2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

While a majority of graduating engineers enter and continue in the profession for their entire career, many also choose alternative career pathways. What factors drive some engineers to leave the profession, while others choose to persist? This work explores the barriers and supports engineers have perceived throughout their various engineering socialization and engineering enculturation experiences and the impact these have on their persistence in the profession. Specifically, this paper investigates through a systematized literature review process the questions (1) What Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) related factors influence career retention among engineers, particularly through mechanisms of engineering socialization?, and (2) What socialization factors have been found to increase retention, and what factors are found to increase attrition?

This study is guided by SCCT as a lens to consider career satisfaction through the interrelationships of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and participation in goal-directed activities with an employee’s perception of support and barriers. Assessment of the literature will follow a rigorous systematized review process, employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework for transparency, and adhering to inclusion criteria, thematic analysis, and synthesis techniques.

The results will be assessed to present an integrated synthesis of factors that influence engineering career retention and attrition, providing insights into how workplace and educational structures can better support engineers. By examining these elements together, this review seeks to highlight key barriers and supports that drive professional engineering career decisions, as well as critical points where real-world educational and workplace interventions can be made to foster long-term persistence in the engineering field.

Keywords: retention, persistence, socialization, enculturation