What do Disney, Apple, Google, Genentech, Lockheed Martin, Salesforce and Boeing all have in common? Besides being global brands that drive innovation and economic growth, they are among the companies that have hired large numbers of University of California alumni over the last quarter century.
The University, in collaboration with workforce data firm Lightcast, has just released a new data dashboard that tracks UC alumni employment since 2000.
With 84,000 new UC degree-holders entering the workforce this summer — joining another 2.6 million alumni in California and the nation — the dashboard shows that UC degrees fuel high-growth careers, often in the industries that have made California the world’s fourth-largest economy, including biotech, computing, engineering, finance, education, health care, and the entertainment industry.
“From the first day a student arrives on a UC campus, they are being prepared by our faculty and staff to be educated citizens and California’s workforce of tomorrow,” said UC Provost Katherine S. Newman. “This new data is further evidence of UC’s commitment to connecting academic excellence with workforce development. Our graduates climb the economic ladder because they leave our campuses with rigorous and experiential learning experiences to lead in their fields.”
Elizabeth Cieszko, Class of 2009, a senior vice president for portfolio growth and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said the data mirrors her own experience. “My communications degree from UC San Diego set the trajectory for my entire professional career,” Cieszko said. “The coursework sparked my passion for storytelling and gave me a sharp understanding of how media shapes culture and drives impact — a perspective that led me straight into the television industry and to NBCUniversal.”
The 50 companies that hire the most UC alumni
| Salesforce | Bank of America | Abbott Laboratories | Adobe | |
| Amazon | Deloitte | Raytheon Technologies | JPMorgan Chase | Workday |
| Kaiser Permanente | Wells Fargo | Target | Accenture | Intuit |
| Meta | Boeing | Illumina | KPMG | Sutter Health |
| Apple | Tesla | NBC | Edwards Lifesciences | |
| Genentech | Gilead Sciences | Qualcomm | AbbVie | CVS Health |
| Northrop Grumman | Oracle | PG&E | Ernst & Young | Medtronic |
| Microsoft | Amgen | Thermo Fisher Scientific | IBM | Walgreens Boots Alliance |
| Disney | Cisco | Uber | Walmart | Yahoo |
| Intel | Pricewaterhouse Coopers | Cedars-Sinai | Lockheed Martin | Netflix |
UC degrees lead to high-growth careers
The Alumni Career Pathways dashboard tracks employment trends for UC degree-holders across major industries. It lets you see, for instance, the top employers for UC grads, what types of roles UC alums play at different companies and the common pathways for students with majors in various disciplines.
A key takeaway? UC degrees lead to high-growth careers. UC alumni hold well-paid jobs and work at high levels in their industries. From the doctors and scientists developing breakthrough medical treatments to the software engineers building the newest smartphones and the teachers educating the next generation of college students and community leaders, UC alumni make an impact every day on our state’s economy and local communities.
Beyond the corporate world, UC alumni also work in large numbers across federal, state and local government agencies, helping shape California’s civic landscape. In fact, one-third of California’s legislators are UC graduates, demonstrating the University’s significant influence in public leadership and service across the state.
K–12 and higher education are also fueled by UC alumni, especially in California. One-quarter of UC faculty and 20 percent of California State University faculty hold UC Ph.D.s, underscoring the University’s role in furthering public higher education.
Spotlight on skills
The dashboard also features data on both common and specialized skills UC alumni bring to the workplace alongside the skills most in demand by employers — with substantial overlap between the two. The skills insights offered in the dashboard are not only useful to job seekers but also offer an illuminating planning tool to aid UC faculty in designing academic programs that boost workforce opportunities for UC students.
Academic disciplines such as engineering and computer science equip graduates with hard skills in sync with industry demand in areas such as technology, finance, data science and engineering. “My education from UC Riverside provided the access and skills that led to an extremely meaningful career for me,” says Jesse Mendoza Jr., an environmental engineering major from the Class of 2017 who is now an engineer at NASA. “I work at the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducting mission operations for a variety of space missions, including the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.”
The value of a UC degree
The Alumni Career Pathways dashboard is the latest addition to a mountain of data showing the power of a UC degree when it comes to economic mobility. A degree from the University of California unlocks a lifetime of opportunities: UC graduates experience steady income growth over time and they are also more likely to own a home or launch a business than peers without college degrees.
They also earn more, on average, than other college graduates in California. Newly released data shows that UC bachelor’s degree-holders outearn both high-school graduates and those with college degrees within six years of graduation. Twelve years out from college, their average earnings outpace even those with graduate degrees. Alumni who earned a B.A. at UC and went on to get a graduate degree at any institution do even better.
A UC degree is even more transformative for low-income and first-generation-to-college students. Within just four years of graduation, a majority of UC’s Pell Grant and first-generation college graduates earn more than their families. Additionally, one out of every three UC students who enter college in the bottom 20 percent of income move up to the top 20 percent of income as adults, a rate that is higher than colleges and universities across the state and nation.
Amid concern about the cost of a college education, 67 percent of UC’s most recent class of undergraduate students finished school with no student debt. For those who do take on student loans, over 90 percent have manageable debt-to-income ratios of less than 10 percent of their incomes within five years after graduation.
