Introducing Personality Tests To Clarify Engineering Student Self-Perception And Demystify Recruitment Procedures: Quantitative And Qualitative Results

It is often said that Generation Y students have little professional ideal, uncertainty and indecision dominating their professional future appraisal. Engineering program designers are now faced with such new student generations. They certainly must trust students to finally find their own way, but they must also give them a sense of responsibility so as to enable them to take care of their career, as soon as possible and at best, in accordance with their genuine wishes.

In 2007, Telecom Bretagne (public French higher engineering institution) reformed its mandatory career preparation program and introduced a professional interest inventory test to help its students have a more objective self-perception, challenge stereotypes, question their own character traits and interests, and ultimately shape their future professional identity.

After six years, qualitative and quantitative results permit to respond to three research questions: (1) Is there a specific profile for engineering students? (2) Does this profile significantly evolve between the first and the last year of the engineering program? (3) Do test credibility and acceptance depend on the year when they are taken?

In light of this analysis and student feedbacks, it is possible to state that, while sometimes initially reluctant to tests due to misconceptions, some students can develop a true interest and expectancy for their personal and professional project thanks to this formative and reflective tool.