DATA BRIEF ON CURRENT JOBS

What are they Doing with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology?

DATA BRIEF ON CURRENT JOBS

Roberta Spalter-Roth and Nicole Van Vooren January 2008

In AY 2005 the American Sociological Association's Research and Development Department surveyed a sample of close to 1,800 seniors to find out their satisfaction with the sociology major and their future plans for work, graduate school, or both. Early in 2007 we resurveyed the class of 2005 to find out what they were doing with their bachelor's degree since graduation.1 This Data Brief, the first in a series of downloadable publications from the second wave of the survey, provides information on the post-graduate activities of graduates, the kinds of

jobs they held as of December 2006, their satisfaction with these jobs, and the changes in their overall satisfaction with the sociology major.

Figure 1 compares the 2005 responses of senior majors as to their future plans with their 2007 reports as to what they actually were doing. The figure shows that in 2005, 40 percent of respondents planned to work and not attend graduate school after they obtained their

_________________________________________________ 1The response rate for the second wave of the survey was 44 percent or 778 graduates.

FIGURE 1: MORE SOCIOLOGY BACHELOR'S RECEPIENTS ARE WORKING, PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AT TIME 1 VS. STATUS AT TIME 2 (in Percents)

Job Only

42.1 60.3

Grad School Only

22.2 13.1

Both

26.9

22.0

Neither

8.8

4.7

Wave 1 Wave 2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Source: ASA Research and Development Department, What Can I Do With a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? Wave I and Wave II AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION - DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY?

baccalaureate degree. By 2007, nearly 60 percent reported working and not attending graduate school, a 30 percent increase from their pregraduation plans. While 20 percent of seniors planned on exclusively attending graduate school (primarily for education, criminology and sociology), just over 10 percent were enrolled in a graduate program in December 2006 (a few reported having completed a graduate program). The percentage of those who planned to both work and attend graduate school simultaneously decreased slightly. Since the overwhelming majority of 2005 sociology majors are working exclusively or while in graduate school, we turn to the type of jobs they held, their satisfaction with these jobs, and their overall satisfaction with the sociology major one and a half to two years after graduating.

OCCUPATIONAL BREAKDOWN Table 1 shows the occupations in which

these recent graduates were employed, based on their own self-categorization. The table compares those who held full-time jobs, those who held part-time jobs, and those who held internships (the latter two categories were more likely to be in graduate school than those with full-time jobs). About one-quarter of the fulltime workers were employed in social service and counseling occupations, most likely in nonprofit organizations. As can be seen from the list of specific job descriptions in Appendix 1 Table 2, graduates deal with social problems that they explored as part of their sociology major. They

About two-thirds of those

who said their jobs were

closely related to what they

had learned as sociology

majors were very satisfied

with their jobs.

provided services for victims of abuse and illfortune including neglected children, battered women, adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system, food-stamp and Medicaid eligible families, poor families in need of energy assistance, and disaster victims.

The next largest job categories of full-time workers provided administrative support and management skills in a wide variety of organizations. These sociology graduates are most likely to be employed in for-profit organizations or in state or local government. The administrative support workers manage or assist in the running of on-site information technology systems such as troubleshooting a variety of issues that popup with computers, printers, and Blackberries. They are employed to run office accounting systems, client filing systems, and employee training. Those classifying themselves as managers work in human resource departments recruiting, staffing, and training company employees. For example, one graduate worked as a resource coordinator for the Federal

2

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

DATA BRIEF ON CURRENT JOBS

TABLE 1: OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES OF SOCIOLOGY BACCALAUREATES BY JOB STATUS

OCCUPATION

INTERNSHIP

PART-TIME

(>35 Hours)

FULL TIME

(35 hours or more)

Social Services, Counselors, Psychologists Clerical/administrative support Management Teachers, Librarians Services Sales, Marketing Social Science, Researchers Others Other Professionals (includes PR and IT) TOTAL

54.8% 4.8% 2.4% 4.8%

0% 0% 23.8% 7.1% 2.4% 100%

17.5% 12.5% 5.8% 18.3% 18.3% 10.8% 12.5% 2.5% 1.7% 100%

26.5% 15.8% 14.4% 8.1% 8.3% 10.1% 5.7% 4.4% 6.8% 100%

Source: ASA Research and Development Department, What Can I Do With a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? Wave I and Wave II

Emergency Management Agency. Typical job descriptions include providing financial analysis, workforce planning, quality assurance, and employee evaluation.

A smaller percentage of full-time workers are employed in sales and marketing for information technology hardware and software firms. They design and execute marketing plans, do marketing research, run capital campaigns, and write creative copy. Additional occupations of fulltime workers include teachers and librarians employed in the education sector, and as police officers, crime scene investigators and parole officers in the criminal justice system. One member of the class of 2005 was employed in a food service occupation as a pastry chef.

Among the smallest full-time occupational category are those employed as social science

researchers, suggesting that 2005 graduates did not receive enough training in research methods, computer applications, and statistics as part of their undergraduate major to obtain positions in the science workforce.

To compensate for this lack of training some members of the class of 2005 went on to graduate school and obtained internships as social science researchers (almost one-quarter of those interns were in training to learn additional social science and research skills). Still, more than half of all interns were employed in social service and counseling occupations, perhaps reflecting a goal stated in 2005 to bring about change by addressing social problems (see What Can I Do with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? Phase 1 ASAChartBook_0117w1.pdf).

DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

3

WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY?

Part-time workers (categorized as those working fewer than 35 hours per week) were more likely than full-time workers or interns to be employed in a wide array of jobs such as teachers or librarians, service workers, social service workers, social science researchers, administrative support positions, and sales and marketing positions. Almost half of those who worked part time while also attending graduate school were found in either service positions or as social science researchers.

JOB SATISFACTION About half of the 2005 class were very

satisfied with the jobs they held in 2007 and another 42 percent were somewhat satisfied. However, a majority of graduates also reported

that their jobs were not closely related to their sociology degree. Respondents noted that there were few jobs labeled "sociologist" and that they had not been helped by career counselors at their schools to know for what jobs sociology majors qualified and what skills they should emphasize in their job search (less than 20 percent of sociology majors reported in 2005 that they were very satisfied with career counseling). Figure 2 shows that former majors were likely to be more satisfied with jobs that allowed them to employ sociological concepts, theories or paradigms that provided an understanding of social problems and social structure. Almost 70 percent of those who reported that their jobs were closely related to what they had learned as sociology majors were very satisfied with their jobs. Only about half of those who described their jobs as somewhat

FIGURE 2: OVERALL SATISFACTION WITH THE SOCIOLOGY MAJOR BY RELATION TO JOB (in Percents)

Closely Related

3.2

Somewhat Related

4.1

Not

Related

13.4

29.0

53.6 42.3

36.4 50.3

67.7

Very Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied Dissatisfied

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Source: ASA Research and Development Department, What Can I Do With a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? Wave I and Wave II *For each level of relation to job, the satisfaction measures add to 100%.

4

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

DATA BRIEF ON CURRENT JOBS

FIGURE 3: SATISFACTION WITH THE SOCIOLOGY MAJOR AS A SENIOR AND A 1-2 YEARS LATER (in Percents)

Very Satisfied

71.6 52.2

Somewhat Satisfied

27.4 41.0

Not at all 1.0

Satisfied 6.0

Wave 1 Wave 2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Source: ASA Research and Development Department, What Can I Do With a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? Wave I and Wave II *In Wave II there was a category, "Somewhat Dissatisfied" that is included in "Not at all Satisfied" in this figure

related to what they had learned as sociology majors were very satisfied with their jobs. In contrast only about 35 percent of those who reported that their jobs were not related to sociology were very satisfied with these jobs.

OVERALL SATISFACTION WITH THE SOCIOLOGY MAJOR

In 2005 more than three quarters of majors said that they were very satisfied with their choice of sociology as a major. Figure 3 shows that as of 2007 respondents who were very satisfied declined to less than 60 percent. We suggest that a major reason for the decline is the percent of respondents who had not found jobs that employed the concepts, theories, and methods that they had learned as undergraduates.

Figure 4 shows that those enrolled in graduate school alone were the group most satisfied with majoring in sociology while those employed but not in graduate schools are substantially less happy with their sociology major than when they were seniors in college. Not surprisingly, those who were neither employed nor attending graduate school during the survey week were the least satisfied with their choice of the sociology major.

CONCLUSIONS Since almost 60 percent of sociology

baccalaureates are working and another 20 percent are working and going to graduate school, majors need to be counseled as to the kinds of jobs that they can reasonably expect to

DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download