What Can I Do With This Major

Regardless of the major you choose, your Dartmouth education provides an excellent foundation for your future. Your major alone does not define your career choices. Your skills, strengths and competencies are also fortified by the internships and other activities you pursue outside of your academics. 

For pre-major advice, reach out to your Undergraduate Dean. Your dean will discuss your options, and help you gather information to support your decision. Another option is to talk with pre-major advisors in the departments that interest you. 

This guide will show you how to find the paths and professions pursued by Dartmouth alumni from all majors. You can explore outcomes in three ways: 

  1. Handshake allows you to search students and alumni at Dartmouth and across the U.S. by Major, Employer, or Student Organization.
  2. Through LinkedIn’s Dartmouth College Alumni site, you can search alumni based on what they studied, when they attended Dartmouth, what they do now (position title and industry sector), and where they live. This can help you identify common pathways. For example, Research, Education, and Healthcare Services are the top career choices of recent alumni who majored in Anthropology.
  3. Dartmouth Connect contains contact information for alumni. Search Dartmouth Connect by keyword, major, or by occupation (e.g. lawyer, vet, engineer) and look at the individual alumni descriptions for more information about their Dartmouth Majors. 

Handshake 

Make your Handshake profile visible to employers, students and alumni, to sort, view and message peers at Dartmouth and other Handshake partner institutions. Examining the paths of fellow students can help you get tips on how to manage your own information. 

You can view profiles by Major, School Year, or Previous Employers or Student Organizations.

LinkedIn Majors to Careers

As over 65,000 members of the Dartmouth community have LinkedIn profiles, the LinkedIn Alumni Tool is an invaluable resource for  exploring the connections between Dartmouth undergraduate majors, skills and career paths. Most majors prepare you  to work in a range of fields. For example, Education, Media and Communication, and Business Development are the most popular industries for recent Dartmouth alumni majoring in English. Research, Engineering and Education (respectively) are the most popular industries  for Physics majors. 

Using LinkedIn you’ll see: 

  • Potential career paths for each academic major 
  • Job titles, employers and stories of Dartmouth alumni who have graduated in each major
  • Valuable skills and career competencies acquired through each major 

Follow these steps to get the most out of your search: 

  1. Join LinkedIn and create a profile (we recommend the Student Guide to LinkedIn). 
  2.  Request to join theDartmouth College Alumni LinkedIn Group(current students are welcome). Once admitted, you will have access to see more details on profiles of group members. 
  3. Go to the Dartmouth College school page on LinkedIn. 

Select the Alumni menu

This will pull up a listing of all students and alumni who have reported an affiliation to Dartmouth

The Show More ˅ drop menu allows you to see more entries…

The Next Tabs > menu allows you to scroll by What They Do (Industry/Function of Work), What They Studied (Major), What They Are Skilled At (Skills), and How You Are Connected (Degree of Networking Connection). Click on any bar of interest and/or use the search bar to filter your search results.

For example, here are Physics majors in San Francisco: 

You can also see what People list as Skills and if you have any Connections with them

Looking at the Skills section is important, because you can:

  • See the common skills alumni have developed with each Major 
  • Identify common functions that people with this major perform in their work 
  • View the key skills people are highlighting in their individual LinkedIn profiles – this can help you identify skills to develop and list in your own profile.

NETWORKING

The Connections menu shows how you are related to others on LinkedIn. 

If someone is a 1st degree Connection it means You <and> LinkedIn user have agreed to connect directly with one  another (similar to a friend on Facebook). 

A 2nd degree Connection is connected to someone else you know – you have a common connection. 

You > Connection > 2nd Degree Connection  

This is often said to be your best networking opportunity as you can ask your mutual connection for an  introduction. A 3rd degree Connection is further removed:

You > Connection > Connection > Target Contact 

If you join the Dartmouth College Alumni group on LinkedIn, you will be able to see the names and  titles of Dartmouth alumni who belong to the group in your search results. 

You can also refine your search by “years attended” to find the most recent alumni. They may be  helpful in providing advice regarding your entry-level job search and relevant skills.

See Center for Career Design Networking Resources in the “Networking + LinkedIn” group under the “Build Career Skills” tab for tips on how to reach out via LinkedIn (always send a customized invitation)

For networking assistance, schedule an appointment with a Center for Career Design Career Coach via Handshake. For help choosing a major, consult with your undergraduate dean.

To find email address format by company, open a Google browser and search by the keywords
email format for “company name”.

Dartmouth Connect

Many alumni have joined Dartmouth Connect to share advice about their jobs,  career paths, and graduate school choices. Before you participate: 

To find alumni by Major, use the More Filters tool in the Search Engine.

Example templates for outreach can be found in our resource Outreach and Interview Templates.

The Center for Career Design encourages you to schedule an appointment with a Career Coach to discuss any questions you may have as well as creating a specific plan of action moving forward.