Not all the same: A look at early career engineers employed in different sub-occupations
Not all the same: A look at early career engineers employed in different sub-occupations
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并非完全相同：不同子职业的早期职业工程师概览
DOI：
10.18260/1-2--22315
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Helen L. Chen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Samantha R. Brunhaver;Shannon K. Gilmartin;Michelle Marie Grau;S. Sheppard;Helen L. Chen
近年来，工程学生专业实践的准备在工程教育文献中占据了突出地位。 ABET 和国家工程院等组织甚至发布了毕业生成功所需的技能和特征清单 1-2 。然而，许多研究未能解决早期职业工程毕业生在不同工程子职业中的不同经历。虽然许多工程毕业生继续成为工程从业者，但其他人则从事工程咨询、管理、研究和教学等职业。本文旨在通过比较不同的个人、经验和情感结果，更好地理解工程子职业之间的差异。这项研究的参与者来自于对 2007 年从四所美国院校获得学位的工程学士学位毕业生进行的一项调查。该调查由美国国家科学基金会资助并于 2011 年秋季部署，收到了 484 份完整的答复，这些答复按性别、专业和机构规模进行了加权，以更好地估计总体答复。调查中的职业列表是根据 NSF 科学与工程统计数据系统 (SESTAT) 3 中的类别构建的，该系统本身改编自美国劳工统计局 2000 年标准职业分类 4 。我们在本文中研究了三个工程子职业：工程从业者、顾问和经理。毕业四年后，48% 的受访者受雇于这三个群体之一。我们对受访者的人口统计、职业经历、工作特征和自我认知相关的调查指标进行了比较。结果显示出一些差异，特别是毕业生对工作、当前职位和身份的看法。工程经理在工作中更有可能依赖业务知识和领导力等能力，而不太可能依赖工程技术和工具。此外，较小比例的工程经理认为他们当前的职位和身份与工程相关。研究结果表明，不同的工程子职业需要不同的技能，这反过来可能会影响员工如何看待自己的工作和自己。确定这些差异可以使我们对本科工程课程中通过核心课程、选修课和/或课外活动强调哪些技能产生新的思考。
In recent years, the preparation of engineering students for professional practice has featured prominently in the engineering education literature. Organizations such as ABET and the National Academy of Engineering have even published lists of skills and characteristics required by graduates to succeed 1-2 . What many studies fail to address, however, are the varying experiences of early career engineering graduates employed in different engineering sub-occupations. While many engineering graduates go on to become engineering practitioners, others pursue careers in engineering consulting, management, research, and teaching, among other options. This paper aims to better understand differences across engineering sub-occupations by comparing them on various personal, experiential, and affective outcomes. Participants for this study come from a survey of engineering bachelor’s graduates who earned their degrees from four U.S. institutions in 2007. Funded by the National Science Foundation and deployed in autumn of 2011, the survey received 484 complete responses which were weighted by gender, major, and institutional size to better approximate aggregate responses. Occupational lists on the survey were constructed based on categories in the NSF Science and Engineering Statistical Data System (SESTAT) 3 which itself is adapted from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2000 Standard Occupational Classification 4 . We examined three engineering sub-occupations for this paper: engineering practitioners, consultants, and managers. Four years after graduation, 48 percent of survey respondents were employed in one of these three groups. Respondents were compared on survey measures related to their demographics, career experiences, work characteristics, and self-perceptions. Results showed several differences, specifically in graduates’ perceptions of their work, current positions, and identities. Engineering managers were more likely to rely on competencies such as business knowledge and leadership in their work and less likely to rely on engineering techniques and tools. Additionally, smaller proportions of engineering managers saw their current positions and identities as being engineering-related. The findings suggest that different engineering sub-occupations require different skill sets, which may in turn affect how employees view their jobs and themselves. Determination of these differences can enable new thinking about which skills to emphasize in undergraduate engineering programs, through core courses, electives, and/or extracurricular activities.