After more than two years of living through the pandemic, the graduating Class of 2022 will set off to face a tumultuous job market and uncertain world.
Despite their abnormal college experience and the pandemic’s deep effects on industry, this batch of Harvard College seniors still closely resembles previous classes when it comes to planning for the future. Trends of moving to the coasts, taking jobs in finance or technology, and earning hefty post-grad salaries continue into this year.
Similar to past years, the most popular career choices among seniors are in the consulting, finance, and technology sectors, and nearly half of survey respondents indicated they will be residing in Massachusetts or New York.
Sixty-seven percent of seniors plan to join the workforce in their first year out of college, up from 61 percent in the Class of 2021. Not everyone, however, is following this path. Fifteen percent said they plan to enroll in a graduate or professional school, with roughly 7 percent preparing to participate in some kind of fellowship.
The proportion of seniors planning to travel after graduation increased slightly from last year to 2 percent. Those who are undecided on their post-graduate plans fell 4 percentage points from 2021 to 10 percent of respondents. This is the second year in a row to see such a drop.
A majority of graduating seniors will find themselves on one of America’s coasts, continuing a yearslong trend. The most popular domestic locations among respondents also roughly match up with previous years: 27 percent to New York, 12 percent to California, 4 percent to Washington D.C., and 21 percent staying in Massachusetts.
Among the 13 percent of seniors who will be living outside of the U.S., the most popular destinations are Europe and Asia, with 59 percent and 16 percent of those seniors, respectively.
Sixty-seven percent of seniors pursuing careers in government or politics are heading to the nation’s capital. Seniors working in finance are also geographically concentrated, with 65 percent planning to call New York home for at least the next year.
Eight percent of seniors are still unsure of where they will be living next year, a drop of 6 percentage points from the Class of 2021.
For seniors joining the workforce, jobs in consulting, finance, and technology continue to dominate. Similar to last year’s graduating class, 23 percent of respondents will begin consulting jobs, 18 percent finance jobs, and 17 percent technology jobs.
Last year, 21 percent of respondents went into finance, 19 percent into consulting, and 17 percent into technology.
Beyond the big three sectors, 9 percent will pursue academia or research, 6 percent engineering, 6 percent health, 4 percent arts and entertainment, 4 percent public service, and 3 percent government or politics.
