Study of Delft aerospace alumni

Abstract

This thesis reports on an alumni study of the Faculty Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology to discover what the impact is of the degree in aerospace engineering on an alumnus' professional success and comment on what are important qualities for aerospace engineers to have in order to differentiate themselves from those with an average career. Based on a literature survey and feedback of an expert panel a list of 12 competencies, deemed important for the professional success of alumni, was developed. These competencies are: the ability to synthesize, analyticalskills, problem solving skills, people and operational management skills, oral and written communication skills,networking skills, broad technical knowledge, specialist technical knowledge, ability for life-long learning and the ability to work in teams. It was also discovered in literature that there are two principal career tracks of aerospace engineers: that of the engineering specialist and that of the engineering manager. The success definitions used were: level of job responsibility, salary with respect to work experience and salary with respect to work experience and level of job responsibility.The results of the questionnaire showed that the aerospace alumni do well and are very satisfied with their degree.The results of the survey showed that all 12 competencies were important to a certain degree for an alumnus' current job. No significant relationship however, was found, between the contribution of aerospace engineering to the competencies and professional success. Alumni also indicated that they deem themselves less capable in people and operational management skills as well as networking skills. The results also showed that having good specialist technical knowledge does contribute to more job responsibility but not necessarily to more salary. Furthermore it was found that the alumnis' ability in people and operational management skills have a positive influence on their professional success.The thesis also contains recommendation with regards to the implementation of the competencies in aerospace engineering curricula.