Maisel and Gaddy report on a recent pilot study that surveyed recipients of doctorates in computer science, within a year or so after they graduated, to find out more about their employment situations. The purpose of the study was to fill in gaps in the existing data gathered from the Survey of earned doctorates, which collects data from doctorate-granting institutions about their graduates’ definite plans for employment at the time of graduation. When the data are collected, many graduates do not know where they will be going and report no definite plans, while others change their plans along the way.

The paper reports on surveys returned by 128 respondents from 305 deliverable surveys, out of 341 addresses provided by 99 doctorate-granting departments of computer science in response to requests for names and addresses of students who had graduated between July 1, 1995 and June 30, 1996.

Findings are reported in the areas of employment, salary, dissertation topic, and opinions. A total of 94 percent of the respondents worked in business and industry (48 percent) or education (46 percent). The breakdown of primary work was 35 percent research, 31 percent development or design, and 27 percent teaching. A table shows the distribution of salaries in each of the categories of business and education (salaries in business and industry are highest, even when compared with full-year salaries in education). Twenty-eight percent of the dissertations were in AI/robotics, 22 percent in software systems, and 26 percent in areas other than those listed in the survey (33 percent of those were in databases or distributed systems). Most respondents said the positions they now held were related to their fields and were commensurate with their education and training, and most said they were doing what they had expected to do when they began doctoral studies.

The authors urge computer science departments and graduates to participate in these studies this year and for as long as the studies continue.