Track: Engineering Education

Abstract

Career success is the accomplishment of desirable work-related outcomes at any point in a person’s work experiences over time. This can be quantified objectively through salary, position, and promotion. The study investigated the relationship of college graduates’ involvement and performance in co-curricular and extra-curricular or collectively known as pre-career activities to their career success after graduating from college. Furthermore, this study explored the personal and interactive skills acquired by students in pre-career activities that are key to advancing their careers. For data gathering, Graduates from Mapua University with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering were asked to answer a questionnaire. Numerical methods such as ANOVA was used to assess whether pre-career activities have a significant effect on career success while Regression Analysis was utilized for determining the relationship between student leader development and professional career success. The results of the study showed that there is a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the career success of graduates with and without pre-career activities during their years of stay in the university. Also, it is more probable that students joining such activities will obtain a personal skill such as determination and interactive skills such as Teamwork and Leadership. To conclude, one must be in the leader position rather than just a member in the academic organization to maximize the benefits of pre-career activities.