Career Counseling, Planning, and Placement
The Career Center in the Campus Center offers many services including: (a) career and employment counseling, (b) employer and graduate school information, (workshops dealing with resume writing, interviewing skills and job search strategies), (d) on-campus interviews, (e) interview assistance, and (f) salary data and job market reports. The center also maintains a career resource library which you may find useful.
Sociology and Anthropology Career Opportunities
Surveys of college alumni with undergraduate majors in sociology or anthropology indicate that these majors prepare people for a broad range of occupations. Note that many of these jobs require graduate or professional training.
- Account Supervisor
- Accounts Specialist
- Social Worker
- Law Enforcement
- Advertising Account Executive
- Legal Intern
- Hygiene Management Consultant
- Assistant Director of Employment Services
- Medical Social Worker
- Attorney
- Consultant
- Bank Management
- Museum Curator
- Caseworker
- Circulation Manager
- Claims Representative
- Social Security Administration
- Computer Analyst/Programmer
- Marketing Executive
- Principal Planner for City Planning Commission
- Counselor
- Private School Teacher
- County Judge
- Programmer Analyst
- Psychotherapist
- Criminology research
- Rabbi
- Teacher of the Blind
- Dental Hygienist
- Research Assistant
- Dentist Residential Coordinator for Developmentally Disabled
- Development and Urban Planner
- Sales Manager
- Diagnostic Sales Representative Savings & Loan Senior Appraiser
- Director of Safety and Security
- Director of Nursing
- Sheriff
- Director of the Social Planning Council Social and Casework Supervisor
- Marketing Manager
- Employment Manager
- Special Agent of the U.S. Secret Service
- Equal Opportunity for the U.S. Department of Labor State
- Supervisor of Counseling Services for the Bureau
- Evaluation Specialists in Reading & Curriculum of Unemployment Compensation
- Tax Accountant
- Technical Writer
- Family Therapist
- Training Supervisor
- Government & Public Affairs Manager
- TV Audience Research
- Group Home Worker
- United States Navy Pilot
- Health Services Counselor
- Welfare Department Case Worker
- Insurance Underwriter
General Career Fields for Sociology Majors
While the previous page lists a wide range of jobs that people who majored in sociology eventually landed, many of these positions involved graduate training in another field. Because it involves the development of critical thinking skills and broad understanding of society and of organizations and institutions, sociology can be used as a spring-board into many fields. (The same is true of most liberal arts fields of study.)
Many students who obtain Ph.D. degrees teach Sociology in colleges and universities (also some with M.A. degrees). Increasingly sociologists are working in community settings. They work in government or industry as researchers, administrators, consultants, or program planners. In general, salaries are higher in non-academic settings.
The vast majority of majors with B.A. degrees in Sociology launch their careers in social services or business/industry. Most sociology majors find employment after graduation in areas such as community planning, employment counseling, marketing research, policy evaluation, program planning, rehabilitation counseling, environmental analysis, personnel management, labor relations, drug and alcohol abuse counseling, social work and health planning. Other graduates have taken jobs as computer analysts, journalists, legal assistants, management trainees, educational therapists, and resident directors.
In short, the majority of sociology majors move into one of the following fields:
Human Services
Community organizer
Social worker
Criminologist
Gerontologist
Hospital administrator
Nonprofit administratorEducation
Teacher/Professor
Academic Researcher/Administrator
Recreation Specialist
Trainer
Leisure/Travel Consultant
Research
Researcher
Population Analyst
Surveyor
Market Researcher
Economic Analyst
Public Opinion Pollster
Interviewer
Policy researcherGovernment
Policy administrator
Public Policy Analyst
Legislator
U.S. Census Bureau Analyst
International Agency Representative
Program Director
Prison Administrator
Law enforcement (local policity; FBI)
Labor relations
Urban PlannerBusiness
Market researcher
Sales manager
Customer relations
Manufacturing representative
Banking/manager
Salesperson Administration
Data processorPublic Relations
Publisher
Mass Communications
Advertising.
Writer/commentator
Career Fields for Anthropologists
Traditionally, about 80 percent of the approximately 7,000 anthropologists in the United States are employed in colleges and universities. They teach undergraduate students the four branches of anthropology. Since 1985, over half of all new Ph.D.s are working in non-academic jobs. The recent trend of anthropologists working in non-academic settings is continuing to rise since the academic job market in anthropology remains relatively constant while the global economy requires more cross-cultural interactions from the work force. Others head projects funded by foundations, grant agencies, nonprofit associations, and the private sector.
The federal government employs anthropologists in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the National Institutes of Health, and the Public Health Service. The U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency also employ anthropologists.
Some physical anthropologists work in medical schools. Others work in community and regional development and planning, and a few work in forensics labs helping to solve crimes.