A new survey published by the Office of Career Strategy found that the plurality of Yale graduates in the class of 2018 joined three industries: Financial Services, Education and Consulting, which garnered 17.4, 15.5 and 13.3 percent of graduates respectively.
The survey, titled “First Destination Report: Class of 2018,” assessed where Yalies went after graduating this May. The survey got an 87.4 percent response rate. Of the respondents, 85.6 percent said that their job was related to their Yale major in some manner. OCS Director Jeanine Dames said that the survey indicated that the job market for Yalies was “very strong.”
Dames pointed out that the average starting salary for a Yalie rose by $775 in the past year — up to $65,642 from $64,867 in 2017. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the national average starting salary for the class of 2018 was $50,004.
More than two-thirds of respondents — 67.6 percent — reported a salary of $50,000 or more. 44 percent reported a salary of $70,000 or more, while 10.9 percent reported a starting salary of $100,000 or more. Almost 10 percent of students reported negotiating their salaries.
“We really encourage students to negotiate their starting salaries,” explained Dames, adding that OCS has “a lot of tools” on its website that give alums negotiation strategies.
Dames said that seeing these high salary numbers was especially interesting given that 35.4 percent of respondents who went into the workforce took positions in the public sector, which are usually not thought of as high-paying jobs.
60 percent of students entering the workforce secured their full-time position in the spring of their senior year or later. Dames pointed out that in previous years, more graduates were securing their jobs earlier in the year, adding that the change occurred because several large companies now recruit people later.
Dames said she supported the change because it allowed for more “freedom for students to explore as many options as possible.”
80 percent of the respondents said they planned to go to graduate school within five years after leaving Yale and 44 percent are already pursuing a master’s degree — the highest percentage of students doing so immediately after college since OCS began collecting first destination data in 2013.
The top first employers for Yale graduates in the class of 2018 include consulting companies like Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company and technology firms — like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. For the first time since Yale has been tracking this data, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is among the top 10 first employers for Yale graduates.
Yale is the most common first employer for graduates. This year, the university hired 60 graduates.
Skakel McCooey | skakel.mccooey@yale.edu