"Skill Set, Aptitude, and Desire": Industry Perceptions of Recent Engineering Graduates as Professional Communicators

Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers and managers of recent graduates of engineering programs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Coded results of these interviews, including rankings of communication types, settings, and skills, yield tentative conclusions about industry perceptions of early-career engineers’ communication skills. Major themes include the importance of informal face-to-face communication over formal written documentation, the increasing importance of sound decisions among many available communication media, and industry-by-industry variation in the expectations of polish in formal written work.