First Year Employment Outcomes of US Psychology Graduates Revisited: Need for a Degree, Salary, and Relatedness to the Major
Alumni survey responses from a multi-major (multi-course), United States university sample (c. 2003–06, N = 1760) provided a replication and extension of previous research on patterns of graduates' first-year employment outcomes. Compared with graduates from the fields of nursing/allied health, business, engineering/technology, and education, new psychology and humanities/social sciences alumni tended to have jobs that locate individuals in low tiers of features including need for a college degree, salary, and relatedness to one's major program of study (course). These patterns of employment outcomes for US psychology graduates are generally similar to those on record for liberal education (nonvocational) graduates in the United Kingdom. Results are discussed in the context of established occupational constructs such as person-job ft, congruence, career compromise, and education mismatch.