Career Outcomes
Career outcomes for graduates are an important measure of post-graduation student success. While these outcomes do not capture the entirety of what students learn or gain from a university education, they do tell a compelling story about how students leverage their knowledge and experience once they leave the institution. At SMU, we take career outcomes very seriously, and employ multiple measures to assess student post-graduation outcomes and success.
The Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness utilizes two primary systems for gathering information about SMU graduates' career outcomes. The first, and most important measure, is our SMU Graduation Surveys, which collect data on graduates' “first destination” outcomes within six months after graduation. The results of these surveys are available on the Graduate Career Outcomes dashboards page, and are also reported to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
The Graduation Survey results provide detailed information on the number and percentage of graduates reporting a positive career outcome within six months of graduation. These outcomes include full-time employment, part-time employment, acceptance into a continuing education program, military service, or volunteer service. Additionally, the survey results report the number of students who are still seeking employment or further education, as well as average salary information for the university’s graduates as a whole, and by school.
The university-level report is publicly accessible on the Graduate Career Outcomes dashboards page. For SMU stakeholders, a more granular report, with important disaggregation, is available, through single-sign on.
The Graduation Career Outcomes dashboards are updated annually in the Fall.
SMU has also partnered with SteppingBlocks…
Steppingblocks is a data and analytics engine that provides workforce and educational outcome insights on over a 100 million people in the U.S.
Steppingblocks uses a combination of Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, these aggregated sources power both our Digital Career Counselor (the student-facing career planning platform) and our Graduate Insights dashboards (Graduate Outcomes and Graduate Explorer). SteppingBlocks has approximately 100,000 SMU graduates in the system, along with current position, career trajectory, and relevant skills the students have cited in their CVs, job applications, and Linkedin profiles.
Information about student access can be found here.
Information on how to request staff/faculty access can be found here.