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Engineering students graduate from their programs with a broad range of skills that are set by professional societies, industry recommendations, and other stakeholders in student success. But when those engineers enter their jobs, how are those skills utilized and nurtured by the organizations they enter? The purpose of this paper is to present a cross-sectional, secondary qualitative analysis of research exploring the experiences of recent engineering graduates as they move from student to professional. Of particular interest were the ways engineers describe their autonomy or sense of choice, the way engineers recognize and make sense of their organizations’ values, and the alignment (or lack thereof) between personal values and those of their organization. To do so, qualitative data sets from three different studies of engineers’ experiences at various stages in their professional trajectories were combined and thematically analyzed, producing four major themes that speak to the ways engineers perceive their sense of agency in their work experiences. Looking across data sets, themes emerged regarding empowerment, organizational fit, and workplace expectations. While these themes were common across the studies included in the analysis, the way the themes manifested across data sets raises interesting questions about the formation of engineers and the socialization experiences that contribute to that formation. As research on engineering practice continues to develop, it is important that researchers consider where engineers are within their career trajectory and how that influences their perceptions about the work they do and the agency they have within organizations. 

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a larger study on the problem-solving rationale associated with the use of multiple contextual representations. Four engineering practitioners solved a problem associated with headloss in pipe flow while their visual attention was tracked using eye tracking technology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted following the problem-solving interview and the rationale associated with their decisions to use a particular contextual representation emerged. The results of this study show how the rationale can influence the problem-solving process of the four engineering practitioners. Engineering practitioners used various contextual representations and provided multiple rationale for their decisions. Eye tracking techniques and semi-structured interviews created a robust picture of the problem-solving process that supplements previous problem-solving research.