ABOVE PHOTO: Emma Flemke, left, collected data as part of a whey fermentation project in Professor Steve Nold’s General Microbiology course at UW-Stout in 2023.
University of Wisconsin-Stout graduates are living up to the institution’s “Do More on Day One” slogan. In fact, many of them are doing more even before day one on the job market, with over half of grads accepting jobs before commencement – many of them with Fortune 500 firms.
According to a new report, more than 80% of those who received UW-Stout degrees between fall 2023 and summer 2024 accepted jobs either before graduation day or within a month of getting their diplomas. And fully 99% of recent graduates were either employed or furthering their education within six months of graduation, the annual First Destination Report found.
“My education at Stout was very eye-opening and gave me a deeper understanding of what engineering is and made sure I was prepared to enter the workforce.”
-Klem
The companies hiring UW-Stout graduates include scores of household names. According to the latest report, over the past five years UW-Stout graduates have been hired by 125 companies that rank in the Fortune 500, including 12 of the top 20 firms.
In the past year alone, freshly minted Blue Devils went to work for 45 Fortune 500 companies, ranging from Abbott Laboratories to Xcel Energy. Other blue-chip firms hiring UW-Stout graduates in recent years include Amazon, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, Bank of America, General Motors, Pfizer, and Procter & Gamble.
The report’s findings demonstrate that UW-Stout graduates “can easily take their applied learning educational experiences from lab spaces into professional positions or into furthering their education,” said Career Services Director Bryan Barts.
“UW-Stout graduates continue to be highly sought-after by companies across a wide spectrum of fields,” Barts said. “They are bringing career-ready skills and leveraging those skills into positions and workplaces immediately. This report highlights the impact of our polytechnic approach to education and how our academic program array aligns to the region, state and beyond. It also showcases our clear engagement, collaboration and partnership with companies.”
Barts said Career Services offers numerous events and resources to connect students with a wide range of future employers. These include fall and spring Career Conferences, which draw hundreds of employers and thousands of students and feature next-day interviewing; career development programs that infuse employers in the process, such as Art & Design Week, Human Sciences Day, the Job Shadow Program, the Mock Interview Program, and Blue Devil Prep for Success events; as well as unique engagement efforts, such as supporting student travel to the annual MDEV game development conference and BioForward’s BioHealth Conference.
Such efforts contribute to UW-Stout’s ongoing job-placement success. For the third consecutive year, the report found that 99% of grads were either employed, furthering their education, or serving in the military or a service program. That rate hasn’t dipped below 97% for at least 15 years.
The 99% employment rate applies to both undergraduate and graduate degree holders, as well as to first-generation students in both categories. Furthermore, 100% of military veterans who graduated from UW-Stout are employed, the survey found.
Fully 50% of those who received undergraduate degrees accepted jobs a month or more before graduation, while another 30% were hired within a month of graduating. These figures were even higher for those who received graduate degrees from UW-Stout: 93% of those alumni accepted job offers either before graduating or within a month of doing so.
Those who received graduate degrees from UW-Stout had an annual starting salary of $74,000. Meanwhile, the average starting salary for recipients of UW-Stout undergraduate degrees was $57,000. Average starting salaries were higher in several fields:
- Science, engineering and math, $66,000;
- Information technology and communication, $61,000;
- Business and management, $60,000.
Nationally, the median bachelor’s degree holder between the ages of 22 and 27 makes $20,000 more annually than the median worker with only a high school diploma, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
UW-Stout’s average starting salary was the highest among universities in western Wisconsin and represents the ongoing return on investment of an education at Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University. UW-Stout’s value has been recognized by the likes of Money Magazine, which included UW-Stout on its 2024 Best Colleges list focused on affordability and student outcomes. Money named UW-Stout one of the top 94 Best Public colleges in the nation and one of the 45 Best in the Midwest. In addition, Research.com recently ranked UW-Stout among the 15 Best Value Colleges in the Midwest.
Overall, the First Destination Report reflects UW-Stout’s long history of student career success, Barts said. “It also continues to showcase the impact of our applied-learning and hands-on approach to education,” he added.
Graduates find success
Among all these successfully employed recent UW-Stout graduates is Nicolas Langenfeld, of Wild Rose, who was hired before he graduated with his B.S. in computer networking and information technology, now known as computer networking and infrastructure engineering. Langenfeld took a job as an information security analyst at Waupaca Foundry in Waupaca, where he had already interned for three years.
“Stout prepared me for a career in IT in more ways than I could have ever hoped for,” Langenfeld said. “The hands-on experience I got in labs has allowed me to develop many technical skills that I can apply outside of the classroom. The industry certifications that I have had the opportunities to earn allow me to prove to employers that I have the experience they desire, and they also allow me to prove to myself that I can accomplish what I set my mind to.”
Langenfeld was one of the winners of the Cooperative Education & Internship Student of the Year award. During 2023-24, the CEIP Program oversaw 990 co-op and internship enrollments. Co-op students earned an average hourly wage of nearly $21, and more than one-third of students accepted professional positions with CEIP employers.
Emma Flemke, of Red Wing, Minn., was hired by Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery before receiving her B.S. in food science and technology last May. Flemke said UW-Stout gave her tools to work toward her professional goals. “By applying what I learned in class to internships and jobs, I can confidently complete any task assigned to me,” she said.
While Flemke’s post-graduation job kept her in western Wisconsin, UW-Stout graduates found employment in 39 U.S. states and 11 countries.
Conrad Klem, of Menomonie, who transferred to UW-Stout in 2022 and earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering in May 2024, was hired before graduation by Midwest Mechanical Solutions, an HVAC engineering company in Golden Valley, Minn. He credits UW-Stout’s hands-on approach and the technical skills he learned with helping prepare him for his career.
“My education at Stout was very eye-opening and gave me a deeper understanding of what engineering is and made sure I was prepared to enter the workforce,” Klem said.
