Is the location of your college a big factor in deciding that’s where you’ll work?
Location is certainly a factor. Your college will almost certainly have more alumni and recruiting in its geographic region. Campus career fairs will host a lot of local companies. How far exactly your “region” extends really depends on your University. Some schools may have a strong network just in their state; some have a strong network that extends across several states.
There will still be opportunities to work elsewhere, it just depends on how you direct your job search and who you can meet.
Not really but it depends on the school. If it had the reputation in its field, employer will send HR to scout. Otherwise it would be much easier to hire someone local.
It’s a loaded question, because that depends on whether or not you, a prospective job seeker, wants to work near the location of your college. Plenty of students have their sights set on moving elsewhere after college.
A lot of my high school classmates who ended up going to school within the region just ended up staying nearby (probably about 90% of my class). This was the same for a lot of graduates when I spent my freshman year at Penn State. However when I attended NYU, I suddenly had classmates traveling all over the world for work upon graduation.
As mentioned above, the majority of colleges have relationships with nearby employers which obviously provides a lot of jobs for graduates. A lot more opportunities are available for graduates of top schools so as @DrGoogle mentioned, you will have recruiters from across the nation there to sell their firms to you as the one to work for. If you are in this situation, you often have the ability to list your location preferences during the interview process.
In short, no it doesn’t mean that’s where you will work, but the majority of people are safe and would rather stay close to friends, family, etc. and in so end up staying near where they went to school.
I think it kind of depends on how well known your school is outside of your geographic location, but it is certainly possible for you to get a job outside your college’s location if you’re motivated to. A lot of people I know chose to stay in the Midwest after graduation due to proximity of family. But I also know people who moved to Seattle, Texas, and California because that’s where they wanted to go.