Roughly speaking, about two-thirds of UChicago graduate students go into non-academic careers after graduating. Learning about career paths and opportunities after graduating is exciting, interesting, and critical for fulfilling work and working towards the next set of career milestones. Instead of defaulting to the biggest and most popular corporate names (e.g. Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, IBM), it could be very fruitful to consider smaller and local companies in areas outside your immediate fields of study and expertise. Listening and interacting with engineering leaders at various Industry Seminars can help open doors for unanticipated opportunities.
Engineering Treks with MyChoice or PME Career Development allow a small group of senior students to visit and learn about the corporate culture of a series of companies. Professional development workshops such as the Communications for Industry Careers workshop allow you to hone networking, presentation, and audience reading skills to efficiently communicate with future colleagues outside your areas of expertise.
You are highly encouraged to talk with the PME and UChicago staff members in these areas early on and to periodically check in with us to learn about new developments!