Connecting the Dots: Professional Networking for Engineering Students

Jessica A Kuczenski; Christelle Sabatier

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 4
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47066

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Paper Authors

biography

Jessica A Kuczenski Santa Clara University

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Jes is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the General Engineering programs at SCU. She teaches a variety of courses including Introduction to Engineering, Introduction to Engineering Prototyping, Community-Based Engineering Design, Career Launch, and Senior Projects.

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Christelle Sabatier Santa Clara University

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Abstract

One current gap in many engineering programs is a focus on teaching students how to create relationships with professionals from scratch, aka build social capital at the organizations where they might want to work after graduation. The skillset of building professional relationships is considered the most important aspect of career education because it accelerates the career exploration process, leads to internship and job opportunities, and increases student’s self-confidence related to life after college (NACE, 2020). This is particularly relevant as 80% of jobs and internships are not advertised (Designing Your Life, 2018). These internships and jobs are located in what is referred to as the hidden job market. Structured practice in this career skill is key to reducing opportunity gaps particularly for students from historically minoritized backgrounds who are less able to rely on family or friend networks to build these professional relationships.

To fill this current career education gap, we have begun to offer a class dedicated to this professional networking. We have offered a 1-unit interdisciplinary course based on professor Sean O’Keefe’s Career Launch Academy curriculum. Career Launch is a social enterprise that was incubated at our University and scaled through Sean’s participation in our University’s Venture Accelerator. The purpose of the course is to teach and guide students to be intentional and proactive to build professional relationships from scratch. Students learn how to access companies and organizations they are interested in. As a result of the course, students increase their self-confidence and professional skills to access the hidden job market.

We have offered this interdisciplinary 1-unit course twice, during the winter quarter in 2022 and again in winter 2023. Content delivery was mostly taught asynchronously in a microlearning format, a learning pedagogy defined as a “brief and targeted learning approach where learners consume instructional content in short chunks or bites”. The content was delivered via text message and email that contains a link to a personalized student portal. These bite-sized pieces are prepared using various media types to make them more interesting, easy-to-consume and assimilate. The course also includes Sean O’Keefe’s interactive workbook, and five weekly group coaching sessions hosted by course instructors; these coaching sessions were done synchronously and in-person as allowed by COVID precautions. In addition, we have offered an engineering-only version of this course specifically for our engineering students, both in fall 2022 and currently in fall 2023. This was offered through our General Engineering department, and the format and content is largely the same, allowing for comparison to our interdisciplinary-listed course.

For the full paper, we will describe the student cohorts, course specifics, and analysis on results from a post-course survey focused on learning gains in several career readiness categories, including relationship building skills, professional communication, career planning & exploration, career & self-development, and internship/job search & interview preparedness.

Citation
Format

Kuczenski, J. A., & Sabatier, C. (2024, June), Connecting the Dots: Professional Networking for Engineering Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47066

TY - CPAPER
AB - One current gap in many engineering programs is a focus on teaching students how to create relationships with professionals from scratch, aka build social capital at the organizations where they might want to work after graduation. The skillset of building professional relationships is considered the most important aspect of career education because it accelerates the career exploration process, leads to internship and job opportunities, and increases student’s self-confidence related to life after college (NACE, 2020). This is particularly relevant as 80% of jobs and internships are not advertised (Designing Your Life, 2018). These internships and jobs are located in what is referred to as the hidden job market. Structured practice in this career skill is key to reducing opportunity gaps particularly for students from historically minoritized backgrounds who are less able to rely on family or friend networks to build these professional relationships.

To fill this current career education gap, we have begun to offer a class dedicated to this professional networking. We have offered a 1-unit interdisciplinary course based on professor Sean O’Keefe’s Career Launch Academy curriculum. Career Launch is a social enterprise that was incubated at our University and scaled through Sean’s participation in our University’s Venture Accelerator. The purpose of the course is to teach and guide students to be intentional and proactive to build professional relationships from scratch. Students learn how to access companies and organizations they are interested in. As a result of the course, students increase their self-confidence and professional skills to access the hidden job market.

We have offered this interdisciplinary 1-unit course twice, during the winter quarter in 2022 and again in winter 2023. Content delivery was mostly taught asynchronously in a microlearning format, a learning pedagogy defined as a “brief and targeted learning approach where learners consume instructional content in short chunks or bites”. The content was delivered via text message and email that contains a link to a personalized student portal. These bite-sized pieces are prepared using various media types to make them more interesting, easy-to-consume and assimilate. The course also includes Sean O’Keefe’s interactive workbook, and five weekly group coaching sessions hosted by course instructors; these coaching sessions were done synchronously and in-person as allowed by COVID precautions. In addition, we have offered an engineering-only version of this course specifically for our engineering students, both in fall 2022 and currently in fall 2023. This was offered through our General Engineering department, and the format and content is largely the same, allowing for comparison to our interdisciplinary-listed course.

For the full paper, we will describe the student cohorts, course specifics, and analysis on results from a post-course survey focused on learning gains in several career readiness categories, including relationship building skills, professional communication, career planning &amp;amp; exploration, career &amp;amp; self-development, and internship/job search &amp;amp; interview preparedness.
AU - Jessica A Kuczenski
AU - Christelle Sabatier
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Connecting the Dots: Professional Networking for Engineering Students
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47066
ER -