What type of engineer are you?

When asking the industry what positions are offered to early-career engineers, three professional roles appeared: a more innovative role, a role focused on optimization and a customer related role. Engineers working in different roles have a different focus on technology. Moreover, different non-technical skills are required to be successful.

Professional roles for early-career engineers

Innovation. Optimization. Customization.

3 focuses, 3 roles. Yet a multitude of combinations and engineering careers. Who is the industry looking for? What is required to be successful?

The PREFER model is an instrument to navigate through the myriad career possibilities.

DISCOVER THE PREFER MODEL

Why a professional roles model?

"The model can help to think about what you want in the future and to make the right choices to get there. It’s not hard to find a job as an engineer, but I think it is hard to find a job that fits you best."

Master student in Chemical Engineering

"I find it reassuring that different types of engineers are needed on the job market. The model gives me more insight into what is possible when I graduate and what I would like to do most."

Master student in Electronics-ICT Engineering

Test yourself

Take one of the tests and get more insight into your professional interest, strengths and weaknesses. You get immediate feedback on your result. If you have any questions about the interpretation of your results, please contact your instructor or the Student Career Centre (students) or your HR consultant (young graduates). Feel free to contact us if you need additional information.

PREFER Explore

Identify your preferred role as an engineer!
What? 10 questions. Pick your most and least favorite answer.
Time? ~ 8 minutes

PREFER Match

Get feedback on your role alignment and essential non-technical competencies
What? Cases you can encounter in your early career. Judge how appropriate the responses are considering the situation.
Time? 10 - 15 minutes/test (1 test per professional role)

We advise you to take these tests in a later stage of your education.

^{This work was supported by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union (grant agreement 575778-EPP-1-2016-1-BE-EPPKA2-KA) and is part of the PREFER project.

It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License}

^{The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.}