make informed career decisions, and build networking skills (Samuelson & Litzler, 2013).…”

“…Moreover, given the dearth of women in engineering, it is crucial to understand how internships may serve as filtering mechanisms in engineering workforce pathways. Broadly, engineering internships have been associated with greater career knowledge, professional networks, and full-time employment (Jelks & Crain, 2020; Liu et al, 2018; Powers et al, 2018; Samuelson & Litzler, 2013). However, the role of internships in women’s career development may be more complex due to issues of gender bias, discrimination, and sexism in engineering (Anderson et al, 2011; Fifolt & Searby, 2010; Kreth, 2000; Lapan & Smith, 2023; Seron et al, 2016; Smith & Gayles, 2018).…”

"Barbed-Wire Boundaries": Hidden Curriculum, First-Generation and Low-Income Engineering Students, and Internship Acquisition

“…We chose not to distinguish between the kind of internship to capture a broad range of internship experiences. While internships are often not explicitly required for a degree in engineering, they provide substantial advantages for engineering students to form their engineering professional identities and advance their engineering career pathways, such as opportunities to apply classroom principles into practice, demonstrate work experience to recruiters, and gain access to the engineering professional world (Capobianco, 2006;Godwin et al, 2016;Powers et al, 2018;Trego et al, 2019;Castillo et al, 2022). However, recent studies have shown that engineering industry internships are not accessed equally by all students; students from marginalized backgrounds access internships at a lower rate compared to their nonmarginalized counterparts (Atwood et al, 2021;Lapan and Smith, 2022).…”