The research set out to study occupational stress and its consequences in newly qualified graduate engineers. The project was also concerned with a number of more general issues in the area of stress research. A longitudinal design was employed, with measures taken before subjects entered their first full-time job, then on two more occasions after they had started employment. Variables A large proportion of the data were gathered by means of a postal questionnaire, using conventional self-report measures, often in Likert-type format. However, in addition, respondents were asked to provide open-ended descriptions of concrete stressful incidents which were subjected to content analysis. Finally, in an effort to obtain consensual validation of some of the self-report data, information was obtained from colleagues of the respondents who were familiar with their jobs. Measures of stress included role stress, frustration stress (Likert format), job difficulty characteristics (open-ended). Measures of strain included job dissatisfaction, work-relation tension (anxiety tension), latent hostility, anger feelings (all Likert).