Understanding CS Undergraduate Students' Professional Identity through the lens of their Professional Development

Academic institutions play a crucial role in the development of students' professional identities. However, we have limited knowledge of how computing professional identity develops. This paper aims to understand how CS undergraduate students develop their professional identity through analyzing students' reflection on their career goals, experiences in CS degree programs, and engagement in professional development. We present findings from qualitative analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews with CS undergraduate students in the United States. We found that CS undergraduates form their computing professional identity typically between Years 2-3 of their degree programs. We identified several reasons students are committed to a computing profession: intrinsic factors (e.g., interest and perception of ability), and discipline-specific factors (e.g. utility and growth). We also found several factors that shape their professional identity: coursework, informal activities like hackathons, and professional development activities including internships and conferences. These findings suggest that the development of computing professional identity is not limited to students' involvement in the academic degree programs but the engagement they have with the broader computing community.