Work in Progress: Survey Development of Factors Related to Engineering Graduates' Career Pathways.

This work in progress paper describes the motivation for and development of a survey instrument to collect information about engineering graduates' career pathways. In this work, we begin to reframe interpretations of what it means to be an engineer and understand why alumni make particular career choices. The survey will be distributed to graduates of engineering departments at a single institution. Items will include job titles, job sectors, perceptions of relatedness to engineering, job experiences and beliefs, and engineering experiences and beliefs. These data allow for increased sensitivity to the multiple pathways that graduates may take, as well as how alumni may connect with engineering even when employed in non-engineering positions. We discuss the descriptive and predictive power of the survey in understanding the career landscape for engineering graduates and key factors that may influence their decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]