Recent Engineering Graduates Research Articles

Analytic Hierarchy Process to Choose the Best Sector in the Software Industry for a New Software Engineer

Objectives: To determine the best area in the software industry for a fresh engineering graduate in India. Methods: Examined the current situation of the software industry today and the datasets that were gathered and included in accordance with that. Here, five alternatives (Research and Development, Mobile solutions, Cloud computing, Big data analytics, and Government and Defence) and seven parameters (Communication, Teamwork, Coding and technical literacy, Programming languages, Problem-solving skills, Research skills, and Multitasking skills) are taken into consideration. Fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methods were used, and the outcomes were compared to the AHP method. Findings: Fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methods have been used to produce the normalized weight vector for each alternative relative to the criterion. Additionally, a normalized weight vector has been calculated and compared to every criterion and criteria alternative. Final rankings for each alternative have been determined in relation to all of these. Novelty: The novelty of the present study is to identify the best sector of the software industry in India for a recent engineering graduate based on providing a ranking of alternatives using fuzzy TOPSIS and fuzzy AHP methodologies. While other strategies may be used to do similar works, the techniques listed above may not be used. Fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS approaches can provide more optimal solutions, which is an innovative aspect of this study. Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Comparative analysis, Fuzzy AHP method, Fuzzy TOPSIS method, Software industry

Early-Career Assignments and Workforce Inequality in Engineering

ABSTRACT Positioned as part of leadership development in many organizations, ‘stretch assignments’ are a type of work assignment that can prove someone’s readiness to advance in their career. Informed by status characteristics theory, our research investigates the frequency and expected outcomes of stretch assignments among recent engineering graduates in the workforce. Findings suggest that early-career stretch assignments, especially assignments involving new and unfamiliar areas, potentially intensify gender and racial/ethnic workforce inequality. Other types of assignments that may be more familiar and clearly-scoped to early-career engineers show a different and less inequality-intensifying pattern. We discuss why early-career engineers’ assignments may be sites of inequality and the need for more focus on organizational processes around career-advancing work.

Examining the Setting of Significant Learning Events during the Engineering School-to-Work Transition

The school-to-work transition is a critical time for engineers that involves rapid learning across multiple fronts, but relatively little is known about the setting (i.e., how, where, and with whom) of significant learning experiences during this time. The purpose of the study is to examine the setting of significant learning events for recent engineering graduates. We used a multi-case study in which 12 recent engineering graduates responded to weekly reflective journal prompts for the first twelve weeks of their transition from school to work. Participants described significant learning events through a series of open-ended questions. We used both deductive and inductive coding to identify the setting of the event in terms of how, where, and with whom engineers engaged in learning at work. The findings highlight the emergent, social nature of workplace learning and point to critical differences across school and work. To better prepare students for professional practice, engineering educators should consider how they might create learning environments that promote effective transfer of knowledge and skills.

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

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.

Salary Prediction for Computer Engineering Positions in India

Over the subsequent 20 years, India's economy has seen growth in many areas since the 1990s. Information technology is one of the industries that has grown significantly recently. Bharat's transformation from a sluggish economy to one of the top exporters of information technology services has been largely attributed to the information technology sector. Since there was such a huge need for skilled workers in the labor markets as a result of this boom, engineering has consistently ranked among the top high school courses of study. Additionally, engineering is a popular course of study due to the income potential and opportunity to progress technology. The primary compensation factors for recent engineering graduates in the Bharat Labor Markets are the focus of this study. The investigation looked at how factors like as demography, academic success, personality traits, and test scores affected starting pay. The analysis' findings showed that the significant predictors of starting pay were academic success at the faculty level, faculty name, college affiliation, and engineering major. The results also revealed that psychological characteristic skills, such as English and quantitative aptitude, as well as a desire to strive and complete a task well, are significant contributors to the starting pay of engineering graduates in Indian Labor Markets. This study used a machine learning method to carry out regression analysis. These procedures used the Naive Bayes, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine algorithms (SVM).

Exploring the social and cultural dimensions of learning for recent engineering graduates during the school-to-work transition

The school-to-work transition is a challenging period for engineering graduates. In contrast to most engineering curricula, workplace learning involves organizations, people, cultures, and a range of non-technical and technical elements. Where many researchers have focused on skills gaps across school and work, we focus here on contexts gaps, or shifts in learning processes across organizational settings. Using reflective journals and semi-structured interviews, we explored significant learning events during recent engineering graduates’ school-to-work transition. Using theories of organizational socialization, we characterize significant experiences related to social and cultural dimensions of participants’ new organizational roles. Newcomers in this study reported learning related to, for example, forming relationships, learning local language, interacting with power structures, and other features of their organizations. Results offer points of contrast in which we compare learning processes and highight critical differences across school and workplace settings. Findings suggest that engineering educators should consider the broad spectrum of learning that takes place as graduates transition to their new professional roles. By better understanding the role of context in organizational learning, educators can more effectively prepare recent graduates for contemporary practice and develop a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of the social, cultural, and technical dimensions of engineering work.

Biomedical Engineering Professional Skills Development: The RADxSM Tech Impact on Graduates and Faculty.

There are many benefits of the RADxSM Tech initiative worth exploring beyond that of the current acceleration of diagnostic tests being developed and deployed to the nation. One of those benefits has been the impact on work readiness for recent biomedical engineering (BME) graduates who have been hired by RADx Tech as Assistant Project Facilitators (APFs) and to the students and faculty members on applicant teams. This paper includes a literature review of the current status of BME professional skills development in traditional academic and clinical settings. The organizational structure of RADx Tech teams is described, including how recent BME graduates are integral to the process. Opportunities are discussed on how the RADx Tech structural model can be leveraged to improve professional skills education. It is concluded that the RADx Tech organizational structure and process including APFs may be replicable. Further research is planned to explore its impact.

Assessing employers’ satisfaction with Indian engineering graduates using expectancy-disconfirmation theory

PurposeCasting employers as customers, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between expectations, perceptions and disconfirmation beliefs with the satisfaction of employers regarding the competencies possessed by fresh engineering graduates hired by such employers in the Indian context.Design/methodology/approachUsing data collected from 284 employers, the authors have hypothesized and examined a partial mediation model in which disconfirmation beliefs mediate the relationships between expectations and perceptions, and employer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors have tested if this mediated relationship is moderated by the age and sex of respondents representing employers.FindingsResults indicate that employers’ satisfaction can be explained from the framework of the expectancy-disconfirmation theory. Employers’ expectations and perceptions are established to be associated with employers’ satisfaction with new hires, and positive disconfirmation mediates these relationships. Results also indicate that age moderates the effect of predictor variables employers’ expectations and employers’ perception on the mediator disconfirmation. Sex, however, did not moderate any relationship.Practical implicationsThe results demonstrate the usefulness of the expectancy-disconfirmation theory for studying employer satisfaction with competencies of recent engineering graduates in India. Findings are relevant to multiple stakeholders including employers hiring engineering graduates, engineers and technical institutions.Originality/valueExpectancy-disconfirmation theory has been successfully applied to measure customer satisfaction in consumer behaviour research, while satisfaction of employers has been studied in the field of organizational behaviour. The paper stands out in the literature as one of its major implications is to extend the expectancy-disconfirmation theory to predict employers’ satisfaction.

Integrating employability skills in engineering education

Aim: This paper examines the curricula and pedagogical practices of Gujarat colleges associated with the Gujarat Technical University and the National Institute of Technology, Surat, concerning the instruction of communication skills. This encompasses the vast majority of Gujarat’s engineering schools.Method: To better understand the challenges of instructing engineering students, a qualitative study was conducted in which eight English teachers from different engineering colleges in and around Surat were interviewed. To complete the research, eight English professors at different engineering schools in and around Surat, Gujarat, were contacted. These educators were chosen to represent a range of ages, levels of experience and education, and specialisations.Findings: This paper uses the study’s findings to argue that engineering curricula should incorporate several activities aimed at improving engineers’ employability. From this, we can infer that the chalk-and-talk approach to teaching engineers communication skills is ineffective. Furthermore, industry standards have increased rapidly.Implications/Novel Contribution: This research contributes to the body of literature by providing empirical evidence for the importance of fostering employability skills in one’s communication repertoire. While generalisations from this study are obviously not possible, it is safe to assume that English instructors in India’s engineering colleges face similar difficulties to those identified in this study’s sample. Second, despite efforts to improve the situation, recent engineering graduates’ lack of employability skills continues to trouble both Indian employers and graduates alike.

Building a More Sustainable Society? A Case Study on the Role of Sustainable Development in the Education and Early Career of Water and Environmental Engineers

Engineering education is critical for sustainability, given the key role that engineers have in shaping the development of our society. Yet, engineering studies have traditionally not been driven by sustainability-related knowledge and skills, but focused more on general computational skills and technical problem-solving. This has also been the case in our case study, which focuses on recent water and environmental engineering graduates in Finland. We studied the role that sustainable development has had in their education and early career through an extensive questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The analysis was done in two ways: indirectly by comparing how well the key working life knowledge and skills recognized by the respondents correspond with sustainability-related skills, and directly by studying the graduates’ views towards the sustainable development and their possibilities to advance it in their work. The results show that although sustainability was not at the core of respondents’ studies, their key competencies correspond well with sustainability-related working life skills. The respondents also see that sustainable development has a central role in water and environmental engineering, although it is typically more visible at a strategic rather than a practical level. However, the results also indicate that several early-career engineers have deficient knowledge of sustainable development, and are therefore lacking the ability to fully connect the principles of sustainable development into their own expertise. Overall, the findings suggest that water and environmental engineers with their wide set of competencies have the potential to take on a larger role in building a more sustainable society. To ensure this, engineering education should emphasize the connection between the field and sustainable development and clearly link engineers’ core competencies with the skills required to promote sustainability.

Gender effects on impulse buying behavior

Subject area Choice Behavior. Study level/applicability The case study deals with cross-gender analysis of impulse buying behavior in apparel shopping in India. Any extrapolation of this study to other markets should take into account that Indian consumers are price sensitive. The buying behavior in apparel shopping may not be directly related to other retail categories such as ready-to-eat food, consumer electronics, etc. Case overview Mr Khuswant Chaddha’s family business is in tatters. Market dynamics have changed over the years and his textile mill is no longer the cash cow it once was. His son, Gaurav Chaddha, a recent engineering graduate, plans to save the business by venturing into branded apparel retailing. A key component of this strategy is to figure out impulse shopping behavior in apparel purchases. The gender angle is used to better comprehend the differences in impulse buying emotions so that males and females can be targeted with greater success. A survey of shoppers belonging to suitable demographics is used as the backbone of this study. The analysis of the data presents several dilemmas in some critical business decisions. Expected learning outcomes The objectives of the case include: understanding how marketplaces change over time; realizing the fact that businesses should evolve over time and even highly profitable business models can become obsolete pretty fast; studying the factors which influence the choice of an apparel store; understanding impulse buying behavior and how gender plays a decisive role in it and analyzing post purchase behavior with respect to gender. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.

Seeking Opportunities [My First Job

Reports on a recent engineering graduate's experience after college and the career path taken.

Experience, education and training on Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in engineering

Previous research has highlighted the need for engineers to have some background knowledge of Indigenous Australian histories, cultures and politics, in order to adhere to relevant legislation protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage. This study explored recent engineering graduates’ experiences of managing Aboriginal cultural heritage matters in engineering projects, their experience of related education and training, and their perceptions of preparedness for effectively managing heritage protections. An online survey of engineering graduates was developed and distributed through networks of young engineers across Australia. The results indicate that it is common for young engineers to encounter Aboriginal cultural heritage on engineering project sites. Survey participants received little formal education on Aboriginal cultural heritage beyond high school, and reported low levels of confidence in dealing with such heritage matters. It was also apparent that education and training, particularly within higher education, is lagging behind legislated requirements for engineers and project managers. With the continued growth of Australia’s population, large infrastructure projects will continue to impact on Aboriginal cultural heritage. Young engineers will need to be prepared to meet evolving legal and societal expectations for the preservation of the nation’s Aboriginal heritage.

Engineering graduates’ skill sets in the MENA region: a gap analysis of industry expectations and satisfaction

This study explored gaps between industry expectations and perceptions of engineering graduates’ skill sets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This study measured the importance that managers of engineers placed on 36 skills relevant to engineers. Also measured was managers’ satisfaction with engineering graduates’ skill sets. Importance and satisfaction were used to calculate skill gaps for each skill. A principal components analysis was then performed, consolidating the 36 skills into 8 categories. The means of importance, satisfaction, and skill gaps were ranked to determine the areas in which graduates needed improvement. Results showed significant gaps between managers’ expectations of and satisfaction with all 36 skills. The areas in which managers felt that graduates needed most improvement were communication, time management, and continuous learning. Managers reported that recent engineering graduates exhibited low overall preparedness for employment. These findings may help to inform curricular reform in engineering education.

Flexing Their Muscles: Building a successful business partnership [Career Advisor: Experiences from the Real World

What do you get when you pair a passionate and intelligent engineering professor at the University of Maryland with two ambitious and hard working recent engineering graduates? FlexEl.This company develops a novel, high-capacity, rechargeable thin film battery. IEEE Fellow Dr. Martin Peckerar, professor of microelectronic engineering at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering and the brains that helped launch the company, tells us how it all started.

Employer assessment of work‐related competencies and workplace adaptation

AbstractIn this exploratory study, we identified 17 work‐related competencies that might relate best to the successful workplace adaptation of recent engineering graduates. The test battery consisted of the Work‐Related Competency Index, the Workplace Adaptation Questionnaire, and a demographic survey. Mail and Web‐based surveys were employed to collect the data from employers representing a wide spectrum of organizations who hire engineers from a cross‐section of engineering disciplines. The research questions were examined through correlations, t tests, analyses of variance, and hierarchical regressions. After statistically controlling for the demographic and background variables, the regression analyses suggested a strong positive magnitude of effect between interpersonal and technical competencies and each measure of workplace adaptation. The findings demonstrate the need for engineering programs to produce graduates with these competencies and suggest that HRD professionals could have a powerful influence on workplace assimilation and performance by facilitating interpersonal and technical competency improvement through training and development activities.

Systems Engineering: A Practical Approach for Junior Engineers

This paper discusses a recent engineering graduate's viewpoint(s) about his career with the United States Air Force. He discusses the importance of undergraduate engineering disciplines being taught with respect to systems engineering guidelines and how systems engineering should also be taught from a practical viewpoint. If the systems engineering process is added to the traditional engineering curriculum, it should highlight the war-fighter's or customer's needs, specifications, standards, and requirements. This paper stresses the idea that requirements engineering methodologies, a subset of systems engineering, should be taught and discusses the use of requirements engineering to derive software and hardware requirements for avionics subsystems. Definitions and applications of systems engineering methodologies to develop a technological product that succeeds from one milestone decision to another and from one life-cycle phase to the next are also covered. Finally, recommendations are made on how to better prepare pre-graduate engineers for such a workplace

An industry/university collaboration to upgrade software engineering knowledge and skills in industry

This paper describes an ongoing collaboration between Boeing Australia Limited and the University of Queensland to develop and deliver an introductory course on software engineering. The aims of the course are to provide a common understanding of the nature of software engineering for all Boeing Australia's engineering staff, and to ensure they understand the practices used throughout the company. The course is designed so that it can be presented to people with varying backgrounds, such as recent software engineering graduates, systems engineers, quality assurance personnel, etc. The paper describes the structure and content of the course, and the evaluation techniques used to collect feedback from the participants and the corresponding results. The immediate feedback on the course indicates that it has been well received by the participants, but also indicates a need for more advanced courses in specific areas. The long-term feedback from participants is less positive, and the long-term feedback from the managers of the course participants indicates a need to expand on the coverage of the Boeing-specific processes and methods.

A Message from Recent Engineering Graduates in the Workplace: Results of a Survey on Technical Communication Skills

AbstractSurvey results reveal the impact of engineers' communication skills in adjusting to jobs and achieving career goals. A direct correlation emerges between the amount of technical communication (TC) instruction and career advancement. Former students then spell out recommendations for providing relevant TC instruction within the engineering curriculum.

A survey of the co-op writing experiences of recent engineering graduates

This article reports on a survey of 162 recent engineering graduates about their writing experiences during co-op. Specifically, the survey obtained data about how much time they spent writing, to what extent they engaged in collaborative writing, what kinds of documents they wrote, and the purposes and audiences for those documents, whether they believed their employers valued writing ability, and what strategies they perceived as most helpful in learning to write like engineers. Data were analyzed in terms of engineering specialty and gender. The findings are presented, along with implications for teaching and future research.