Abstract
The objective of the study is an analysis of the relationship between the work expectations and experiences of graduate engineers during their early career period. It reports on discrepancies in graduates’ expectations of the world of work and the reality of the early career stage. Conclusions include recommendations of how "reality shock" can be managed better by both organisations and individuals. Qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with sixteen participants with less than five years work experience, employed in a large utility organisation in the Western Cape. Results indicate that participants experience significant incongruence between their expectations of work and work experiences.
Highlights
South Africa is a developing country with a limited pool of professionally qualified individuals including engineers
Over the past decade the number of students registering for undergraduate engineering degrees at South African universities has declined and the number of students achieving engineering degrees in recent years has decreased (Steyn & Daniels, 2003)
The results of the thematic analysis confirm the first objective of the study that the expectations of graduate engineers in South Africa are incongruent with their early career experiences
Summary
South Africa is a developing country with a limited pool of professionally qualified individuals including engineers. In South Africa there are approximately 15 000 engineers which is one-tenth of the international norm given the population of the country (van der Merwe & van der Merwe, 2006) This skills shortage can primarily be attributed to three main problems, firstly, too few students are entering the profession, secondly, emigration results in lost resources and thirdly, the retention of young graduate engineers beyond their socialization phase, is inadequate. Employees entering organizations for the first time need support in order to adjust to the working environment, yet, engineering managers are finding it increasingly difficult to motivate entrylevel engineers (Asai, 2004; Bigiliardi & Petroni, 2005) This is attributed to factors like limited autonomy, inadequate feedback, low motivational levels, lack of a challenge and not enough involvement in the job itself (Hoyt & Gerloff, 1999; Maki, 2001). The organisation reports turnover figures for this particular group in excess of thirty percent per annum during their first five years of employment (personal communication, 1999)
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