Introduced in 2016, we created career outlook pages with the help of our advisors for every department/discipline to help students map career paths with their degree.
In our first major update to these pages, we’re now introducing career insights. Career insights is an interactive tool that provides career path information for a specific degree, ex. bachelor of arts in chemistry.
Highlighted features
Some features of the career insights tool include:
- Ability to search interests by occupations or industry
- View number of job postings and sectors by demand, including top employers
- View salary median and ranges
- Ability to adjust scope of data and insights to Metro Detroit or nationwide
- Snapshot of skills sought for each occupation
- Specific descriptions of each career with a career report download option
Placement
The career insights tool will be currently featured at the bottom of each undergrad/grad degree landing page, ex. bachelor of arts in chemistry. Landing pages for minors will not include career insights as minors do not generally lead to occupations as majors do.
On the career outlook pages that currently feature a static table, this will be updated to feature career insights by degree with links to each degree’s career insight.
Before
After
Career occupations
Each degree or major has several mappings to associated occupations. Advisors and faculty will be able to specify the appropriate occupations for each major by sending a list to the CLAS Marketing Team.
See an example of the occupation report.
Home page career blurb
At the center of our new CLAS sites is a brief career blurb intended to prominently feature the degree to career connection, linking directly to our career outlook pages. While the career connection will continue to be featured on the home page, we are currently exploring fresh ideas to enhance this space.
Finding what fuels you
In addition to career insights on our degree pages, students visiting the WSU admissions home page will be able to explore multiple majors and careers using the career insights explorer. This sister component walks students through a brief survey to identify their status and interests.
At the conclusion of the survey, students will be presented with a variety of programs or career occupations (depending on their status and interests). The tool will also indicate if a minor for the major is offered and provides a link to the degree home page.
Career paths and occupations have always been a critical consideration for students pursuing higher education. During a unique time of enrollment challenges across the nation, we believe that this added enhancement will add value and relevancy for students considering the next step in their life’s journey and education.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the vendor/provider of the data?
Burning Glass Technologies (BGT), founded in 1999, is an analytics software company that continually collects job posting data from more than 45,000 online sources. This vendor was selected by the Wayne State Office of Admissions.
How are the career demand occupations formulated?
The occupations reflected on career insights start with the mappings from the federal Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) to Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Crosswalk. A CIP-SOC relationship indicates that postsecondary instructional programs classified in the CIP category typically prepare individuals directly for jobs classified in the SOC category. Additionally, career insights assess the appropriate education level as the federal CIP to SOC Crosswalk does not take into account education level alone.
Career insights then match skills/education requested by employers from job posting data to determine additional occupations that fit the requested skill-set. For liberal arts degrees, career insights add supplemental jobs based on an analysis of jobs for which employers want a specific degree level (e.g. bachelor’s degree) but are agnostic about the major. For example, “account manager” may show as a potential job for liberal arts graduates because employers typically ask for B.A. degree but do not require a specific major to qualify.
How can we properly manage student’s expectations of this information?
In addition to ensuring that proper occupations are selected for the specific degree level, each career insight will feature a context/disclaimer snippet to better inform students of how to interpret this information:
“This tool provides a broad overview of how major selection can lead to careers and is provided without any implied promise of employment. Some careers will require further education, skills, or competencies. Actual salaries may vary significantly between similar employers and could change by graduation, as could employment opportunities and job titles.”
How is salary data collected and presented?
Burning Glass uses the Market Salary Model – an estimate of the average salary for job postings within an occupation and its geography. Actual compensation may vary based on individual employer salary practices and experience.
The salary is calculated using a machine learning model built off of millions of job postings every year (over 700 million), and accounting for adjustments based on 1) locations 2) industry 3) skills and experience and 4) education requirements (among other variables). Approximately 80% of all collected postings are determined to be duplicates and discarded. This ensures that the database contains unique postings. Each job posting is parsed to extract more than 50 unique data elements. Additionally, there is a detailed taxonomy that includes occupational and skill hierarchies.
To develop the Market Salary Model, Burning Glass first built a training set of five million postings from the last two years which have advertised salaries from employers. Burning Glass used those data to train a neural network machine learning model which can predict the salaries for the remaining job postings. The model uses the following inputs to predict a salary: job title, occupation, location, employer, industry, education level, skills and experience.
To evaluate the performance of the Market Salary Model, Burning Glass tested it against a set of job postings that have advertised salaries but were not part of the training set. The average error or difference between the advertised salary of a job and the predicted base salary for each posting was $3.8K per year. This model meets or exceeds the performance of similar models published by other job data providers including Linkedin, Payscale, and Adzuna. The Market Salary Model provides insight into the likely salary of workers within a specific occupation; as well as further detail on the impact on salary of additional skills.
Learn more about the Burning Glass Salary Market Model (PDF).
How is the website display (salary, industry, etc.) formulated?
Information visible on the career insight widget is based upon the occupations selected for each degree, including associated data using the vendor’s Market Salary Model. The occupations are directly derived from employer demand rather than other reporting agencies. When the occupations are updated, the salary and industry data presented within the widget will recalculate based on those findings.
How many institutions are currently utilizing Burning Glass’s career insights?
As of December 2020, 59 institutions are using career insights.
Job titles vs. occupations
Career insights map to occupations and rather than job titles. For example, a computer support specialist (occupation) can be employed in this space and have a number of different job titles depending on things such as experience level and seniority within the company.
Job titles in Career insights are extracted directly from job postings to reflect the posting employer’s specific requirements. When possible, job titles are cleaned up and standardized to enable aggregate reporting and analysis.
Occupations in Career insights are derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and O*NET codes. Based on analysis of real-time job titles and requirements for skills and education, BLS occupations were adapted to more accurately reflect current employer demand—separating out distinct occupations that BLS codes as one occupation in some cases and consolidating similar occupations that BLS splits out.
Other information: How do we communicate career pathways, transferrable skills, and how a degree can serve as a credential for further graduate study?
Keep in mind that with every degree landing page, the career insights only compromise one portion of its content. The upper half of the degree page’s content should describe what the degree is, who it’s for, how Wayne State’s program is unique, and what the program offers in terms of career paths or stepping stones to other degrees, occupations, or industries.
This information shouldn’t replace or duplicate the career insight content below it but rather supplement it. The purpose of this content is to market the program by informing prospective students of what they can expect and be able to achieve with this degree and training.
What should I do if my program’s occupation and/or salary data is possibly incorrect?
Since the information showing on each career insight is based upon the occupations selected for that degree, you should review the listed occupations for that degree level and send a revised list to the CLAS Marketing Team at clas@wayne.edu.
For suggestions and recommendations, see a master list of occupations.
Remember that while most degrees generally have a specific field of study, graduates may go into other fields or occupations that may not always be traditionally associated with a given degree.
For example, a report on 4,381 job postings from March 2020 to February 2021 for a bachelor’s in anthropology found occupations of UI (user interface), UX (user experience) designer, and developer to be among the highest sought after positions by employers.
Review by location
Important: When reviewing a career insight for occupation and salary data, be sure to note the relative location (see top right section of the tool). By default, the career insights show data for the Metro Detroit area. This scope can be adjusted to a specific city, state, or nationwide, which will filter the results of occupations and salary being presented.
Why is career insights at the bottom of the page? Can it be moved?
This is presently a limitation of the CMS. We’ve asked our development team to explore another solution to grant flexibility on where a career insight appears within the order of the page. For the time being, however, it will default to the last place on the page.
Why isn’t data from reporting agencies like O*NET used?
The occupation and related salary data presented in career insights are directly derived from employer demand. Data from sources such as O*NET and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, though while helpful, are not as accurate as the latest labor market data from actual job postings that the career insights tool amalgamates daily.
Projected employment
As noted in the “market snapshot” or occupation data report, information for various careers still may reference U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Projected Employment data for outlook and growth potential. This can be viewed by clicking “Learn more” button below the salary range once a career is selected.
Special thanks to our Web Communications Team, Amanda Rosales (Enrollment Management), and our CLAS recruiter, Jill de Jesus, for their hard work to bring this great addition to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.