Job Placement Experience of Alumni from a 3-year CS Program.

Computing educators entice students with information about stable, readily available, and lucrative careers in computing. Do our promises turn into reality for all students? We report on an in-depth alumni survey of 50 college graduates from a 3-year cohort-based program (CSin3), one year post-graduation. The majority of graduates from the two first cohorts surveyed are Hispanic, first-generation college students from a rural area in California. More than a third of the respondents (36%) are female. Notwithstanding the fast pace of the program (three years instead of the traditional four), the vast majority of graduates (88%) were full-time employed at the time of the survey and were hired less than 3 months after graduation, on average. The most common challenges that alumni reported facing professionally are: Work-life balance (36%) Cost of living (36%) Lack of diversity (25%), and Stress in current position (25%) (they could select multiple choices). While no correlation was found between GPA and job satisfaction level or annual salary, significant low grades in upper division programming courses were a common factor among unemployed alumni. We also examined differences, based on gender, in annual salary and job satisfaction level; intention to remain in the technology sector; their level of satisfaction about how well the CSin3 program prepared them professionally; correlation between job satisfaction level and choice of CS as a career; and factors and alumni's perceptions of what contributed to their success in the job market, such as their participation in an internship program and the academic enrichment activities.