Abstract
This study investigates and compares the learning trajectories of nine Taiwanese university graduates from a Power Mechanical Engineering (PME) program and nine from a cross-disciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) program. Participants had received their degrees 4–7 years prior to the study. The findings suggest the relative advantages and disadvantages of different models of educational design. Even though PME graduates complained about the abstract nature of what they had learned during the first part of their undergraduate study, most had successfully entered labor markets related to the PME industry, having obtained appropriate knowledge/skills for application in industry from the latter part of the program. While some prioritized their identity as a PME professional, others admitted that they liked the extrinsic reward of a comfortable living best. In contrast, even though most of the HSS graduates admired the generic curriculum of the program, with its transferability from one context to another and its close connection to the real world, and some deeply identified with the core value of being an agent of societal change once they had entered the labor market, many also admitted that it was difficult to find a suitable industry to enter unless they first acquired a Master’s degree with higher specificity.
Keywords
Abrandt Dahlgren et al. (2006) borrowed the terminology of “learning trajectories” from Wenger (1998) to describe the experience of identity transition from the academic community in higher education to the professional community in industry. Many studies have examined the process of becoming a professional/practitioner or the transition process in relation to specific disciplines or fields. In relation to becoming a scientist, Hunter et al. (2006) investigated the role of summer undergraduate research and found that students had attained little awareness for socialization into professional practice in terms of attitude and identity, while professors considered the socialization process significant. In relation to becoming an IT professional, Clark et al. (2011) proposed that the transition to IT work is best understood by taking fields, habitus, capital, and the interactions between them into consideration. And in relation to becoming a professional in the field of psychology, Reddy and Shaw (2019) pinpointed the importance of searching for oneself, the integration of knowing and acting, and judgment grounded in acting; at the same time, they suggested that teaching alone is insufficient to facilitate the transition.
For mechanical engineers, Abrandt Dahlgren et al. (2006) found that the trajectory from education to working life appeared to be disjointed in terms of scope and responsibility. Specifically, they found that the mechanical engineering program placed greater emphasis on the theoretical and ritual aspects of knowledge on the basis that mastering discipline-based knowledge and skills generally leads to participation in the professional community; however, working life now requires generic problem-solving capabilities directed toward seeking the optimal and most pragmatic solution. For science, engineering, and technology majors, Gallagher and Stephens (2020) suggest there are increasing concerns about the transferability and generalization of knowledge and skills from higher education to the workplace. They investigated graduates in small and medium–sized enterprises and found that the graduates undertook the key roles of technologist, project manager, and team worker in the workplace, with their main responsibilities drawing on their knowledge of the industry, their managing skills, and their personal attributes, in addition to their disciplinary knowledge.
For engineers, Magarian and Seering (2018) propose that there are three occupational outcomes for engineering graduates: conventionally acknowledged engineers, partners of engineers in product or technology development who share collaborative responsibility, and other occupations. In a later study, Magarian and Seering (2021) identified significant predictors for working in engineering as follows: a positive engineering internship experience; averse to financial risk-taking; would enjoy working at a job involving advanced math; identification with a specific profession; satisfied with the creative opportunities in engineering jobs; and anticipation of promotion into a formal leadership role by the age of 25.
Conversely, “softer” disciplines, such as management, economics, humanities, and public policy, have been discussed in the context of how academic institutions can play the role of change agents by contributing proactively to shaping the socioeconomic development processes in which they are situated (Aranguren et al., 2016). Similarly, for practitioners in public-sector areas such as health, welfare, and education, Evetts (2011) noted a trend to redefine “professionalism” as occupational value, which emphasizes change as generating a possible range of solutions and procedures defined by the organization, more desirable than relying on the authority of the disciplinary expert and industry specialist. Harrison and Healy (2016) also demonstrated, for newly qualified workers in the non-governmental community services sector, that their allegiances were not necessarily aligned with a specific profession but rather were contextualized by organizational agendas and personal interest. Furthermore, based on data from interviews with managers, professionals, and frontline workers in various industries, Smith et al. (2020) suggest that discussions about literature can empower productive teams and support workplace dynamics by promoting the sharing of personal experiences and the development of empathy.
While the aforementioned studies focus on specific disciplines or fields, others have provided a more general perspective. In a review article on learning and fit in the transition from higher education to the labor market, Grosemans et al. (2017) look at learning from three perspectives: the subject of learning (the preparation stage), the transferability of learning (the encounter and adjustment stages), and learning at work (the encounter, adjustment, and stabilization stages). The authors identify three types of fit during the encounter and adjustment stages: vertical fit between educational background and the job, horizontal fit between the level of education and the level required by the job, and competence fit. This study also suggests that graduates in a discipline with high specificity found work more quickly and easily than their counterparts from less specific disciplines but stress that over-education can serve as a trap rather than a stepping stone.
Examining students’ attitudes toward the labor market and graduate employability, Tomlinson (2007) identified two different dimensions and attitudes toward work: passive and active career development and market and non-market career aspirations. This generated four types of student orientations: careerists with a strong orientation toward future work and managing their employability; ritualists, settling for less competitive employment; and rebels and retreatists, who are non-market–oriented.
Based on an initial understanding provided by the above studies related to becoming a professional or practitioner and the transition from higher education to industry, this study investigates learning trajectories and professional identity development in two interdisciplinary programs in Taiwan: a Power Mechanical Engineering (PME) program and a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) program.
Learning trajectories and professional identity
To understand learning trajectories within professions, two international projects identified graduates and students from various programs with different expectations of knowledge formation and identity building and employed empirical data from more than 500 interviews across Europe and Australia (Abrandt Dahlgren et al., 2006, 2008; Nystrom, 2009; Reid et al., 2008).
The Journeymen project was conducted in Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Germany. This project depicted students as “journeymen” between the cultures of higher education and working life. The researchers employed the constructs of “ritual,” “rational–substantive,” and “rational–generic” to differentiate the nature of knowledge in various disciplines and educational programs with data collected from students in the final year of their Master’s degree and after 18 months of professional work (Abrandt Dahlgren et al., 2006). While knowledge and skills that are ritualistic in character were perceived by students as lacking connection to a specific context, rational–substantive knowledge and skills were considered content-specific and contextually situated, and rational–generic knowledge and skills were considered transferable across various contexts. Different disciplines combine these aspects in different proportions; for example, mechanical engineering initially stresses ritual aspects and then focuses on rational–generic aspects, whereas psychology focuses on both rational–substantive and rational–generic aspects, and political science on rational–generic aspects (Abrandt Dahlgren et al., 2008).
On the other hand, the Professional Entity project was conducted in Australia to explore the relationships between students’ perceptions of future professional work and their higher education learning. The project used data from undergraduate students in various disciplines, including music, statistics, and law. The researchers proposed three levels of perception: at the extrinsic technical level, professional work is a group of technical components utilized when required; at the extrinsic meaning level, professional work focuses on developing the meaning inherent in discipline objects; and at the intrinsic meaning level, professional work is viewed as essentially related to personal value. Students from the same discipline may possess different levels of perception regarding their learning and professional work (Reid et al., 2008). Similarly, the Journeymen project examined professional identity development as a relationship between professional and personal life beyond the stage of higher education. Nystrom (2009) found three categories: non-differentiated identity, with diffuse boundaries in different spheres in life; compartmentalized identity, characterized by a separation of different spheres of life; and integrated identity, for handling professional practice in combination with the other spheres.
The Journeymen and Professional Entity projects examined how graduates and current students perceive the nature of knowledge and the meaning that their professional identity has for them, both projects focusing on specific disciplines. Nevertheless, recent studies related to the transition from higher education to the labor market have expanded the focus of research to include the relative level of specificity across disciplines and the vertical fit between educational background and the job (Grosemans et al., 2017); occupational outcomes not limited to the intended profession and significant predictors for staying in the intended profession (Magarian and Seering, 2018, 2021); how softer disciplines have redefined “professionalism” (Evetts, 2011); and how newly qualified workers identify with organizational agendas and personal interest rather than with a specific profession in the conventional sense (Harrison and Healy, 2016).
Furthermore, even though the Journeymen and the Professional Entity studies focused on the path from an academic program to its corresponding professional community, Wenger (1998) conceived of “identity,” in practice, as a constant phenomenon and “trajectory” as a movable factor. For example, Jackson (2016) argued that students develop their professional identity through multiple memberships and different levels of involvement with various learning communities within the university context and suggested the potential impact of factors other than the academic program on students’ emergent identities.
Therefore, this study will take the constructs of “ritual,” “rational–substantive,” and “rational–generic” to differentiate the nature of knowledge, as proposed by the Journeymen project (Abrandt Dahlgren et al., 2006, 2008), and the levels of perception of identity meaning as proposed by the Professional Entity studies (Nystrom, 2009; Reid et al., 2008), to be the core concepts and analytical framework for an investigation into the transition from higher education to working life as reflected by PME and HSS graduates. However, it will not confine the discussion only to graduates who stayed in the professional communities corresponding to their undergraduate programs. Rather, the purpose of the study is to depict how program graduates with different profiles examine their learning trajectories critically with reference to the choice of undergraduate major, the nature of knowledge imparted by the educational programs, the process of professional identity exploration, career decisions either aligned to programs or taken because of other learning communities encountered, and the interaction between the above elements.
Educational context in Taiwan
Profile of Taiwan.
Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997) suggested that students’ career decision-making was due to neither the dominance of socially structured pathways nor the individual’s freedom to choose; rather, it was influenced by three factors: pragmatically rational decision-making, interactions with important others, and the partly unpredictable pattern of turning points and routines in life. Among these factors, the second, especially parental expectations, plays a significant role in the lives of Taiwanese young people. Wang (2015) indicated that, while Western career theories stress individual exploration and development, the Chinese emphasize a balance between an individual’s own and parental expectations. To ensure that their parents take pride in them, a majority of Taiwanese students select a major that represents the best choice based on their college entrance examination score. Some, however, may experience a significant event during their time at college that leads them to change their career direction after entering graduate school or the workforce.
Moreover, this study considers an alternative model for the declaration of the major at sophomore or junior year in Taiwan. Wang et al. (2011) suggest that, in response to globalization and the knowledge economy, cross-disciplinary learning and career exploration are popular in some Taiwanese higher education institutions. The researchers found four models that had become established in the past decade: choice of department within a college, choice of majors within a college, choice of majors across different colleges, and entry into an integrated program. This trend, to some degree, echoes Trede et al.’s (2012) observation that, concerning the current climate of globalization and inter-professional education and the reality that students may not end up practicing their chosen profession, a debate exists about discipline-specific versus generic-oriented educational design.
Therefore, instead of selecting academic programs that were discipline-specific in nature, as in the Journeymen and Professional Entity projects, this study investigated graduates of PME, an interdisciplinary program with a single department profile, and of HSS, a program with a profile of cross-disciplinary learning and declaration majors within a college in the junior year. Both programs are at the same highly selective science/engineering research-oriented Northern Taiwanese university.
In summary, based on the extant literature and the framework proposed by the Journeymen and Professional Entity projects, and considering the Taiwanese context, this study addresses the following questions:
What are the relevant factors for graduates from the PME and HSS programs when selecting their undergraduate majors?
How do they perceive the level of knowledge and skills provided by their undergraduate academic program, PME or HSS?
How do they perceive the relationships between their current professional work/existence and their undergraduate and graduate programs, and what, in fact, are the patterns of their professional identity development?
Methodology
To enhance our understanding of how PME and HSS graduates reflected on the above research questions, the study took the view that individual participants have their own perception and understanding of reality. We employed an inductive-oriented approach, and applied a qualitative interview strategy for data collection, as the first three layers of the research onion model proposed by Saunders et al. (2007). Furthermore, for data analysis we worked on narrative structuring in an attempt to reconstruct the many stories of different participants into a richer picture and to bring out a group identity, either by reducing the interview text or by adding reflective discussion (Kvale, 2006).
We conducted recruitment using the snowball or chain method (Patton, 2002). Eighteen graduates (nine from each undergraduate academic program) were recruited using purposeful sampling with information-rich cases to illuminate the research questions. These 18 participants had received their undergraduate degrees between 2010 and 2013 and were subsequently interviewed in the fall of 2017, 4–7 years after they had graduated. They all had a Master’s degree, with two exceptions—one from each academic program. For the university under investigation, around 70%–80% of college graduates pursue a graduate degree because the university is among the top three in Taiwan. The work experience for the participants was 2–7 years, with an average of 4 years. The sample in each program is approximately a representative proportion of the population in terms of gender.
In the 1970s, the PME department was founded with a strong focus on the integration of mechanical and electrical engineering with undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD programs. As one of the top Taiwanese engineering departments, its graduates are active in academic and research organizations as well as in industry, especially in the Hsinchu Science Park. HSS was founded in early 2000 and is one of the first Taiwanese programs oriented toward transcending conventional departmental boundaries, with the idea of cultivating elite thinkers capable of handling knowledge comprehensively to cope with the social, political, and economic challenges faced by Taiwan. The program allows students to study fundamental academic subjects in the first 2 years, and juniors then select a major and a minor from eight programs, including history, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, and literature. The program’s graduates mostly find work as creativity planners, media editors, human resources personnel, salespeople, and research assistants.
Data were collected through recorded semi-structured interviews conducted individually with each participant. The duration of each interview varied between 60 and 90 min, and interviews were taped and subsequently transcribed verbatim. We conducted our data analysis using multiple coders. The procedures were as follows. (1) The first author studied four out of nine transcripts and field notes from each program several times, for familiarization and to digest and reflect on the content. The most significant statements were selected and compared to find sources of variation or agreement and an initial coding framework was subsequently developed. (2) Following this tentative framework, the first author and two research assistants then coded all 18 transcripts into group categories that appeared to have similarities with and differences between the properties, dimensions, and relationships highlighted. (3) All the coders met to discuss the details and make final comparisons and modifications. (4) To increase the validity, the second author, a graduate of the PME program and an HSS faculty member during the investigation process, was invited to contribute insights into the research findings.
Findings
PME
Factors in choosing PME as the undergraduate major
Of the nine PME graduates interviewed, all but one indicated that they had no clear career direction when they decided on their undergraduate major during the transition from senior high school to higher education; the one exception wanted to become a motorcycle designer. Most of them eliminated majors that contained subject matter in which they did not consider themselves proficient or in which they were uninterested, and a few chose only majors containing subject matter they liked or were familiar with. Parents’ suggestions played an important role for all the participants: two of them had a father with a degree in mechanical engineering. Some mentioned the influence of teachers. After considering the above factors, the participants selected PME as their major because it was the best choice based on their college entrance examination score.
Nature of knowledge/skills and perception of the educational program
There was a consensus that the knowledge and skills taught in the first 2 years of the PME program were abstract and theoretical in nature. Almost all the participants mentioned that they preferred the second half or the program, which enabled them to see the connection between what they had learned and the real world and it taught them how to apply their learning to team projects. They believed that the educational aim of the 4-year program was to provide a solid foundation for becoming a competent mechanical engineer. Six of the nine participants who had pursued further education in the same PME field acknowledged that the undergraduate program had provided them with a sound background for their future learning and employment. One Master’s graduate had pursued a PhD in Service Science while serving as chairman of an entrepreneurship arena. He had shifted his career direction because of his learning experience at the residential college—which helps students to explore themselves and their future life directions in the context of this particular university. However, the PME training with its rational–substantive element, and especially its solid methodologies, had helped him even after he had changed career trajectories, imbuing him with characteristics that distinguished him from other social innovators: ‘When people are enthusiastic about community development, they would sometimes prioritize community awareness or sense of community in the position. But science and technology thinking stresses the importance of rigorous scholarship-style reproducibility or repeatability. What you get depends on your input.' (P6)
Of the remaining three participants, who did not pursue a Master’s degree in PME, two remarked that they had found the nature of the knowledge difficult to relate to, especially for the first 2 years. Thus, one of them had decided to become involved in publishing after graduation because of the residential college experience, and another had pursued a Master’s degree in management and worked in the banking sector. The other participant had pursued a Master’s degree in film but had then returned to work as a mechanical engineer after obtaining his Master’s degree.
Learning trajectories and professional identity reflection
Among the six participants who chose to become mechanical engineers during the study, five entered related industries after they had completed their PME Master’s degree, and the other chose to return to this field for economic reasons after obtaining a graduate degree in motion pictures. Three expressed their passion for their professional identity as mechanical engineers even though they had entered different industries. They had distinct professional development stories, all of which were related to the difficult situations faced by their industries in Taiwan. Of the other three participants, two were not as enthusiastic about their professional identity as mechanical engineers but enjoyed the comfortable lifestyle their occupation afforded them. The last had a similar reflection with regard to his learning trajectory.
The first participant (P1) was a motorcycle enthusiast and had worked in the engine design department of a leading motorcycle company for more than 4 years: ‘My hands-on experience, related to motorcycles, came from outside the formal curriculum as being the founder of the Motor Research Club at campus. What I learned from my degree had a low chance of being applied in practice, especially the theoretical part. When my company wanted to resolve a technical problem, they would come up with, like, five solutions, and we did trial and error without any opportunity to examine the problem thoroughly. My company didn’t have the resources to design a brand-new product. I wish we had a better R&D environment. My dream is to design a popular new model. But the motorcycle industry, as a traditional industry, is less prestigious than emerging industries. Moreover, the annual income, year-end bonus, and stocks of most of my PME peers, who entered other mechanical-related industries, were four times greater than mine. But I still totally identified with my profession and want to pursue my dream.’ (P1)
The second participant (P2) entered the largest semiconductor manufacturing company and worked as a facility engineer in the factory department for more than 3 years: ‘I had no idea what I wanted to be before I went to university. However, as a PME student, the idea of becoming an engineer started to grow on me, a little like “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”. After I obtained my graduate degree, I joined one of the most prestigious corporations in Taiwan. I was lucky to land this job. Most people think the pay is very good. My task is to provide a stable “clean room” environment. My education and training from the PME program are a match for this position, even though I think an undergraduate degree would be enough to cover my duties. Due to the minimal challenge and the long working hours, I quit my job several months ago to pursue a profession that requires constant innovation and self-improvement or a profession that is meaningful to me and to other people, such as a civil servant working for labor rights. At the current stage of my life, I do not want to do something I am 100% capable of but, instead, I want to engage in something I am 100% passionate about, while I’m still young and brave enough to make a change.’ (P2)
These two participants had gained work experience in one organization since they started working. However, another participant (P4) had just started his third position as a software development engineer when we interviewed him 4 years after he had obtained his PME graduate degree: ‘My interest is to be a research engineer. My first job was a full-time research assistant for my graduate advisor, and my second job was an electrical/control software development engineer in a company providing embedded and automation products and solutions, which is my area of expertise. My advisor trained me well for this. I recently left that company because under the industrial structure this company can’t attract top professionals. By contrast, my new company provides a solid grounding for me to learn more about software development. My long-term career goal is to learn more about software techniques and bring them back to my expertise area. I think the automation industry needs new methods. Mechanical engineering, as a professional field, is conservative and the pace is slow, because a long time is needed to design, produce, and assemble products, and the stakes are high if you make mistakes, whereas informative engineering has a shorter cycle to bounce back and thus tends to embrace innovation.’ (P4)
There was only woman from the PME program in the study (P5). She had worked as a mechanical research engineer after obtaining her graduate degree: ‘I am an engineer, and my major was PME, but that’s different from “I like being a mechanical engineer” or “I like being a PME student”. I think if you truly like something, you would commit to it your whole life, or you would enjoy it even after work. I have classmates or co-workers who always talk about mechanically related trends or topics or check out the latest mechanical show together. But I actually enjoy reading humanities or social science materials for leisure. I chose mechanical engineering as my major and my profession because I’m very good at it, and the pay is pretty good. I remembered I was really into a course related to suspenseful novels or thrillers while I was taking a general education course. I even considered changing my major and considered being a writer or editor. But then I evaluated the prospect rationally. Am I talented enough in the area so that I can make a living out of it? I’m not sure.’ (P5)
Finally, the following participant worked as a mechanical design engineer after obtaining his Master’s degree in the motion picture industry: ‘I enjoyed my graduate study in motion pictures because it had more connection to my inner self, but I realized life would be very hard if I treated it as a career choice. My parents’ life was not easy, so after I got my Master’s degree, I decided to work as a mechanical engineer and give my parents a comfortable life. Being a mechanical engineer is okay for me because I now have a chance to apply what I learned in the PME program, and I can identify with its knowledge and skills more. Nevertheless, my identity as a mechanical engineer still mainly comes from others, when people say, “Wow, you graduated from the PME program of that university. You must be outstanding!”’ (P7)
HSS
Factors in choosing HSS as an undergraduate major
Among the nine participants, five reported that they chose HSS because they were interested in social science and humanities or were not good at science or mathematics in previous learning stages and HSS was the best choice based on their college entrance examination score, among a hierarchy of departments. They knew little about this program or its uniqueness before entering university, although they were satisfied with its educational design after they became students. Of the other four participants, two had transferred from other departments of the same university, one from Electrical Engineering and the other from the Chemistry, both highly ranked in their own discipline in Taiwan. The former was interested in psychology and counseling, but the university lacked a corresponding program at the time. She therefore transferred to HSS as a transitional stage and built a foundation, as suggested by the university’s faculty members. The second participant found that he was allergic to chemical substances and selected HSS because this increased his chances of graduating within 4 years with his peers. The remaining two participants had transferred from Taiwanese private universities because of the prestige and resources this university and HSS provided.
Nature of knowledge/skills and perception of the educational program
Generally, the participants had a positive attitude toward the HSS undergraduate program because it offered courses that covered eight humanities and social science disciplines over the freshman and sophomore years. They stated that the advantages of this design were the diversity and extensive knowledge base, the provision of various perspectives from which to view issues, and the chance for self-exploration to identify one’s interests, learning focus, and possible career directions. Moreover, most students enjoyed the teaching and learning aspects of HSS, such as inspiring discussions and conversations, critical thinking and independent thinking, and especially the generic knowledge that could be transformed and contextualized to be applicable to each individual case.
Nevertheless, many participants also indicated major disadvantages; for example, they thought that HSS did not provide enough depth, unlike single-discipline academic programs, and that corresponding industries were difficult to identify after graduation. Some even stated that they had pursued a Master’s degree to help them identify specific industries. The following three participants talked about their perceptions of the educational program and the nature of the knowledge/skills it offered: ‘Even though the course load of HSS was heavy, many of us were happy with this program. With its diversity, every student can figure out what he/she is interested in. Sometimes, you would hear students from other departments say that they’re not satisfied with their program or that they picked the wrong major. This was seldom the case in HSS. You can always find something you are comfortable with. So, yes, I identified with HSS and being a student of it. But if you ask me what HSS is about, I have a hard time providing a simple answer.’ (H9) ‘I think disciplines within humanities and social sciences were intertwined, with closely related origins and development. The design of the HSS program helped us develop the ability to examine a single event or issue from multiple disciplines’ opinions and perspectives. However, at the same time, our depth in any single discipline was compromised. After all, you have to pick one way or the other.’ (H6) ‘I think HSS has a lower knowledge threshold than other discipline-oriented programs. For example, for law and finance, their knowledge and skills are hard to master; therefore, their graduates can land good positions with a high salary, because they are considered to have expertise. In HSS, the most popular subareas were sociology, history, and anthropology, where my peers could easily see the connections to everyday life and social issues. But I preferred philosophy and linguistics, and attempted to pursue a career as a scholar. I would say the design of HSS is a good foundation for someone who wants to pursue an academic career but not for students entering the job market.’ (H7)
Learning trajectories and professional identity reflection
Among the nine HSS participants, eight had completed an MA after graduation. Their working profiles were diverse. Many of them identified with the knowledge and values that HSS represents, but not all were fortunate enough to find an ideal position or a preferred industry in which to apply their education, although they were still optimistic about future developments.
The first participant (H1) completed a Master’s degree in sociology. After working for a political party and as a salesperson in Vietnam for a Taiwanese company, her latest job position was writing for the presidential office: ‘Unlike the knowledge gained by graduates from sciences and engineering, who can work in a specific industry, what we learned in HSS can be applied to many industries. My strong identification with HSS occurred after I entered the workforce. I think my biggest gain from the program was a profound change in values. I come from a blue-collar family, and I learned from HSS that, no matter what profession we choose, we can always help disadvantaged people in many ways. Additionally, I think that to make any significant decision in any position, people need more than 1.5 logics [viewpoints from multiple disciplines]. Take the issue of nuclear power as an example. A nuclear engineering major would challenge us: you know nothing about electricity. But what we need is to take everything into consideration: how to assure minimum demand, how to reduce one source and encourage other energy sources, and at the same time take environmental concerns into account. I had to admit that having an HSS diploma made getting a job difficult, let alone a job at a big corporation, but if you can survive the early stage, your boss will eventually discover that you are full of potential. Currently, as a writer for the presidential office, my task is to translate reports from different disciplines to provide government-relevant information. My lifelong dream is to be a legislator or a high-status government officer, so I can help people.’ (H1)
The second participant (H2) chose sociology and gender studies for her major and minor in undergraduate HSS and pursued a Master’s degree in sociology. She worked for a non-governmental organization (NGO) for 2 years and then as a writer: ‘My working experiences were very relevant to my training, which is quite unusual for a social science major. The NGO I worked for had a slightly conservative position on certain social issues, such as marriage equality, and I tried to make a difference while working there. However, eventually, I left the organization because the pay was really low. Now I work as a freelance writer, workshop speaker, and columnist. I think if you want to change the world, the society, or even just the lives of some people, being a writer has more impact than working for an NGO.’ (H2)
The third participant (H3) pursued a Master’s degree in applied arts after HSS and was now working as a product packaging designer and a picture book artist during her free time: ‘When I look back, even though I had a hard time articulating it, I knew HSS had become a part of me, providing a broader horizon as the base of my creation, unlike other artists with degrees from arts-related programs. It helps me live my life and look at things critically to interact with my environment, and it has turned me into someone who doesn’t just drift along or go with the flow in life. After my master’s degree, I spent time working as a part-time artist and then got my first full-time job. If I had not finished my graduate program, I don’t think I could have qualified as a full-time designer. My career prospect is to do things where I can see myself under constant growth and making progress.’ (H3)
Finally, the following participant (H4) completed a Master’s degree in anthropology and worked as a member of the human resources personnel in a technology company: ‘I consider the core value and training provided by HSS and Anthropology nurtured in me a keen sensibility to the need of engineers and other employees. I would approach my task of human resource personnel more from a facilitator’s role, especially focusing on helping the disadvantaged and building up a corporate culture that everyone can identify with, rather than only from a management perspective.’ (H4)
Discussion
This study investigated how 18 Taiwanese university graduates from PME and the HSS, 9 from each program, reflected on their learning trajectories and transition from higher education to working life 4–7 years after completing their undergraduate degree.
RQ1 asked: “What are the relevant factors for graduates from the PME and from the HSS programs when selecting their undergraduate majors?” Regarding the factors in choosing an undergraduate major, most participants reported that they made the decision based on their interests and test scores, eliminating disciplines containing subject matter in which they were uninterested or which they were not good at, as well as on suggestions from others. These findings are consistent with previous literature (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997; Wang, 2015) and to a certain degree explain why some graduates from both programs had changed their major during the undergraduate, Master’s or PhD stage, since many did not have the opportunity to think about their own study interests or career preferences when entering the institution.
Learning trajectories and professional identity development for PME graduates (N = 9).
Note: PME: Power Mechanics Engineering.
Learning trajectories and professional identity development for HSS graduates (N = 9).
Note: HSS: Humanities and Social Sciences.
RQ3 asked: “How do they perceive the relationships between their current professional work/existence and their undergraduate and graduate programs, and what, in fact, are the patterns of their professional identity development?” Regarding professional identity, or how graduates perceive the relationship between their current professional work and their undergraduate program, Reid et al. (2008) investigated undergraduate students’ perceptions from the perspective of professional identity formation and indicated a model that comprises intrinsic meaning, extrinsic meaning, and an extrinsic technical level. In contrast, the present study incorporates diverse possibilities with data from novice workers who graduated 4–7 years ago, and the findings suggest a modified framework: intrinsic meaning in terms of personal value or professional being; extrinsic meaning in terms of knowledge, methodologies, and application of the academic program; and not related.
Specifically, this study found the following for PME graduates: Intrinsic meaning. For some, professional being is essentially related to personal value, as shown in Table 2. For example, the motorcycle engineer (P1) represents those who chose a major that matched their personal passion and demonstrated persistence over the traditional industry’s difficult situation; and the automation software researcher (P4) demonstrates the courage to undergo a career transition from traditional to high-tech industry. Intrinsic meaning. For others, their professional identity was successfully developed along the process guided by the academic program. For example, the semiconductor engineer (P2) represents those who learned to appreciate being a PME engineer. Extrinsic meaning. Some saw their professional work as related to the meaning inherent in discipline applications or methodologies, but they either treated it as a high-paying occupation that was separate from their personal lives or other passions (P5, P7), thus exhibiting compartmentalized identity as proposed by Nystrom (2009), or chose another career path while still recognizing the value of what the PME program had taught them (P6). Not related. Some (P8, P9) chose other career paths because they felt disconnected from the program and had opportunities to encounter other communities of practice through extracurricular learning experiences, consistent with possibilities suggested by other researchers (Jackson, 2016; Wang, 2015), and with reaction against a misfit between the undergraduate major and career direction (Grosemans et al., 2017).
In contrast, the study observed the following for HSS graduates: Intrinsic meaning. Some learned to identify with their program’s core value (see Table 3), such as making society or the corporation a better place (H1, H4), gender equality (H2), and critically and progressively interacting with the world (H3), factors consistent with previous Western studies on “softer” fields’ that emphasize the desire to be a change agent within a society and the sharing of human experience (Aranguren et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2020). Nevertheless, when they looked at their current occupations, some thought themselves lucky to be able to practice it even though their transition into industry and position had been rough, and a few were still optimistic about their future. Extrinsic meaning. Some shared a positive perception of the cross-disciplinary subject matter, with its generic knowledge, skills, and application, but they did not necessarily demonstrate a strong connection with its value (H5, H6, H7, H9). Not related. Overall, our findings from both the PME and HSS graduates also illustrate how young people vary from one another in terms of their active/passive career development, and market/non-market career aspirations, as suggested by Tomlinson (2007).
Beyond the above model, our findings from the PME graduates seem to corroborate Magarian and Seering’s (2021) quantitative survey results. For the PME graduates to stay (or not to stay) in a corresponding industry, significant reasons include identifying with this specific profession, not being intimidated by the abstract or theoretical courses at the lower level, having a positive internship or field experience, enjoying the creative or challenging opportunities in workforce, and an aversion to financial risk-taking. On the other hand, the findings from the HSS graduates highlighted the issue of “professionalism.” Some researchers have proposed that the definition of professionalism should be revised for the softer disciplines through an acknowledgment that it is not necessarily aligned with a specific profession (Evetts, 2011; Harrison and Healy, 2016). The cross-disciplinary HSS program exemplifies this conception. However, almost all the HSS graduates still anticipated a degree corresponding to a specific discipline or industry, mostly for financial security, even though they appreciated the educational experience provided by their undergraduate program.
Finally, we quantitatively deconstructed the interview transcripts by atomizing the discourse with Chinese Knowledge and Information Processing (Chen et al., 2011) and generated two word clouds by showing words mentioned more than 50 times (frequency ranged from 50 to 413; the larger the type, the higher the frequency) by the PME and HSS graduates. In addition to their similarity in several respects, the PME word cloud (Figure 1) illustrates the importance of the following terms: design, fundamental, why, discipline, choices, engineers, solutions, learning, and industry. The key words in the HSS word cloud (Figure 2) are teachers, society, graduation, think, curriculum, competence, different, major, and discussion. These word clouds appear to provide additional supportive evidence to pinpoint the unique features of PME and HSS and characterize their graduates as having two distinctive profiles regarding learning trajectory and professional identity development. Word cloud for PME graduates and their learning trajectories. Word cloud for HSS graduates and their learning trajectories.
Conclusions
This study adopted interview strategy and narrative structuring to examine the learning trajectories of the PME and the HSS graduates and characterizes their reflections 4–7 years after graduating from the undergraduate program and their professional identity development in the context of Taiwan. Our findings indicate that, despite complaints about the transferability of knowledge and skills learned during the first part of their undergraduate study, many of the PME graduates decided to enter markets related to the PME industry, reflecting both intrinsic and extrinsic meanings. In contrast, graduates of the less specifically focused HSS program mostly admired the program for giving them a solid foundation and yet pursued a more specific Master’s degree before entering the workforce. Our findings also suggest that Taiwanese young people make decisions concerning their career at multiple points in time: when selecting an undergraduate major, when deciding whether or not to transfer to another program during their undergraduate study, when selecting a Master’s program, and when selecting an industry to enter.
This study contributes to the field of industry—higher education cooperation in several ways. First, while the dominant research on employability focuses on “developing appropriate skills and attributes,” this study presents a more realistic approach to addressing issues involved and identifying how they are intertwined. Second, whereas quantitative studies may provide a more objective picture by taking important factors into consideration overall and comparing their relative significance (e.g., Magarian and Seering, 2021), this study illuminates how these factors are linked or not linked with a variety of profiles by showing how an individual participant may or may not be influenced by a particular factor or combination of factors in the context of his or her unique story. It also illuminates how the PME and HSS graduates distinguished themselves from one another as a group and generates insights behind the numbers. Third, few studies have examined the association between interdisciplinary programs and graduate transition, and this study has uncovered relative advantages and disadvantages from different models of educational design built on ritual, rational–substantive, and rational–generic elements.
Nevertheless, the study is limited by the sample size and the context is culturally and discipline/field-bounded. Qualitative research with a larger sample size to explore other sources of influence, beyond the undergraduate academic program, on professional identity development and learning trajectories in higher education is recommended. Quantitative research is also desirable for investigation of graduate transitions in Taiwan and other developed knowledge economies, such as Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China for financially supporting this research under Contract No. MOST 106-2410-H-007-053.
