Career Services @ Virginia Tech
Smith Career Center (0128)
Corner of Washington Street & West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, VA  24061
phone 540-231-6241      fax 540-231-3293      www.career.vt.edu
Post-Graduation Report: 2007-2008 bachelor's degree graduates
Report for: Whole University
Choose view: major / college / whole university
View for another year:     2006-2007     2005-2006     2004-2005     2003-2004     Prior Years
 
Results compiled: 3/31/2009
 
What graduates are doing after graduation:
Status up to 6 months following degree completion
  4938   Total graduates in Whole University
  3413 69% Respondents
TAKING TIME OFF after graduation (more than 1 month, less than 1 year)
After graduation, but before employment or graduate school, are you taking time off - for more than one month, but less than one year - to travel, do service work, or do other recreational or family activities?
  1627 48%  No
  1424 42%  Yes, one to less than three full months
  216 6%  Yes, three to less than six full months
  138 4%  Yes, six months to less than a full year
PLANS or STATUS AFTER GRADUATION
Which best describes your plans or situation after graduation (and after taking time off, if you are doing so)?
  69 2%  1. Doing a year or more of service work (such as with Peace Corps).
  68 2%  2. Self-employed or working in a family-owned business.
  70 2%  3. Looking at options: seeking employment and applying to graduate or professional school.
  85 2%  4. Plan to seek employment, but have not yet started to job-hunt.
  344 10%  5. Currently seeking employment, but don't yet have a job offer.
  84 2%  6. Have a job offer (or offers), but have not yet decided to accept.
  1813 53%  7. Have a job offer (or offers), and have accepted or will accept.
  155 5%  8. Plan to attend graduate or professional school (or other additional education) full time, but details not firm yet.
  714 21%  9. Have accepted full-time admission to graduate or professional school (or other additional education).
  7 0%  10. Other
       
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Graduate or professional school:
  869 26% Plan to attend OR have accepted admission (Plans/status 8. & 9. above)
       
GRADUATE or PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL (or other) DEGREES being pursued
  View list showing degree / program / institution / location
       
ADVICE SOURCES about graduate or professional school (check ALL that apply)
From what sources did you seek advice about graduate or professional school (or other additional education)?
  159 21%  Print information such as books or magazines.
  502 67%  Web sites / online information.
  409 55%  Professors at Virginia Tech.
  308 41%  Academic advisors at Virginia Tech.
  77 10%  Pre-professional school advisors at Virginia Tech.
  391 52%  People who work in the field or profession I'd like to pursue.
  351 47%  Parents and/or other adult relatives or family friends.
  321 43%  Peers such as friends and/or brothers or sisters.
  61 8%  Career Services.
  200 27%  Faculty or staff at graduate or professional schools you considered.
  20 3%  Other
       
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Employment:
  1950 57% Number / percent of respondents reporting they are employed (Plans/status 1., 2. & 7. above)
     

Not all grads who reported employment indicated whether employment is full- or part-time. Those who did indicate this are as follows:

  1770 96%  Number / percent of total employed who are employed full-time
  77 4%  Number / percent of total employed who are employed part-time
       
EMPLOYERS, JOB TITLES, LOCATIONS
  View list showing undergraduate major, name of employing organization, job title, and location
       
SALARY DATA for graduates who accepted FULL-TIME employment
Those with full-time employment (but not long-term service work) were asked to state annual salary; survey stated that we collect salary information only to show ranges and averages for colleges and for majors; we don't publish individual salaries.
  1613 83%  Number / percent of employed reporting salaries
      25th percentile (25% make this amount or less): $37,500
  Median: 50th percentile (50% make this amount or less; 50% make more): $48,000
      75th percentile (75% make this amount or less; 25% make more): $56,000
      (Percentiles not reported if fewer than 12 graduates reported salary)
 
BONUS w/JOB OFFER
Did your job offer include a signing bonus?
  1686 86%  Number / percent of employed who reported whether or not they received bonuses
  529 31%  Yes
  1157 69%  No
      25th percentile (25% of bonuses were this amount or less): $2,000
  Median: 50th percentile (50% of bonuses were this amount or less; 50% make more): $3,000
      75th percentile (75% of bonuses were this amount or less; 25% make more): $5,000
      (Percentiles not reported if fewer than 12 graduates reported a bonus)
       
Employment RELATED to CAREER GOALS
Do you consider your job to be related to your career goals and/or to be an entry-level avenue to reach your career goals?
  1204 73%  VERY related to career goals
  437 27%  SOMEWHAT related to career goals
  0 0%  NOT related to career goals
Employment RELATED to MAJOR
Do you consider your job to be related to your college major?
  1156 64%  VERY related to major
  479 27%  SOMEWHAT related to major
  167 9%  NOT related to major
       
JOB / EMPLOYER SOURCE
Which best describes the source of your first contact with the employer (organization, company, agency) whose job you accepted?
  403 23%  Worked for this employer (person or organization) in the past (through volunteer work, a part-time job, summer job, internship, co-op, undergraduate research project or other type of work relationship).
  Referral or contact through:
  74 4%  Current or former employer.
  48 3%  Professor or other faculty or staff member in your department.
  219 12%  Friend or family member.
  32 2%  Alumnus/alumna (a graduate) of Virginia Tech.
  17 1%  Fellow member of club, sorority or fraternity to which you belong.
  37 2%  E-mail or posted information from your academic department.
  381 21%  Career fair or job fair.
  204 11%  On-Campus Interviewing Program or Hokies4Hire.
  127 7%  The employer (organization, company, agency) web site.
  124 7%  Web site for job seekers (such as Monster.com, on-line newspaper classifieds, etc.).
  13 1%  Print publication (newspaper, etc.).
  104 6%  Other
       
WHEN JOB SEARCH STARTED
About when did you actively start your job search for your post-graduation job?
(Asked of employed graduates and those with an offer or offers.)
  December 2007 graduates
  67 20%  During spring semester 2007 (more than 6 months prior to degree completion)
  58 17%  Summer 2007 (4-6 months prior to degree completion)
  129 39%  September or October 2007 (2-3 months prior to degree completion)
  36 11%  November or December 2007 (0-1 month prior to degree completion)
  36 11%  January, February or March 2008 (0-3 months after degree completion)
  6 2%  After March 2008 (4 or more months after degree completion)
  0 0%  Other
  May - summer 2008 graduates
  490 39%  Between July and October 2007 (more than 6 months prior to May commencement)
  343 27%  Between November 2007 and January 2008 (4-6 months prior to May commencement)
  247 20%  February or March 2008 (2-3 months prior to May commencement)
  84 7%  April or May 2008, prior to May commencement (0-1 month prior to commencement)
  90 7%  May commencement to August 2008 (0-3 months after commencement)
  9 1%  September 2008 or after (4 or more months after May commencement)
  0 0%  Other
       
NUMBER OF JOB OFFERS
To the best of your recollection, how many job offers have you received?
(Asked of employed graduates and those with an offer or offers.)
  718 39%  One
  539 29%  Two
  341 18%  Three
  127 7%  Four
  124 7%  Five or more
       
WHEN OFFER RECEIVED
About when did you receive the job offer you accepted?
  December 2007 graduates
  76 24%  Before September 2007
  50 16%  September or October 2007
  123 39%  November or December 2007
  52 17%  January, February or March 2008
  12 4%  After March 2008
  0 0%  Other
  May - summer 2008 graduates
  500 45%  Before January 2008
  185 17%  January 2008 through Spring Break 2008
  290 26%  After Spring Break 2008 - May 2008
  114 10%  June, July or August 2008
  27 2%  After August 2008
  0 0%  Other
       
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Career-related learning and experience during college:
CAREER-RELATED EXPERIENCE DURING COLLEGE
Did you have any kind of career-related experience prior to graduation (types listed)?
  2376 90%  Yes
  267 10%  No
TYPES OF CAREER-RELATED EXPERIENCE (check ALL that apply)
  2367 69% Respondents to this question: number and percent of total respondents
What kind of experience did you have? (check ALL that apply)
  863 36%  Volunteer work
  1020 43%  Part-time job
  1318 56%  Summer job
  369 16%  Unpaid internship
  1212 51%  Paid internship
  173 7%  Co-op
  438 19%  Undergraduate research
  259 11%  Field study
  109 5%  Other
       
EXTENT to which graduates LEARNED JOB SEARCH SKILLS
Which best describes the extent to which you learned job search skills during college? (Such as how to write your resume and job-search correspondence, interviewing skills, professionalism skills, and where to look for jobs?)
  I learned...
  1049 41%  Most job search skills I needed.
  1222 48%  Some job search skills, but not all I needed to know.
  278 11%  Nothing or very little.
       
SOURCES of LEARNING JOB SEARCH SKILLS (check ALL that apply)
If you did learn job search skills, where do you believe you learned them? Please check all that apply.
  1106 48%  Career Services programs, publications, web site, advising, workshops, etc.
  974 43%  Academic-credit course or seminar in your major department or college.
  127 6%  Not-for-credit programs or seminars in your major department or college.
  1055 46%  Advisors, professors or staff in your major department or college.
  269 12%  Other faculty or staff in the university, but not in your major department or college.
  1264 55%  Parents and/or other adult relatives or family friends.
  1123 49%  Peers such as friends and/or brothers or sisters.
  766 33%  Web sites with job search advice (other than Career Services).
  342 15%  Books, magazines or other print materials.
  113 5%  Other
       
USED CAREER SERVICES during college
As best as you can recall, did you use any of Career Services' resources while in college?
(Could include, but not limited to: advising, web site, publication, resource library, presentations, programs, co-op program, on-campus interviewing, eRecruiting, mock interview, help with career decision-making, seeking experience, planning for graduate school, job search, etc.)
  500 19%  Never
  292 11%  Don't recall or unsure
  1498 57%  Yes, but not often
  337 13%  Yes, often
       
WOULD YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY? IF SO, WHAT?
If you had to do it over again, is there anything related to planning for life after college that you would do differently?
  1249 48%  No. For the most part, I did what I needed to do to achieve my goals.
  1366 52%  Yes. I wish I had done something differently.
If yes, please check ALL that apply.
  I wish I had...
  545 40% 

Learned more about graduate or professional school earlier.

  742 54%  Gotten more experience related to my major or career goals.
  665 49%  Learned more about career options and/or learned earlier.
  542 40%  Started my job search earlier.
  326 24%  Used more or different job search resources.
  541 40%  Asked professors and/or other advisors for advice (more often, earlier, or at all).
  121 9%  Other
   
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Questions Copyright Career Services