EPFL job placement survey
© 2017 EPFL
The Career Center has just published the results of its Class of 2015 job placement survey. The figures for this year are in line with those from prior years, although some trends have become more pronounced. Here are some of the key findings:
- 85.4% of Master’s graduates in Switzerland had a job an average of one year after graduating (that’s the percentage of graduates who did not go on to get a PhD and who are either salaried or self-employed). This figure is up slightly from the Class of 2014. Looking at all countries taken together, the job placement rate is 85.1% – also up from the prior year. Graduates across all countries took an average of 11.6 weeks and 17 applications to find a job, roughly the same as the Class of 2014. The average starting salary in Switzerland was CHF 77,999 in the private sector and CHF 77,503 in the public sector.
- 87.5% of PhD graduates in Switzerland, and 89.2% in all countries combined, had a job one year after completing their thesis. This is a slightly lower rate than the Class of 2014. PhD graduates across all countries took an average of 16.2 weeks and 17 applications to find a job, in line with the prior year’s class. However, their starting salaries in Switzerland were up considerably in the private sector, averaging CHF 98,215, yet only somewhat higher in the public sector, averaging CHF 89,148.
- Switzerland was again the main country where Master’s and PhD graduates looked for jobs. But the emigration rate of Master’s graduates was high (23%) for the fourth year in a row.
- EPFL graduates across the board were generally happy with their first jobs and found their responsibilities interesting. The sense that their studies were well suited to their job requirements was most prevalent among PhD grads working abroad (most of them became university researchers); the same trend was seen in the Classes of 2014 and 2013. For all graduates, what they were least happy with was their starting salary (with no difference between Master’s and PhD grads on this issue). This was also seen in the prior two surveys.
For the Class of 2015 survey, the Career Center also looked at how quickly EPFL grads hit the job market once they got their degrees. And they found that not everyone is in a rush to start working, which had interesting implications for the job placement rate a year after graduation. Learn more by downloading the report (in French) at: http://carriere.epfl.ch/telechargements.
For more information: philippe.ory@epfl.ch.