Companies are grouped into industries, which may or may not match exactly with your concentration name. Industries are defined as groups of similar primary business processes, i.e: the main mechanism of revenue generation of a business.

You might be used to thinking about your skills in the context of your jobs associated with your concentration, but the skills learned at Brown likely fit into many more industries than you’d expect. Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Industries at a Glance page for more comprehensive list of industries.

Identifying a few companies, industries and job titles of interest is one way to begin the career exploration journey within Science & Engineering. 

Speaking with alumni with career paths of interest is the best way to collect data on the breadth of opportunities in Science & Engineering that fit your skill sets. Use BrownConnect+ and the Brown LinkedIn Alumni page to get the most access and updated information on alumni of interest.

Check out the Career Exploration Tool to explore the first destinations of Brown Alumni (more recent data is currently being processed and will be available soon). Alumni from Science and Engineering concentrations held a number of varied job titles in Science & Engineering after graduation, including:

• Research Assistant
• Clinical Research Coordinator
• Research Technicians
• Analyst
• Computational Biologists
• Engineer

Roles and companies in the Science & Engineering Industry are diverse and unique. But, here are a few trends we’ve observed from research and conversations with employers:

• Larger companies with established internship programs fill early career and rotational program roles from their intern pools
  • You can still network into any role, but recruiters will be looking out for students who did internships with their company
• Larger companies with established internship programs open internship applications as early as August (10 months before the start date) of the summer prior to the opportunity, and close them as early as October (8 months before the internship start date) of the summer prior to the opportunity .
• Smaller companies and startups want interns, but don’t want to advertise. They often don’t have the bandwidth to deal with many applications and would prefer to get interns or hires through word of mouth.
  • Expanding your network is key here– the more people know about your job search, the more likely you will hear about a role that isn’t advertised. This is called the hidden job market.
• Smaller companies and startups want to hire talent, but they usually need them to start as soon as possible. This means that the busy application season will be 1-4 months before you want to start a role.
• New roles can pop up any time, but you may see an uptick in new roles at the end of each fiscal quarter as Boards approve roles or more funding is secured. Check careers pages at companies of interest at the end of March, June, September and late November/early December!