There is one thing students probably did not learn at the Career Fair-they will most likely change jobs at least once within five years of graduation.
According to the first-annual "Five Year Out" survey, conducted by Sheila Curran, Fannie Mitchell executive director of the Career Center, initial job satisfaction seems to have been short-lived for many of the young professionals of the Class of 2001.
Though 60 percent of the graduates said they were happy with their career choice just after graduation, 36 percent changed jobs within a year and 43 percent have changed career fields at least once in the past five years. Most alumni said they switched because their first job was "not a good fit."
"Don't hyperventilate about your first job because it won't be your only job or career," Curran said.
The study reported that 76 percent of the Class of 2001 went directly into the work world, 11.6 percent enrolled in a graduate program, 5.7 percent went to law school and 5.3 percent began medical school. Even if they did not have a job lined up at graduation, 75 percent of students who wanted to be employed found work within six months of graduation.
"One- to two-year positions are more common now," Curran said. "Students are taking time off before going to law or medical school."
This trend follows the traditional plan of business school applicants, who work before starting their specialized professional graduate education.
Alumni accept short-term positions-most -commonly in education abroad, Teach for America, the Peace Corps or investment banking-because they do not know what they want to do in the long term, Curran said.
In the past, recent graduates who were reluctant to commit to a specific field went to graduate school to delay entering the workforce, she said. But today the cost of higher education has been going up much faster than the rate of inflation.
Five hundred-forty members of the Class of 2001 responded to the survey, which had a 42-percent response rate. They revealed facets of their career life, such as their initial positions, further education, how they found their jobs and Duke's influence on their job performance.
Daniel Miller, Trinity '07, works on the trading floor in an investment banking position for Countrywide Securities Corporation in New York City, following a fairly traditional route for recent Duke graduates.
Miller came to Duke on a soccer scholarship and expected to play professional soccer, but decided junior year that he would have to look to other careers instead. He said competitive pressures from his peers drew him toward investment banking.
Miller added, however, that Duke's relatively intense social atmosphere compared to peer institutions--such as Harvard and Yale universities-has helped him adjust more easily to nonacademic life.
"There are certain skills you learn at Duke that don't show up on the transcript that help you become successful," he said.
Unlike Miller, Sarah Chasnovitz, Trinity '01, chose to follow a less-traveled path after graduation-to South Africa.
"I spent a year doing documentary work with families living in informal settlements outside Cape Town," she explained.
Even though Chasnovitz enjoyed her documentary work, she eventually decided to attend graduate school.
"I finished up [law school] last summer, and now I'm in my first legal job as a law clerk to a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the [District of Columbia] Circuit," she said.
During law school, she and another Duke graduate started Zebra Crossings, a company that imports fair-trade goods from the areas she documented in Africa.
"Students may feel that there are only three or four different successful careers, but alumni quickly find out that the scope of opportunity is much wider," Curran said.
Kathryn Bradwell, Trinity '02, currently works in New York City with a publishing company, but said the exceedingly corporate nature of the business surprised her, so she now attends interior-design school as well.
Like Bradwell, many of the members of the Class of 2001 eventually decided to pursue higher education after several years in the workforce-the figure rose from 26.6 percent at graduation to 64.8 percent five years later.
"Students don't give themselves a chance to figure out who they are," Curran said. "Most premeds don't figure out they don't want to be a doctor until they take organic chemistry. They have wasted a lot of time when they could have been exploring."
She said most alumni regret putting themselves in "career boxes" too early, rather than sufficiently soul-searching as an undergraduate.
"Looking back on my time [at Duke], I think I should have given in to the exploration urge a bit more," Chasnovitz said.
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