2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This full paper explores how electrical and computer engineering (ECE) master’s students responded to a professional development module embedded within a high-enrollment ECE course at a large, public, research-intensive institution in the Southeastern United States. Master’s students offer unique insights into the professional development of ECE students because their advanced training can unlock additional career prospects in academic, industry, and entrepreneurial domains. Some students, particularly those with low tolerance for ambiguity, may struggle to manage the array of career possibilities. The professional development module aims to equip students with the skills and mental frameworks necessary for professional success through the application of design thinking. This study's research question is: How do ECE graduate students describe their experiences completing a professional development module?

Using principles from IDEO’s design thinking methodology and the book “Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life” (DYL), the module was integrated into a semester-long, required innovation and entrepreneurship course. Before the module, students in the course were introduced to IDEO’s five phases of design thinking: empathize (gather inspiration), define (generate ideas), ideate (make ideas tangible), prototype, and test (testing to learn). Laying the groundwork for the module, students completed two pre-work exercises: the Workview writing exercise and a Values Inventory worksheet. In the Workview exercise, students responded to prompts such as “Why do you work?” and “What energizes you at work?”—encouraging them to think beyond their current career plans and consider broader work-life integration. In the Values Inventory, students selected ten values from a list of 25, then narrowed down to 3-5 core values, such as influence, leadership, pace, mission, and travel.

During the ninety-minute in-class module, students used their pre-work activities to engage with the two phases of design thinking: empathize and define. Groups of 4-6 students reflected upon the pre-work and discussed the interplay between their Workview and Values Inventory. Building further upon their insights, the students individually completed a Career Odyssey worksheet adapted from DYL, encompassing the ideate phase. The career could be what they currently envision, a career if the present career was no longer an option or a wildcard/encore career. Given the time constraints, a student selected one Career Odyssey pathway spanning 3-5 years. Students developed milestones, considered resources, and gauged their enthusiasm for the chosen pathway. Consistent with a bias to action, the exercise was fast paced, followed by a class debrief. The prototype and testing phases were addressed in the second part of the module, beginning with a discussion on informational interviewing to explore career pathways. The module concluded with a discussion of the tension between failure and success, emphasizing their roles in growth and career development.

Student feedback was collected via a post-module survey, including Likert-type questions and open-ended prompts about career certainty and module experience. Responses will be analyzed by student location to account for varying cultural contexts. The findings will provide valuable insights for educators aiming to help students make confident, informed career decisions amidst the wide array of opportunities available in ECE careers.