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		Careers Paths in Materials Science and Engineering V. Koebnick, Mgr. Education, TMS and G. L. Liedl, Prof. and Head, School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University Introduction Table of Contents Introduction Educational Background of Survey Group People in the Survey Group Factors Influencing People to Enter Field Career Path Salary Trends Discussion In the general area of career counseling there is always a need to address the question of what do people really do that get degrees in a particular field. In the materials field this question is further complicated by the fact that most people have never heard of the field although it has been around for ages. The Career Resource Center (CRC) for Materials Science and Engineering was developed by TMS in collaboration with the broad materials community with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. A focus of the CRC is to generate a database of information that may help provide input to that key question on career opportunities. As a part of that database of information a survey of the field was initiated. The focus of this survey is on the people with degrees in the field rather than those who work in the field. This distinction might appear trivial but surveys of people working in the field cover those with formal education from many disciplines and encompass far more people than those that graduated with degrees in the field. Also, surveys of those working in the field ignore the fact that many people change career fields during their working years. Thus, these surveys do not give an insight on what happens to people with degrees in the field. Our attention is directed to career planning where we want information relative to potential opportunities. From this view it is important to have information on both initial opportunities and career paths. The CRC sought help from the universities with programs in the field. Degree programs considered covered the spectrum of engineering programs identified as ceramics, metallurgy, polymers, and/or materials. Over a third of the universities that offer programs in the field were able to share their alumni mailing lists with us. These lists included degrees granted through 1996. An initial short survey was made on a sample of 5000 alumni and the results were reported previously in JOM. For the career path survey, a sample of 10,000 alumni was selected. About twenty-three percent were returned and provided us with some interesting knowledge on careers in the field. Although the survey covered all graduates this report will focus and/or compare with more recent graduates, those who were born after 1960, i.e., graduated in the 1980's and 1990's. To our knowledge this is the first such survey to be made of the whole field. The following pages outline some of the basic information from this survey.   Educational Background of Survey Group