Recognizing Differences in Underrepresented Civil Engineering Students’ Career Satisfaction Expectations and College Experiences

Abstract

Student career satisfaction expectations and college experiences are an underutilized map toward attracting and sustaining the interest of underrepresented groups (URGs) in the civil engineering and construction industry. URGs provide indispensable contributions to the development of the built environment; however, URGs in civil engineering have not received sufficient attention to their unique expectations and experiences. Furthermore, diversity and inclusion efforts still are special practices in civil engineering, and are far from a conventional factor of professional respectability. Leveraging a national survey data set of responses from senior level undergraduate engineering students (n=4,605), this study found measurable differences in career satisfaction expectations and college experiences between URGs and non-URGs in civil engineering. From the survey, 830 senior-level students majoring in civil engineering and construction related fields provided their career satisfaction expectations and undergraduate cocurricular experiences. Welch’s t-test and Hedges’ g were used to measure the significant differences in career satisfaction expectations between URGs and non-URGs. A frequency distribution was created and paired with chi-squared test for independence and Cramér’s V to measure the difference in undergraduate participation in cocurricular activities between URGs and non-URGs. The results of this study showed URGs’ career satisfaction expectations and cocurricular activities significantly differed from those of non-URGs. URG students reported more interest in helping others and in volunteering with charity groups in their careers. URG students also reported higher participation in cocurricular activities such as contributing as a member of an organization for women and/or minorities in engineering, acting as a member of an outreach club, and working a work-study or other type of job to pay for college. The findings presented in this paper highlight the need for the civil engineering profession to move beyond monolithic traditions, which can perpetuate exclusion.