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1. First Year Practicing Civil Engineers’ Challenges

   Beddoes, Kacey (December 2019, Australasian Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   CONTEXT The need to better prepare students for the engineering workplace is a long-standing and on-going concern among engineering educators. With the aim of addressing gaps in preparation, the number of new work- and practice-based programs is growing. Identifying the first and most significant challenges recent graduates face in the workplace can contribute new insights into how students could be better prepared for the school-to-work transition. PURPOSE In order to better understand the transition from school to work, this paper presents findings from the first year of a five-year longitudinal study exploring the experiences and career trajectories of early career engineers. The specific question addressed in this paper is: What was the biggest challenge civil engineers experienced during their first year in the workplace? METHODS Eighteen early career civil engineers participated in semi-structured interviews in May of 2019. Participants were recruited from national and local listservs in the United States. None worked in the same office, although two worked for the same company in different offices. They were asked a range of questions related to their experiences transitioning into their careers. For this paper, responses pertaining to the biggest challenge question were analysed through open coding to determine if any themes could be identified in participants’ responses. OUTCOMES Participants were asked about the biggest challenge they had encountered since starting their job. Their responses covered a very wide range of issues. There were three themes of note that appeared in at least four different participants’ responses. They were: 1) interdependence, 2) new practices and material, and 3) negative interactions. 1 and 2 were cited by both men and women; 3 was only cited by women. CONCLUSIONS In addition to providing insights into job readiness that engineering educators can address, the findings speak to several aspects of organizational socialization. Most participants’ biggest challenges (in the form of interdependence and new practices and materials) were related to “learning & adaptation.” Challenges related to “relationship building” and “work group socialization tactics” (in the form of negative interactions) were only the biggest challenges for women, not men. However, negative interactions also extended beyond factors accounted for in current models of organizational socialization, and should be accounted for in revised models. KEYWORDS Early career, job readiness, organizational socialization 

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2. Accounting for Occupational Identity Work in the Attrition of Newcomer Civil Engineers: Theoretical Model

   Beddoes, Kacey (January 2023, Journal of civil engineering education)

   Early-career engineers leave the profession at high rates, and much remains unknown about why that is so. Consequently, there have been calls for more research to better understand newcomer engineers’ experiences and attrition. The purpose of this article is therefore to examine the experiences of newcomer engineers from different universities and engineering firms around the US. The research questions addressed are as follows: (1) How do newcomer engineers characterize engineering work? and (2) What insights can their characterizations provide about newcomer attrition from engineering careers? A longitudinal study was conducted with recent civil engineering graduates in the US. Three sets of semistructured interviews were conducted in 2019 and 2020. Open coding methods were used to answer the first research question. Based on those emergent findings, the data was then analyzed through the lens of expectancy-value theory to answer the second research question. Misalignments between subjective task values created and/or reinforced in school were a prevalent source of dissatisfaction. There was a need for participants to engage in occupational identity work to reconcile the meanings of engineering and align their identities as engineers with workplace realities. Implications for future research and the engineering education system are discussed. 

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3. What Early Career Civil Engineers Wish They Had Done Differently: Lessons For Students and Faculty

   Grajdura, Sarah Allison; Beddoes, Kacey (January 2022, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   That the school-to-work transition can be challenging for many recent engineering graduates is well known [1]–[7]. However, current students and faculty rarely get an opportunity to learn directly from the mistakes, regrets, and hindsight of recent graduates during their first few years in the workplace. In order to help make students’ transition to engineering practice easier, and, relatedly, to help faculty prepare them in salient ways, this paper addresses the following research questions: 1) What do newcomer civil engineers believe are the biggest mistakes they made in their first few years on the job? and 2) If they could go back to when they began their jobs, what would they have done differently? As part of a mixed-methods, longitudinal study that aims to explore organizational socialization in engineering practice, sixteen early career civil engineers who worked in different firms around the country were asked about their work experiences, including their biggest mistakes and what they would have done differently at work knowing what they know now. Participants said their biggest mistakes related to not asking enough questions, undervaluing/not advocating for oneself, and staying in a position they dislike. Less mentioned issues included specific personal habits, attitudes, and unrealistic expectations from university education. When asked what they would have done differently from the first day at work until now, most responses related to having more confidence, networking and socializing more, and other specific personal behaviors, such as better organization. Less mentioned themes included requesting a higher salary, asking more questions, learning more material, and advocating for their own interests. The results have important implications for successfully preparing civil engineering students to begin their careers. By identifying these gaps in preparation, the paper points to recommendations for the civil engineering community. 

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4. Performing at the Boundaries: Narratives of Early Career Engineering Practice

   https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2021.1959596  

   Jesiek, Brent K.; Buswell, Natascha T.; Nittala, Swetha (May 2021, Engineering Studies)

   The realities of engineering practice remain opaque and constantly evolving, often leaving graduates underprepared for the workplace and employers dissatisfied with new employees. In this study we shed new empirical light on the lived working experiences of early career engineers in large manufacturing firms. We adopt boundary spanning as the primary framework for our research given growing recognition of its importance in the workplace and potential utility for conceptualizing engineering practice. We specifically address the research question: What kinds of boundary spanning do early career engineers experience in their daily work? Our study is based on interviews with 23 early career engineers analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to code for boundary spanning and other related themes. We then wrote third-person constructed narratives to holistically portray the day-to-day work of three participants. Our findings illustrate how engineers frequently encounter many different types of boundaries and perform specific boundary spanning activities. The narratives also illuminate early career progression, including evidence of increasing leadership responsibilities as engineers navigate evolving job role demands and organizational expectations. We conclude with directions for future research, and discuss how our findings speak to ongoing efforts to reimagine professional practice while improving engineering education and professional development. 

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5. Encounters with Engineering Ethics: A Sample of Early Career Case Studies

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893075  

   Jesiek, Brent K; Stepback, Lazlo; Abeneau, Emelina; Leonardo, Yna_Marie Pedres; Claussen, Stephanie A; Zoltowski, Carla B (October 2024, IEEE)

   This research-to-practice full paper presents a series of brief engineering ethics case studies, all inspired by actual incidents recounted during interviews with early career engineers. Current ABET accreditation requirements include ethics-related outcomes for engineering graduates, and most engineering professional societies and employers maintain their own ethics codes. Yet we have limited knowledge about what kinds of ethical situations and issues are faced by practicing engineers, both in general and during early career phases. More nuanced understandings about the ethical dimensions of engineering work could inform training interventions designed to better prepare engineering graduates for workplace realities. This paper aims to bridge research and practice by presenting a series of brief case studies covering a variety of ethical situations encountered by early career engineers. The case studies are adapted from interviews conducted with a stratified sample of 29 technical professionals, all with at least one degree in engineering and 1-3 years of full-time work experience. The interviews were carried out as part of a larger mixed-methods research study investigating how engineering students and early career professionals perceive and experience ethics, social responsibility, and related concerns. The case studies presented in this paper were intentionally selected and developed to reflect different job roles and industry settings, as well as diverse ethical issues encountered by our participants. We present cases that reflect more commonplace or everyday situations that are “microethical” in nature, i.e., involving localized interactions among individual professionals. We also include some suggested scaffolds and resources for instructors seeking to use such cases in their teaching. We intend that this paper will be relevant and useful for instructors who want to bring early career ethics cases into their courses, as well as for those wishing to write short ethics case studies. 

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