While the job market remains stiff for many undergraduate students, finding work is getting easier for those with a doctoral degree from Penn.
"Doctoral candidates have been very successful in obtaining academic jobs, as well as in various other fields," Associate Director of Career Services Genny Dunne said.
In accordance with the annual Career Services surveys on post-graduate jobs, most advanced-degree students have been very successful with finding work upon graduation.
"I do not think that things have changed much [in terms of employment rates] in the last year," Director of Career Services Patricia Rose said. "We follow doctoral graduates for six months following graduation, and it seems that most have been having success in finding jobs."
In terms of the MBA program, 90 percent of Wharton graduate students received job offers upon graduation, while 88 percent accepted their offers. This is up from last year's employment rate of 82 percent.
"This is due to an improving market for MBAs over the past few years," Associate Director of MBA Career Management Chris Higgins said. "We have definitely seen an increase in the number of offers from a variety of companies. I believe these companies feel more confident to hire a larger number of people."
Penn Law School graduates have also seen an increase in employment rates over the past year. Of the 239 students who graduated, 99.6 percent found post-graduation jobs. This is in comparison with last year's rate of 98.3 percent.
"Law School job offer rates are always very high, but this does not necessarily mean that everyone got the job they wanted," Career Planning and Placement Co-Director Diane Downs said. "Law is a trade industry, and there are a large amount of positions, even if it's not the one you want. Ultimately, we see a great deal of success."
Although these post-doctoral employment rates have been improving in the past several years, there are some issues with the surveys that are completed by the doctoral students.
"We don't normally get a huge response from our surveys," Rose said.
"The surveys are not always reliable, because it depends on who responds to it. They are not always statistically significant," Dunne said.
