N	%
Architecture and Engineering Occupations	42	20.0
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations	4	1.9
Business and Financial Operations Occupations	21	10.0
Computer and Mathematical Occupations	28	13.3
Construction and Extraction Occupations	2	1.0
Education, Training, and Library Occupations	10	4.8
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations	6	2.9
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations	4	1.9
Health Care Practitioners and Technical Occupations	3	1.4
Health Care Support Occupations	4	1.9
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations	4	1.9
Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	4	1.9
Management Occupations	27	12.9
Military Specific Occupations	1	0.5
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	2	1.0
Personal Care and Service Occupations	1	0.5
Production Occupations	7	3.3
Protective Service Occupations	1	0.5
Sales and Related Occupations	21	10.0
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations	1	0.5
Other	14	6.7
Not sure	3	1.4

Job Location
While NC State graduates will be employed across the nation, more than 75 percent of those students having accepted a full-time job say they will be working in North Carolina, with 50 percent staying in the Triangle.

Table 4: Job Location

	N	%
North Carolina	163	77.3
Virginia	7	3.3
Florida	5	2.4
Georgia	4	1.9
California	3	1.4
District of Columbia	2	0.9
Illinois	2	0.9
Maryland	2	0.9
Ohio	2	0.9
South Carolina	2	0.9
Washington	2	0.9
Connecticut	1	0.5
Indiana	1	0.5
Iowa	1	0.5
New Hampshire	1	0.5
Oregon	1	0.5
Pennsylvania	1	0.5
Tennessee	1	0.5
Texas	1	0.5
Wyoming	1	0.5
Outside United States	1	0.5
Not sure	7	3.3

Table 5: Job Location (In and Out of the Triangle)*

Inside/Outside Triangle	N	%
Triangle	97	49.2
Other NC	60	30.5
Outside NC	40	20.3

*Some respondents did not provide the name of the city in which they would be working.

Compensation
The large majority of those accepting full-time employment said they would be paid by salary only (83%), and another 9 percent will be getting salary with commission. Of the students saying they would be paid some other way, the majority will be paid hourly. The average starting annual salary for these full-time employees is $45,799. About 15 percent said they would be earning $30,000 or less (17%), and a similar number said they would be earning more than $60,000 per year (16%).

Employers are split on offering relocation packages, with about one-fourth of students saying they were offered a relocation package (27%) and the same number saying they were not (28%). (The remaining students responded "not applicable," presumably because they were not relocating.)

Table 6: Type of Compensation

	N	%
Salary only	174	82.9
Salary with commission	19	9.0
Commission only	2	1.0
Other	15	7.1

Table 7: Salary

(Average salary = $45,799)	N	%
$30,000 or less	28	17.2
$30,001-$40,000	32	19.6
$40,001-$50,000	33	20.2
$50,001-$60,000	44	27.0
greater than $60,000	26	16.0

Table 8: Relocation Package

	N	%
Yes	56	26.8
No	58	27.8
Not applicable	95	45.5

Satisfaction with Job
Students having accepted full-time positions were asked how satisfied they were with the position they had accepted. Those with positions related to their major field of study were more likely than those who accepted positions outside their field to say they are very satisfied with their job (55% vs. 33%, respectively). However, satisfaction among all those getting a full-time job is high, with over 90 percent saying they are satisfied (52%) or very satisfied (40%) with the position they accepted.

Table 9: Satisfaction with Job

	Satisfaction with job
	Very Satisfied	Satisfied	Neutral	Dissatisfied	Very Dissatisfied
	54.9%	39.6%	5.5%	.	.
Have accepted FT job related to my field (N=182)
Have accepted FT job not related to my field (N=27)	33.3%	40.7%	18.5%	3.7%	3.7%
Satisfaction overall (N=209)	52.2%	39.7%	7.2%	0.5%	0.5%

Resources Used in Locating Job
Respondents were asked to select from a list of various resources that were helpful in locating and/or getting the full-time position they accepted. Although students appear to be relying on a wide range of resources to find a job, the most common resource cited was an internship/externship, with almost 40 percent of students saying this experience was helpful. More than 20 percent of the students securing full-time employment said that on-campus resources such as on-campus interviewing/career fair (27%), a campus career center (22%), and having applied for a job via ePack (21%) were helpful. Similar numbers gave credit to more personal connections, such as family, friend, classmates, co-workers (25%), and personal connections within the company (23%).

Table 10: Helpful Resources*

Resource	Yes - Was Helpful
	N	%
Internship/Externship	83	38.1
On-campus interviewing or career fair	58	26.6
Family/friends/classmates/co-workers	54	24.8
Personal connection(s) within the company	51	23.4
Campus Career Center	48	22.0
Applied for job via ePack	46	21.1
Co-op experience	29	13.3
Consultation with Career Counselor	23	10.6
Internet	22	10.1
Employer found resume via ePack	16	7.3
Faculty member or found job listing in an NC State dept	15	6.9
Professional society	10	3.7
Staffing agency	3	1.4
Other	10	4.6

*Respondents could select more than one resource.

Further Education

This section of the report provides detailed information on further education being pursued by NC State Fall 2010 graduates. Almost 15 percent of the close to 800 graduating seniors who submitted the Future Plans Survey said that they planned on going to graduate or professional school either full-time (12%) or part-time (2%) in the coming year. Of these students, 45 percent say they have already applied and been accepted to graduate/professional school, and another 29 percent have applied but not yet been accepted. Given that this current survey is focused on those graduating NC State in December, and the majority of graduate/professional programs would begin in the Fall semester, it is perhaps not surprising that a good number of these graduates state that they are planning on applying but have not yet done so (26%).

Table 11: Current Status for Grad/Professional School

	N	%
Have been accepted	45	45.0
Have applied, but not yet been accepted	29	29.0
Have not yet applied but plan to do so within the next year	26	26.0

School Attending
Students who said they were planning on attending graduate/professional school in the coming year were asked where they were planning on going. Tables 12 and 13 below list the most common schools named by respondents. The vast majority of those who have already been accepted to a program say they are going to stay at NC State for their graduate studies. Similarly, among those who have not yet been accepted most are hoping to attend NC State.

For a complete list of graduate/professional schools graduates will be attending or are planning on attending click here.

Table 12: Most Commonly Listed Graduate/Professional Schools Students will be Attending (among those already accepted)

	N
NC State	30
UNC	4
Campbell	3

Table 13: Most Commonly Listed Graduate/Professional Schools Students Want to Attend (among those who have not yet been accepted or not yet applied)

	N
NC State	14
UNC	4
ECU	3
Mult excl. NC State	3
Mult incl. NC State	3
Don't know	3

Degrees Seeking
Students going or planning on going to graduate/professional school in the coming year were asked what degree(s) they were pursuing. Almost three-fourths of those who have been accepted into a program say they are pursuing a Master's degree, and almost 20 percent say they hope to obtain a Doctoral degree. Students who have been accepted into a program are less likely to be seeking a First-Professional degree.

Table 14: Master's Degree

Degree pursuing by acceptance status	Degree seeking: Masters
	N	%
Have been accepted	33	73.3%
Have applied, but not yet been accepted	15	51.7%
Have not yet applied but plan to do so within the next year	22	84.6%

Table 15: Doctoral Degree

Degree pursuing by acceptance status	Degree seeking: Doctoral
	N	%
Have been accepted	8	17.8%
Have applied, but not yet been accepted	7	24.1%
Have not yet applied but plan to do so within the next year	4	15.4%

Table 16: Professional Degree

Degree pursuing by acceptance status	Degree seeking: First-Professional
	N	%
Have been accepted	5	11.1%
Have applied, but not yet been accepted	7	24.1%
Have not yet applied but plan to do so within the next year	3	11.5%

Graduate/Professional School Assistance
Students accepted into a graduate/professional school program were asked whether they had received any financial assistance from the program. Overall relatively few students had been granted any such awards. Almost 15 percent said they would have a Research Assistanship, and 5 percent said they were offered a Teaching Assistantship.

Table 17: Graduate School Assistance/Awards

	N	%
Research Assistantship	13	12.6
Other assistantship	6	5.8
Teaching Assistantship	5	4.9
Honors/Award	3	2.9
Scholarship	1	1.0

NC State Experiences and Resources

All students participating in the Future Plans Survey were asked about their participation in various work-related experiences, as well as about various career-related resources they might have used while at NC State. This final section of the report summarizes the information they shared about these experiences.

Work-Related Experiences
Respondents were asked whether or not they had participated in various work-related experiences while a student at NC State, and if so, for how many semesters/summers they did it, and whether or not it was helpful in securing a job offer. Students were most likely to have had an internship (50%), followed by a summer or part-time job related to their major field of study (41%). Although much less common, a sizeable number of students said they had engaged in research with a faculty member (22%), or had a co-op experience (11%).

The relatively small number of students having participated in co-op typically had multiple such experiences, with over half saying they had had a co-op for either three (40%) or four (13%) semesters/summers. In contrast, although half the students had had an internship, such experiences were less intensive, typically lasting only one (50%) or two (25%) semesters/summers.

Regardless of the type of work-related experience, students were very positive about the helpfulness of the experience in securing a job offer. Ninety percent of those with co-op experience said it was helpful in getting a job, as did 82 percent of those who did student teaching. While still helpful to a majority of those with such experience, those who participated in research with a faculty member were the least likely to say those efforts were helpful in getting a job offer (63%).

Table 18: Participation in Work-Related Experiences

Work-related experience	Participated		Number of semesters
	N	%	1	2	3	4+	N
Co-op	74	11.3%	22.9%	24.3%	40.0%	12.9%	70
Internship	362	50.5%	50.4%	24.8%	13.0%	11.8%	355
Practicum	37	5.8%	67.6%	21.6%	5.4%	5.4%	37
Student teaching	50	7.8%	68.8%	18.8%	2.1%	10.4%	48
Research w/ faculty	142	21.7%	40.4%	33.1%	19.9%	6.6%	136
Summer or part-time job related to major	275	40.8%	28.9%	26.6%	18.4%	26.2%	256

Table 19: Helpfulness of Work-Related Experiences in Securing a Job Offer

Work-related experience	Yes - Was Helpful
	N	%
Co-op	43	89.6%
Internship	171	77.7%
Practicum	15	71.4%
Student teaching	18	81.8%
Research w/ faculty	35	62.5%
Summer or part-time job related to major	104	74.8%

Career-Related Resources
Although a majority of the December 2010 Graduating Seniors' Future Plans Survey respondents said they had used ePack (61%), less than half of the students said they had used the other career-related resources asked about. In addition to ePack, students were most likely to say they used the Campus Career Center (46%) and that they had visited the NC State majors website, www.ncsu.edu/majors-careers (45%). About one-third or more students participated in on-campus interviewing or a Career Fair (39%), or attended an employer information session(s) (32%).

Table 20: Career-Related Resources Used

Resource	Yes - Used
	N	%
ePack	468	61.3
Campus Career Center	352	46.1
NC State majors website	342	44.8
On-campus interviewing or Career Fair	296	38.7
Employer information sessions	246	32.2
Career workshops	228	29.8
Professional society or organization	221	28.9
Spoke with Career Counselor	165	21.6
Mock interviews with Career Counselor	78	10.2

For more information on the Fall 2010 Graduating Seniors' Future Plans Survey contact:
Dr. Nancy Whelchel, Associate Director for Survey Research
Institutional Strategy and Analysis
Box 7002
NCSU
Phone: (919) 515-4184
Email: Nancy_Whelchel@ncsu.edu

Posted: February, 2011

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