Developing a model for predicting the career intentions of undergraduate engineering student

Sharp increases in foreign student enrollment, declining Ph.D.'s awarded to U.S. students, and increased enrollment in undergraduate programs leaves universities with fewer professors, and "high-tech" employers dependent on foreign nationals (Finn, 1985, 1988). Increased opportunities abroad, immigration laws, and citizenship requirements for national defense work, makes it imperative that the career decisions of undergraduate engineering students be understood. One theoretical approach to this problem comes from the social-exchange based theories of leadership, which allows for the study the impact both social and professional interactions have on undergraduate engineering students' career decisions.;Presented in this study is an investigation of the quality of Student-Co-op supervisor (SSREL), and Student-Faculty (SFREL) interactions and the impact of these relationships on student decisions to attend graduate school immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees. It was proposed that student perceptions of graduate education, academic performance and career management style (behavioral and personality characteristics) would have significant main effects on: (1) the students' propensity to explore career opportunities, and (2) the quality of SSREL and SFREL. These interactions would in turn influence: (1) job performance, (2) career decisions, and (3) career progress. The strength of this study lies in the fact that, unlike most previous efforts to understand the career decisions of undergraduate students, has its foundation in theory.;Strong significant relationships were found amongst many of the study variables. SSREL and SFREL were found to have differential impact on student decisions and job performance. The most significant finding was the effect of SFREL on career exploration, which, in turn, was found to have a strong positive effect on the perceived utility of graduate school. Perceived utility was found to be the best predictor of intentions. Main effects of gender were found on factors such as: self-confidence, interpersonal skills, and self-evaluation on job performance. Significant differences between those intending to go on to graduate school versus those seeking employment were also found. In addition, contrary to expectations, financial constraints were not found to have significant main effects on student decisions. While many of the predicted relationships were supported, the magnitude and direction of relationships among some variables were found to differ from expectations. Based on these results and a test of the model originally proposed, an alternate model for predicting career intentions was tested and is presented. The findings suggest that curriculum design could be used as one approach for facilitating student-faculty relationships and for providing students with more realistic perceptions of what graduate education can do for them. Practical and theoretical implications of findings are discussed.