What kinds of jobs do Ph.D.'s from non-first tier sociology programs?

[giacomo]

What kinds of jobs do Ph.D.'s from non-first tier sociology programs? I'm not talking about star grad students who will succeed no matter where they get their degrees and a couple of other anomalies we can think of.

Is there a realistic and legitimate market demand for the majority of sociology Ph.D.'s from non-first tier programs (say, non-top 20 or so?)?

[gilmoregirl1010]

I think it depends on what you specialized in, and where you're looking to work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that sociologist job prospects are going to be growing faster than average, so I think the future is looking as bright for our field as it is for any other.

Here's a link to the BLS website, where they go over what sort of jobs sociologists take. Granted, this doesn't discriminate between the students as Berkeley and the students and State University X, but it's a good start: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes193041.htm

[MarxianSociologist]

I got my MA from a non-top tier program--the University of Kansas--and many of our PhDs get jobs at liberal arts/teaching colleges.

[Scrabble2]

Graduate programs should have a list of job placements from their schools. For example, at Emory (a program ranked 36 by US News): http://www.sociology.emory.edu/pid/16/32/

Be mindful of the fact that programs typically do not list students who were unable to get a job. A general rule of thumb is that graduates typically teach at programs a tier below where they graduate (thus a graduate from a second tier school would teach at a third tier program). Put another way, it is extremely difficult for a graduate's first job to be at a program ranked higher or even equal to his (of course top programs are an exception).

If you attend a program outside of the top 30 or so, I would be prepared to aim for jobs at liberal arts/teaching colleges, at mentioned above. But those jobs are still extremely competitive so I would not take them for granted.

[msafiri]

Are we talking academic or non-academic jobs here? A lot of sociology PhDs work for research organizations/institutes, marketing research firms, management consulting groups, etc. when they seek employment outside of academia. Inside the academy, at SLACs and small universities, so-called directional state universities, and community colleges, depending on their interests. Basically, take a look at http://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/search.cfm?JobCat=93. I'd guess that the jobs at the smaller schools and community colleges listed there are going to be filled by PhDs from non-top 25 schools, unless someone is geographically constrained for some reason.