Career Education Blog | A good place to start when you don't know where you want to be.

 

Most graduating seniors don’t choose first jobs in consulting, finance, or tech! It only feels that way when you’re at Brown (or another Ivy).

A quick look at the 2020 data collected by the CareerLAB shows that most graduating seniors pursued paths outside of consulting, finance, and tech. In 2020, 70% of students chose employment as their first post-graduate endeavor (with most of the remaining 30% choosing graduate school or fellowships). Of those that chose jobs, 53% chose fields other than consulting, finance, or tech.

If you’re interested in considering some of those other fields or endeavours, consider making a one-on-one appointment with a career counselor. We’ll ask you about your interests, strengths, needs, and values and help you make a plan for identifying and pursuing internship and job opportunities.

That plan could include applying for a few things this fall. A quick check of Handshake shows that there are internship and job postings in non-profit, government, education, marketing. More than 20 of the employers attending Brown’s BIG Virtual Fall Career Fair on Sept. 22 are representing industries outside of consulting, finance, and tech. And, even if you’re not targeting consulting, finance, and tech, you might find marketing, sustainability, project management, or other roles within those industries that interest you.

Don’t worry if you don’t find things that interest you in Handshake, at the Career Fair or even at consortium events like Launch, D.C. ImpactLINK, and the All Ivy Environmental and Sustainable Development Career Fair. Because Brown students have a wide range of interests outside of tech, finance, and consulting and because they are competitive applicants for jobs all over the world, most Brown students will find their opportunities with employers who don’t use Handshake and who don’t have the model, resources, or interest in recruiting on a college campus.

You can hear the story of one alum who did just that in the “All in the Timing” episode of the CareerLAB podcast.

Consider making an appointment with a CareerLAB counselor who can help you get started on the search for those employers now. You can work with us to identify fields that interest you, cities and countries where you’d like to work, and specific organizations you’d like to target. We can also help you identify Brown alum and others who do the kind of work that interests you. Partnering with us can help increase your confidence in navigating a successful internship and job search.