In a fall letter to MIT alumni, President Sally Kornbluth wrote: “[T]he world has by no means been extra able to reward our graduates for what they know — and know the way to do.” Throughout her tenure main MIT Profession Advising and Skilled Growth (CAPD), Deborah Liverman has seen firsthand how — and the way properly — MIT undergraduate and graduate college students leverage their training to make an impression across the globe in academia, trade, entrepreneurship, medication, authorities and nonprofits, and different professions. Right here, Liverman shares her observations about tendencies in college students’ profession paths and the complexities of the job market they have to navigate alongside the way in which.
Q: How do our college students fare once they graduate from MIT?
A: We routinely survey our undergraduates and graduate college students to trace post-graduation outcomes, so happily we now have a wealth of information. And finally, this allows us to remain on prime of modifications from 12 months to 12 months and to serve our college students higher.
The quick reply is that our college students fare exceptionally properly once they depart the Institute! In our 2023 Graduating Scholar Survey, which is an exit survey for bachelor’s diploma and grasp’s diploma college students, 49 % of bachelor’s respondents and 79 % of grasp’s respondents entered the workforce after graduating, and 43 % and 14 % began graduate faculty packages, respectively. Amongst these searching for quick employment, 92 % of bachelor’s and 87 % of grasp’s diploma college students reported acquiring a job inside three months of commencement.
What’s notable, and albeit, fantastic, is that these two cohorts actually took benefit of the wealthy ecosystem of experiential studying alternatives we now have at MIT. Nearly all of Class of 2023 seniors participated in some type of experiential studying earlier than commencement: 94 % of them had a UROP [Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program], 75 % interned, 66 % taught or tutored, and 38 % engaged with or mentored at campus makerspaces. Amongst grasp’s diploma graduates in 2023, 56 % interned, 45 % taught or tutored, and 30 % took half in entrepreneurial ventures or actions. About 47 % of bachelor’s graduates stated {that a} earlier internship or externship led to the supply that they accepted, and 46 % of grasp’s graduates are a founding member of an organization.
We conduct a separate survey for doctoral college students. I believe there’s a typical misperception that almost all of our PhD college students go into academia. However a large portion select to not keep within the academy. In keeping with our 2024 Doctoral Exit Survey, 41 % of graduates deliberate to enter trade. As of the survey date, of those that have been occurring to employment, 76 % had signed a contract or made a particular dedication to a postdoc or different work, and solely 9 % have been searching for a place however had no particular prospects.
A cohort of scholars, in addition to some alumni, work with CAPD’s Prehealth Advising employees to use for medical faculty. Final 12 months we supported 73 college students and alumni consisting of 25 undergrads, eight graduate college students, and 40 alumni, with an acceptance charge of 79 % — properly above the nationwide charge of 41 %.
Q: How does CAPD work with college students and postdocs to domesticate their skilled growth and assist them consider their profession choices?
A: As you may count on, the profession and graduate faculty panorama is consistently altering. In flip, CAPD strives to repeatedly evolve, in order that we will finest assist and put together our college students. It definitely retains us on our ft!
One of many issues we now have modified not too long ago is our basic strategy to working with college students. We migrated our advising mannequin from a major-specific focus to as an alternative heart on profession curiosity areas. That enables us to prioritize abilities and use a cross-disciplinary strategy to advising college students. So when an advisor sits down (or Zooms) with a scholar, that one-on-one session creates loads of area to debate a scholar’s particular person values, targets, and different career-decision influencing elements.
I’d say that one other space we now have been closely centered on is offering new methods for college students to discover careers. To that finish, we developed two roles — an assistant director of profession exploration and an assistant director of profession prototype — to assist new initiatives. And we offer profession exploration fellowships and grants for undergraduate and graduate college students in order that they’ll discover fields that could be area of interest to MIT.
Profession exploration is admittedly vital, however we need to meet college students and postdocs the place they’re. We all know they’re extremely busy at MIT, so our aim is to offer quite a lot of codecs to make that potential, from a one-hour workshop or speaker, to a daylong shadowing expertise, or a longer-term internship. For instance, we partnered with departments to create the Profession Exploration Collection and the Infinite Careers speaker sequence, the place we present college students numerous avenues to get to a profession. We’ve additionally created extra alternatives to work together with alumni or different employers by means of one-day shadowing alternatives, micro-internships, internships, and employer espresso chats. The Prehealth Advising program I discussed earlier than affords many avenues to discover the sector of drugs, so college students can actually make knowledgeable choices concerning the path they need to pursue.
We’re additionally our current programming to establish alternatives to construct in profession exploration, such because the Fall Profession Honest. We’ve been engaged on figuring out employers who’re open to having profession exploration conversations with — or hiring — first-year undergraduates, with entry to those employers half-hour earlier than the beginning of the honest. This 12 months, the honest drew 4,400 candidates (college students, postdocs, and alumni) and 180 employers, so it’s a fantastic alternative to leverage an occasion we have already got in place and make it much more fruitful for each college students and employers.
I do need to underscore that profession exploration is simply as vital for graduate college students as it’s for undergraduates. Within the doctoral exit survey I discussed, 37 % of 2024 graduates stated that they had modified their thoughts about the kind of employer for whom they anticipated to work since getting into their graduate program, and 38 % had modified their thoughts about the kind of place they anticipated to have. CAPD has developed exploration programming geared particularly for them, such because the CHAOS Course of and our Graduate Scholar Skilled Growth choices.
Q: What sorts of tendencies are you seeing within the present job market? And as college students obtain job affords, how do they weigh elements like the moral concerns of working for a sure firm or trade, the political panorama within the U.S. and overseas, the local weather impression of a sure firm or trade, or different points?
A: Properly, one notable development is simply the sheer quantity of job functions. With platforms like LinkedIn’s Straightforward Apply, it’s simpler for job seekers to use to tons of of jobs without delay. Employers and organizations have extra candidates, so candidates need to do extra to face out. Corporations that, prior to now, have needed to search out candidates are actually deciding one of the best use of their recruiting efforts.
I’d say the present job market is blended. MIT college students, graduates, and postdocs have skilled delayed job affords and beginning dates pushed again in consulting and a few tech companies. Corporations are being intentional about recruiting and hiring school graduates. So college students have to maintain an open thoughts and never have their coronary heart set on a selected employer. And if that employer isn’t hiring, then they could need to optimize their job search and take into account different alternatives the place they’ll achieve expertise.
On a extra granular degree, we do see tendencies in sure fields. Biotech has had a tricky 12 months, however there’s an uptick in alternatives in authorities, area, aerospace, and within the local weather/sustainability and vitality sectors. Corporations are more and more adopting AI of their enterprise practices, in order that they’re hiring in that space. And monetary providers is a sizzling marketplace for MIT candidates with sturdy technical abilities.
As for a way a scholar evaluates a job supply, in response to the Graduating Scholar Survey, college students have a look at many elements, together with the job content material, match with the employer’s tradition, alternative for profession development, and naturally wage. Nonetheless, college students are additionally occupied with exploring how a corporation suits with their values.
CAPD offers numerous alternatives and assets to assist them zero in on what issues most to them, from on-demand assets to one-on-one classes with our advisors. As they analysis potential firms, we encourage them to take advantage of profession gala’s and recruiting occasions. All through the educational 12 months, MIT hosts and collaborates on over a dozen profession gala’s and huge recruiting occasions. Corporations are invited primarily based on MIT candidates’ pursuits. The number of alternatives means college students can join with totally different industries, discover careers, and apply to internships, jobs and analysis alternatives.
We additionally advocate that they take full benefit of MIT’s curated occasion of Handshake, a web-based recruiting platform for larger training college students and alumni. CAPD has collaborated with workplaces and teams to create filters and identifiers in Handshake to assist candidates resolve what’s vital to them, corresponding to an organization’s dedication to inclusive practices or their sustainability initiatives.
As advisors, we encourage every scholar to consider which elements are vital for them when evaluating job affords and decide if an employer aligns with their values and targets. And we encourage and honor every scholar’s proper to incorporate these values and targets of their profession decision-making course of. Accepting a job is a really private resolution, and we’re right here to assist every scholar each step of the way in which.