Investigating engineering undergraduates’ agentic and communal career values in writing responses

Abstract

A perceived fit between personal values and what a career offers is critical for college students pursuing and persisting in that career. We, therefore, investigated the career values of engineering undergraduates through language in two different studies. Study 1 (N = 35) examined students’ written post-graduation plans for agentic and communal career value themes. Agentic value themes included career, personal development, and financial gains. Communal value themes included helping others and being family-oriented. Drawing on Study 1 themes, Study 2 (N = 918) examined the association of achievement-related and interpersonal word categories in written narratives to surveyed career values. Results from Study 2 showed that students’ language use in the discussion of their careers was associated with surveyed career values. Both studies focused on the nuances of engineering students holding multiple career values. Implications suggest ways in which we can promote the subtleties of career fit through language usage.