Student's Attraction for a Carrier Path Related to Databases and SQL: Usability vs Efficiency in Students' Perception -Case Study

TL;DR

This study investigates second-year students' perceptions of careers in databases and SQL, tracking how their interests evolve during the course and analyzing factors influencing their engagement and gender differences.

Contribution

It provides insights into students' changing interests in database careers and highlights gender-based differences in depth of engagement with database topics.

Findings

Students recognize the importance of databases but see their use as occasional.

Men show greater interest in advanced database topics than women.

Interest in database careers increases as students learn more about the subject.

Abstract

This study explores and analyses the expectations of second-year students enrolled in different lines of study related to Database course, as their interest in having a carrier path in a database related domain and how it reflects the job demands from the market. The participants in the study provided two sets of answers, anonymously collected (in the begging and in the middle of the course), thus allowing us to track how their interests changed as long as they found out more about the subject. We asked for their experience and initial knowledge, we found out that they are aware of the SQL and usability and importance of databases, but they appreciated the database knowledge will be used occasionally. Even if it was not the original scope of the paper, we also found out that men are more interested in learning in depth (acquiring security, performance, complexity database related information) than women do. In terms of the participants set, there were 87 answers from 191 enrolled students that were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis.