Current situation of the industrial engineer of the University of Costa Rica, advantages and challenges of the labor market.

Abstract

The growing demand for professionals with a variable and flexible action area, innovative ideas and constantly seeking for improvement, has led to a boom of the Industrial Engineering career. However, there is a segment of the population comprised of students, parents, vocational counselors or people responsible for providing assistance in the selection of career to high school students, that do not know or understand fully, what industrial engineering is, what are its fields of action and the role of this professional in the labor market. Therefore, it is intended in this article, through a systematic survey, to collect the voice of the 441 people who have passed from 2007 until 2014 the career offered by the School of Industrial Engineering at the University of Costa Rica. Among the main findings of the study, 28% of respondents took five years to complete the career, the rest took six years or more. It was identified that the career offers the opportunity to work and study (36% of the surveyed students). The main positions exercised by the surveyed graduates are "Engineer" (26%), "Analyst" (21%) and "Boss" (14%). Also, the labor supply is presented mostly in the private sector (89%). Through the study, it was possible to facilitate the target audience information regarding the career and promote their interest by having and approach of the available opportunities for these professionals.