Who’s hiring Cal Poly grads? No. 1 employer is a major tech company
Cal Poly is among the top 10 colleges in California in terms of salaries for new alumni, according to higher education research company GradReports.
The San Luis Obispo university ranked at No. 7 , earning a spot on a list that includes elite private institutions, University of California schools and another California State University campus.
Cal Poly has the highest percentage of new graduates hired by Apple of any college in the top 10 list.
To determine which California university alumni earn the highest salaries, GradReports assigned each campus a salary score by comparing alumni starting salaries for each degree program to alumni starting salaries in the same program at other colleges.
Cal Poly earned a salary score of 90.16.
GradReports said it compared alumni salaries from the same fields because some majors earn more than others. The study used federal earnings data by the U.S. Department of Education through College Scorecard.
GradReports also looked at 2021 employment data from Burning Glass Technologies and LinkedIn.
The data “pertains to the graduating class or 2015 through 2020, and excludes alumni who found employment at their universities upon graduating,” according to GradReport’s website.
GradReports’ study examined the top industries and top occupations of recent Cal Poly graduates.
Who are top employers of new Cal Poly alumni?
According to the GradReports analysis, two Big Five tech companies were top employers of new Cal Poly alumni: Apple and Amazon. About 15% of new graduates from the San Luis Obispo university found jobs at one of those companies.
Stanford came in second in terms of the most new graduates employed at Apple, with 7.7% of alumni working for the tech giant.
These were the top employers for Cal Poly graduates:
Apple: 8.3%
- Amazon: 6.75%
- Ernst & Young: 6%
- Northrop Grumman: 5.8%
- Workday, Inc.: 4.7%
What are the top industries of new Cal Poly alumni?
The top industry for new Cal Poly graduates is professional, scientific and technical services, GradReports found, with nearly 25% of recent alumni entering the field.
Nearly 20% of recent graduates of colleges that landed on the company’s top 10 list work in this field, according to GradReports’ analysis.
Here are the top industries in which recent Cal Poly graduates found employment:
- Professional, scientific and technical services: 24.6%
- Manufacturing: 17.6%
- Information: 15%
- Education services: 6.9%
- Retail trade: 6.9%
What are the top occupations of new Cal Poly alumni?
The most popular occupation for alumni of the San Luis Obispo university is software developer or software engineer, according to GradReports.
Cal Poly’s computer science and computer engineering programs earned GradReports salary scores of 100 and 97. Less than 5% of recent graduates entered the electrical or mechanical engineering fields.
- Software developer/engineer: 7.6%
- Project manager: 2.6%
- Electronics engineer: 2.5%
- Mechanical engineer: 2.3%
- Business/management analyst:2%
Top 10 colleges in California ranked by GradReports
According to GradReports’ salary score findings, these were the top 10 colleges in California in terms of new alumni salaries:
- Santa Clara University
- Stanford University
- Dominican University of California
- UC Berkeley
- USC
- University of San Francisco
- Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
- CSU East Bay
- Pepperdine University
- National University