Choose Your Own Adventure: A Sociology Degree Is Your Ticket to (Almost) Any Career

• In Event: Hans O. Mauksch Lecture

Abstract

What can you do with a sociology degree? Anything. Well, almost anything. The versatility of a sociology degree is also a liability. We can’t easily point to a specific occupation that sociology students enter. Social work majors become social workers. Nursing majors become nurses. Criminal justice majors become police officers. Sociology majors become what? While we know that this overly simplistic relationship between major and occupation is far from complete. Our audience (students and their families, administrators, legislatures, among others) asks for a direct link between a major and a career. College is an investment, and it is not unreasonable for stakeholders to consider economics in their decision-making. However, because sociology students enter so many occupations, it is challenging for us to offer data-backed guidance. Further, our professional organizations have not kept up with collecting data on career outcomes for sociology majors, and our institutions restrict our ability to follow-up with our own alumni. Therefore, I collected survey data from a convenience sample of sociology graduates across the United States. In this talk, I will share occupations U.S. sociology students enter and how they are using sociology in their careers.

Author

• Stephanie Medley-Rath, Indiana University-Kokomo