<p>Is there some website, app, etc. where I can find a college's graduate job placement rate?
I really don't see a point in spending 15,000-25,000 dollars a year to graduate and be unemployed with a college degree. Do I just have to look at each website individually?</p>
<p>My list is:
Cal Poly SLO
CSU Long Beach
CSU Chico
San Diego State
San Francisco State
UC Berkley
UCSD
UC Davis
U of Colorado Boulder (possibly, very pricey)</p>
<p>does anyone happen to know if job placement is good at any of those colleges? Do employers just go for colleges with the best programs? In other words, do they employ graduates of colleges with the best program therefore making any college with a good program have a high job placement rate? (I'm majoring in Architectural Engineering or Civil Engineering btw)
Sorry for so many questions. Thank you</p>
<p>However, the survey and reporting methodologies differ for the different schools, so compare between schools with caution. Berkeley and Cal Poly SLO are the only two state universities in California that appear to have very detailed reports. Among others, Virginia Tech, MIT, and CMU have good detail.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that a lot of job placement stats are not a function of the school’s excellence in career planning and placement for their undergrads, nor of employer interest in the students at those schools. There is a lot of complexity behind the numbers. For example, students from more affluent and educated families are more likely to have the networking skills, professional connections and financial resources to do the kind of job search that will produce results quickly. Student bodies with a high percentage of these students are going to have excellent job placement stats. Likewise, schools that offer degrees in areas with better employment prospects (nursing, engineering, comp sci) are likely to have higher overall stats than schools that don’t (LACs for example). Schools that are located close to the job markets you care about are also likely to be better at placement just be being nearby: Engineers who study in Silicon Valley, for example, will have a better shot at finding certain types of tech jobs than engineers who like in cities without the local industrial base - and the alumni network that goes with it. </p>
<p>You need to dig quite a bit if you want to get meaningful information and I doubt raw stats are going to tell you much.</p>
<p>“Cal Poly’s Graduate Placement Statistics Improved Yet Again in 2010-11. SAN LUIS OBISPO – Showing better employment results than the national average, more than nine out of every 10 graduates from Cal Poly’s class of 2010-11 are either employed or in grad school, according to the results of a survey recently released by the university’s Career Services office.”</p>
<p>I really don’t know about any other school as I stopped tracking it when my kid chose Cal Poly SLO. I also have anecdotal info as well. It appears that the proactive kids with the best grades and activities get the best jobs and get them prior to graduation. Of my son’s colleagues, the ones that did internships were most likely to get hired prior to graduation. In addition to that, the ones that were involved in a career related club or outside club also got hired first. My kid is only a first quarter sophomore and was just interviewed by Apple for an internship because a new hire at Apple from his club recommended him to an internal recruiter. For networking follow M’s Mom post above – this is critically important in finding a job.</p>
<p>Bottom line advice: Begin preparing for a job post graduation the moment that you arrive on campus. Take the classes you need to impress employers, actively go for internships and career related jobs every summer, and join clubs – at least two of them. For example join one career related club and one passion outside activity related club (or a frat if that is your thing). For an engineer, a career related club might be one that builds prototype vehicles or races concrete canoes. For a business major, there might be an entrepreneurship club or one that focuses on stock trading games/strategies, etc. An outside related club can be karate, rugby, lacrosse, photography, rock climbing, surfing, etc. I got my first professional job through karate connections – I was on the UofA karate team. It is well known that college lacrosse is huge in financial services networks and Wall Street.</p>
<p>Also, do something extraordinary at least once in you college career – something like an overseas stint with engineers without borders to Thailand or Africa, etc.</p>
<p>Make sure to be a stand out and you will have a great job at graduation.</p>
<p>By the way, this kind of networking and effort never stops. After graduating and long into your career these skills will be essential for you to stay employed. You can never stop prospecting. Even when you are settled and happy in a position you still need to be out there interviewing a few times a year just in case there are layoffs, mergers with competitors, management changes or just better opportunities. There are no longer any “home teams” and staying with one company for your entire career is rare if not impossible in today’s ever evolving environment. The lifespan for a company is getting shorter and shorter as time progresses. So, retiring with the company that first hires you is close to inconceivable – your career will most likely outlive your company no matter how big they are. Look at the airlines, Kodak, Blockbuster, most internet start-ups, etc. Cultivate yourself as a “free agent” that can easily change employers at will. Either that or create your own job security and start you own firm. That is what I did.</p>