2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Background & Purpose
The options of career pathways for graduates of engineering programs have continued to shift over the past years and decades. Engineering graduates are continuously pursuing diverse career options once they complete their degrees and the engineering undergraduate student experience is now doing more than preparing students for traditional technical engineering careers. The engineering undergraduate student experience now encompasses much more than taking technical courses, and includes aspects such as engineering student clubs, co-ops and internships, research opportunities and more. These experiential learning opportunities can have an influence on the types of career paths that engineering graduates choose to pursue after they complete their degrees. This research seeks to answer the following questions: (1) Which aspects of the engineering undergraduate student experience are most influential for specific career pathways that engineering graduates pursue after their degree? (2) For engineering graduates that took specific career paths, which types of undergraduate activities were they most likely to participate in?

Design & Method
This research used Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as the conceptual framework. SCCT posits that learning experiences are influenced by person inputs and contextual factors, these learning experiences can influence self efficacy and outcome expectancies as well as interest, which in turn influence career goals and career choices. Using SCCT as a framework, a survey was designed based on PEARS (Pathways of Engineering Alumni Research Survey), which asked questions related to participation in specific undergraduate student activities and their influence on career. The survey was modified and respondents were asked to provide their LinkedIn profiles. The survey was distributed to engineering graduates who completed their degrees at least 5 years prior. 151 respondents provided their LInkedIn profiles. LinkedIn data was used to classify pathways into 6 categories: Academic, Boundary Spanner, Entrepreneur, Managerial, Technical Specialist, and Invisible Engineer.

Results & Contribution

Based on the LinkedIn profile data the respondents' career pathways were broken down as follows: 12 Academic, 21 Boundary Spanner, 15 Entrepreneur, 14 Invisible Engineer, 24 Managerial, 64 Technical Specialist. Those who took Academic career pathways were more likely to cite Curriculum, Research and Interactions with Professors as influential to their careers. Boundary Spanners were most likely to cite internships and technical team projects/capstone projects as influential. Entrepreneurs were most likely to cite engineering clubs and mentoring as influential. Invisible Engineers were most likely to cite the engineering curriculum as being influential. Technical Specialists and Managerial career paths both most commonly cited internships as being influential. The responses for influential activities were compared to activity participation. Certain career paths also had lower participation in specific activities than graduates who chose other careers. This research can help to understand how engineering administrators and Faculty can better support students in determining which undergraduate activities to participate in to help influence their desired career goals and encourage more collaboration between industry and postsecondary through valuable student activities such as internships, technical projects, research and student clubs, as they have been cited to be influential for certain careers.