Hey everyone — I’m an editor with the San Francisco Chronicle’s California College Guide.
In our last post, we talked about looking at ‘return-on-investment’ data to help create your college list. One commenter mentioned their student looked at ROI not for picking colleges, but rather for picking a major. Instead of using the salary as the key ROI indicator, they looked at employment rates upon graduation.
(Why are we posting here? The Chronicle has partnered with College Confidential to bring the information from our College Guide to this platform. We’re looking to hear more about how people are searching for colleges in California, and what kinds of information and tools are the most important to you.)
With this in mind, we’re hoping to kickstart a convo today about what happens after graduation: where University of California alumni actually end up working.
Over 70% of UC alumni live and work in California. While the most common employer for graduates is UC schools, California-based companies like Google and Kaiser Permanente hire hundreds of graduates from across the nine schools.
In the section of our guide on where UC alumni land jobs, we analyze data from alumni career pathways. The data was sourced from Lightcast, a company which collects data on alum’s self-reported employers and job titles on LinkedIn and other public platforms.
What did we find? Based on the data:
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Over 70% of UC graduates live and work in California.
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The most common employer of UC alumni is the UC system itself, but familiar big-name firms like Google, Amazon, and Kaiser Permanente also hire hundreds across multiple campuses.
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Some campuses have been especially popular with certain employers:
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At UC Berkeley, the top employer for five years post-graduation is Google
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At UC Davis, it’s Kaiser Permanente
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At UCLA, Amazon ranks highest
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UC Irvine also shows Kaiser in that lead role
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Alumni careers over time:
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Two years post-grad, the most common job title UC alumni hold is software engineer.
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By five years, their job titles tend to evolve into roles such as product managers, registered nurses, or law clerks—reflecting changes or progression in their careers.
What do you think?
We’d love to hear how you and your family think about career outcomes when considering college options.
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Is knowing which companies hire UC grads useful as part of your college search process?
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Does knowing the early career trajectory of UC grads help inform your college decision?
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Are you interested in regional breakdowns (Bay Area vs. Southern California)?
Thanks for reading. You can check the San Francisco Chronicle’s definitive guide to California colleges here.
