First-Year Employment Outcomes of Psychology Baccalaureates: Relatedness, Preparedness, and Prospects

Abstract

Surveys of recent baccalaureate degree recipients confirmed earlier findings that, compared with other alumni, psychology baccalaureates ranked low on ratings of the relatedness of their current job to the major. Psychology baccalaureates also rated low on whether their education had prepared them for that job and enhanced their future prospects. Correlations across all majors suggested that employment relatedness predicted judgments of preparedness, and preparedness predicted future prospects. Comparable correlations for psychology majors suggested that they entered the job market with expectations similar to graduates of more occupationally oriented programs. We offer specific recommendations to prepare students for more satisfying outcomes in the postbaccalaureate job market.

Making an impact with alumni surveys

“…When assessing achievement, such surveys focus on job satisfaction and social or economic accomplishments that specific cohorts of graduates achieve. This approach also seeks to examine the connection between a college degree and self-reported measures of preparation for work (Borden and Rajecki, 2000;Midgen, 1987;Pike, 1994;Quereshi, 1988).…”

“…The goal of the survey was to reform curriculum to make it more responsive to the needs of employers. Many other programs, including educational administration and business departments, are using a similar approach to improve the quality of their programs and show their responsiveness to important external audiences (Borden and Rajecki, 2000;Bailey, Langdana, and Rotonda, 1997;Sheehan and Granrud, 1995;Ogletree, 1998).…”

Using alumni research to align program improvement with institutional accountability

“…Campus-level alumni survey results for a specific unit can also be benchmarked against results from several readily available national studies. Borden and Rajecki (2000) linked the results of IUPUI's alumni surveys for students who received a baccalaureate degree in psychology, with department-level results from other colleges and universities, as well as findings from the National Center for Education Statistics survey of recent college graduates (Steinberg, 1994). The results of this analysis informed psychology department efforts to create undergraduate student tracks linked to specific career orientations and revise curricular and career advising support materials provided to psychology majors.…”

Undergraduate Summer Research Programs and Graduate School Outcomes

“…Alumni surveys have provided outcome data on rates of enrollment in and completion of advanced degree programs for many years (Barnette, 1961;Borden & Rajecki, 2000;Titley, 1978;Ware & Meyer, 1981).…”