2017-2018 First destination: Employment highlights
60% of respondents [N=2342 grads] reported employment as first destination after undergrad degree.
Employment includes:
- 3% U.S. military service.
- 1% Service work.
- 1% Self-employed or work in family-owned business.
- 55% All other employment and have offer.
View first destination by college or major: Select college or major to view full report for that population.
Over 1000 employers were reported by 2342 employed grads.
- VIEW list by undergrad major: Employers, job titles, locations.
On list, click on any heading to sort view. - Employers most-reported by grads:
- Single year view.
(includes links to view four prior years) - Multi-year summary.
- Single year view.
- The largest portion of employed grads, N=995, 26% of all respondents, report employment location in Virginia.
Employers reported by 10 or more grads:
- 56 in U.S. Army
- 54 at Deloitte
- 41 at Capital One
- 35 in U.S. Air Force
- 33 in U.S. Navy
- 31 at Accenture
- 29 at Booz Allen Hamilton
- 28 at Ernst & Young
- 28 at KPMG
- 28 at Virginia Tech
- 27 at General Motors
- 22 at Lockheed Martin
- 19 at U.S. Naval Air Systems Command
- 17 at Northrop Grumman
- 17 at U.S. Marine Corps
- 15 at Peace Corps
- 14 at IBM
- 14 at U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command
- 12 at Teach For America
- 13 at CGI
- 12 at PricewaterhouseCoopers
- 10 at Cisco Systems
- 10 at Esson Mobil
- 10 at Amazon
- 10 at Microsofft
Geographic employment locations:
How the 60% employed break down.
49 states + District of Columbia + 32 non-U.S. locations.
- 27% (N=1045) in Virginia
- 4% (N=172) no location given
- 4% (N=140) in North Carolina
- 3% (N=121) in Maryland
- 2% (N=81) in Washington, DC
- 1% (N=53) in Florida
- 1% (N=52) in New York
- 1% (N=50) in Texas
- 1% (N=45) in Georgia
- 1% (N=43) in California
- 1% (N=38) in Pennsylvania
- 1% (N=38) in Michigan
- 14% (N=526) other locations
- 1% (N=44) in non-U.S. locations
- 12% in other states
First job location image below for 2017-2018 grads, created by one of our Peer Career Advisors.
Survey states: "Which best describes the source of your first contact with the employer (organization, company, agency) whose job you accepted?"
Note this question does not ask about all the methods each graduate used. It is strictly about the source of the job the graduate accepted.
How employed grads found first job
- 28% Worked / volunteered w/ employer during college.
Number one source for nine of eleven years. Percentage mid-20s to 30%. - 25% Career fair.
Number two source for most recent four years. Percentage mid-teens to 25% for 14 years.
This source rises when active job recruiting by employers rises as a reflection of the economy.
This source varies widely by college. - 18% Networking.
Number one source five of 15 years.
Number two source for six years. Percentage in high teens to mid-20s for 15 years.
Networking is typically the number one source for three colleges: ALS, LAHS, and SCI. - Note that "Hokies4Hire" was used through 2017-2018 as the CPD job-posting and On-Campus Interviewing management system. It was replaced by Handshake for the 2018-2019 year.
- View job source for colleges and majors in full report: select college or major to view full report.
Survey states: We collect salary information only to show salary ranges and medians for colleges and for majors. We do not publish or reveal individual salary figures. To help us provide accurate data, please indicate your annual salary.
- VIEW SALARY DATA.
- For total university:
- 85% of employed grads reported salary.
- 15% of employed grads did not report salary.
- University median is $60,000. (same as 2016-2017)
(Up from $58K for 2015-2016 and 2014-2015)- Median shown when four or more individuals reported salary.
- 25th and 75th percentiles shown when 12 or more individuals reported salary.
- View university and college salary data.
- Select college to view major salary data.
Survey states:
Did your job offer include a signing bonus?
(yes/no)
If so, what was the amount?
- VIEW BONUS DATA.
- For total university:
- 88% of employed grads answered that question.
- 36% of respondents said offer included a bonus.
- 64% of respondents said they got no bonus.
- University bonus median is $5,000.
(Same as last four years.)- 25th percentile: $3K. (same as 2016-2017)
- 75th percentile: $8K. (up from 7K for 2016-2017)
- View university and college bonus data.
- Select college to view bonus data for majors.
Why we report median (the value in the middle) and not mean (the average): Median is more reliable because averages are skewed by outliers. Median provides a more realistic picture. Particularly with self-reported data, errors and inaccuracies occur, making averages more subject to being skewed.
Survey states:
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?
... college major?
JOB RELATED TO CAREER GOALS:
... and/or entry-level avenue to reach career goals:
- 75% very related. (low to high 70s for 8 years)
- 23% somewhat related.
- 2% not related.
JOB RELATED TO COLLEGE MAJOR:
- 68% very related. (low to high 60s for 8 years)
- 24% somewhat related.
- 8% not related.