(Multi-disciplinary) Teamwork Makes the (Real) Dream Work: Pragmatic Recommendations from Industry for Engineering Classrooms

Abstract Many students choose to major in engineering to join the community of professional engineers and gain exposure to the field through their college experience 1. However, research suggests that engineering graduates may not be adequately prepared for the workplace due to the complexities of engineering work 2. Engineering work involves complexity, ambiguity, and contradictions 3, and developing innovation skills requires analyzing real-world problems that are often ill-defined and multifaceted 4. Therefore, it is essential for engineering students to have opportunities to work in multi-disciplinary teams to develop their skills in problem-solving and innovation. This emphasis on the need for exposure to multi-disciplinary problem solving holds true not only for undergraduate engineers in training, but also for graduate students focused on engineering education. This paper draws from experiences of a multi-disciplinary team (including engineers, scientists, UX researchers, Industrial-Organization (I-O) psychologists, economists, and program and product managers) studying talent management in the tech industry, to present lessons learned from leading with science to understand, inform, and improve employee experiences at a large private technology company. Our paper exemplifies how projects in industry leverage multi-disciplinary expertise and presents recommendations for new graduates and engineering professionals. Ultimately, this paper affords an opportunity for educators to expand on examples of how multiple disciplines come together to study engineers in the workforce.