We’ve been hearing for over a year now about how bad the economy is, and now that the recovery seems to have started every one assures us it is going to be a SLOW, SLOW, SLOW one. With all the bad news, many students are wondering if they will every find a job.
We’ve recently completed the Career Plans Survey for the Wharton Undergraduate Class of 2009 which provides a pretty thorough view of how last year’s class did. Happily, the news was mostly good. Even with the very difficult economy, you will see from the survey that Wharton students landed interesting opportunities in both the working world and graduate school. (For full disclosure, it is true that our “still seeking” rate as of August did rise to 9.2% from 5.7% the year before which of course is a reflection of the tight economy, but fortunately most students did land interesting positions.)
You can view the company, industry and region where students accepted jobs as well as average salaries broken down by job type and industry. This is a great resource when you are negotiating offers. You can also review surveys back to 2005 to see hiring trends and other useful information.
A few interesting facts about the Class of 2009:
• The average starting base salary was $59,852. The range was $20,000 – $100,000.
• 82.8% of respondents were employed and 6.6% planned to go directly to graduate or professional school.
• The average student had 11.7 first-round interviews and received 1.7 job offers .
You can access the Wharton undergraduate career surveys page here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/wharton/surveys.html
Career plans surveys for the other undergraduate schools are in progress and will be released in the future.
