This past weekend was the 10-year reunion for the MIT Class of 2000 -- my MIT class. It was fun to see so many of my classmates and hear about what they've been up to after all this time.

One frequent question I get as an admissions officer is, what do MIT people do after graduating? It's hard to give a comprehensive answer to that question, but perhaps this will be helpful.

In anticipation of our 10-year reunion, I emailed all the members of our class (about 1000 people) and asked for "10-year updates." I got a variety of responses (representing about 5% of our class), which I compiled and sent out to the class. Realizing what a resource I had, though, I condensed the responses into a one-line summary of each responding classmate's current job situation. I also listed graduate degrees if they were mentioned (many were not). I did not leave anyone out who responded; I have listed all responses below in the order that the emails show up in my inbox. I think it is very interesting! Check it out...

• In law school
• Technical staff at Los Alamos (MIT PhD)
• Technical staff at Los Alamos (MIT PhD)
• Management consultant at McKinsey (MIT MEng)
• Cognitive Science Professor at UCSD (University College London PhD)
• Computer programmer
• Hosting the Discovery show 'Time Warp;' co-directed the upcoming OK Go music video
• Medical device company Business Development Manager (MIT MS)
• Real estate agent and mortgage officer
• Political Science professor at Pitt (Stanford PhD)
• Psychology post-doc (UT-Austin PhD)
• Administrator at Duke
• VP of technical services company (formerly in the Air Force)
• Medical doctor - surgeon
• Systems engineer at Linden Labs (Second Life)
• International development AAAS fellow at USAID (UMass-Amherst PhD)
• PhD student in chemistry (UFlorida)
• Lawyer - intellectual property
• Mathematician (Duke PhD)
• Medical doctor - glaucoma specialist (Harvard MD)
• Chemical engineer for ExxonMobil
• Computer engineer at Akamai
• Biotech industry (Stanford PhD)
• Professional skydiver (former consultant)
• Professional skydiver (former consultant)
• Biotech industry ("a company that runs oncology clinical trials") - Director of Business Development (Columbia PhD)
• Economics professor at Cornell; former White House lead energy economist (Stanford PhD)
• Med school student (St George's, University of London MBBS)
• Medical doctor - physical medicine and rehabilitation (UT-Southwestern MD)
• Computer science & physics teacher and Air Force reservist
• Medical doctor
• Technical lead at Twitter (MIT MEng)
• Google - YouTube and TV ads projects
• Medical doctor - anesthesiologist (Vanderbilt MD)
• Marketing manager - VMware
• Biology postdoc at Harvard (UCSF PhD)
• Artist, designer, educator, and glassblower (RISD MFA)
• Biotech industry - Medtronic
• Process engineer at Intel (UCLA PhD)
• Amazon.co.jp Senior Manager
• Lawyer - derivatives practice at JPMorgan (Columbia JD)
• Medical doctor - gastroenterology (UVA MD)
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• PhD student - materials science, Rice U (former NASA team lead)
• Lawyer; former staff to House of Representatives Committee on Science (Georgetown JD)
• "I work on quantitative stock trading out of my living room."
• Graduate student in Australia (UHawaii MS)
• Veterinarian (Tufts DVM)
• "A start-up focused on mobile money lending in Africa"
• Cirque du Soleil - Artistic Director (will begin Wharton MBA)
• IT Director - gift & loyalty card industry
• Apple - Senior Manager (iPhone) (MIT MS)
• Linguistics Professor at Harvard (MIT PhD)
• Medical doctor - soft tissue pathology (Boston U MD/PhD)
• Admissions officer - MIT

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

I like the last one.

Posted by: Anonymous on June 9, 2010

@Anonymous, I agree with you, that's an awesome job.
on the other hand, I also like #10 counting from behind XD

Posted by: Jochi Pochi on June 9, 2010

Only someone from MIT could come up with the OK-Go idea...

Posted by: neongreen on June 9, 2010

Nice to see no of diverse group ppl from a single batch

Posted by: harsha on June 10, 2010

I like the last one too

Posted by: Aditi '12 on June 10, 2010

I like the 6th and 7th one from top.
MIT is great(best) place to study

Posted by: Abhishek on June 10, 2010

isn't the 7th from top Jeff Lieberman. i would love that job.

Posted by: Keshav on June 10, 2010

how come on the orientation registration form there is a wide range of dates that you can arrive at MIT (i think 8/20-8/28)? what day do most students arrive?

Posted by: 0 on June 10, 2010

thanks matt for this awesome post! i've been thinking about a career change myself, and didn't realize the diversity of careers mit grads have taken on after graduation. hopefully we can have a chat later on and discuss some of these options! thank you again!

Posted by: James Yuen on June 10, 2010

I am very sure about the last one..Matt!!

Posted by: vv on June 10, 2010

lol two ex-consultants turned professional skydivers?

Posted by: jenn on June 10, 2010

@Anonymous 1:47pm - Depends on if you're doing an FPOP or not. My guess is that the last date they list is when you must arrive by.

Posted by: Piper '12 on June 10, 2010

"Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil", "Los Alamos", and "Lawyer - derivatives practice at JPMorgan (Columbia JD)"...wow...of course, admissions officer is fine too

Posted by: genius ('18) on June 11, 2010

@ Jenn: noticed it too lol!

I love the last one. Way to go Matt and all your former classmates. That's us in 2024.

Posted by: Daphne on June 11, 2010

That's amazing...))
Last one is like serve for general good...

Posted by: Ruslan'(15) on June 12, 2010

I like the one from the person who does stocks out of their living room ^_^

Posted by: Amethyst on June 13, 2010

An anonymous congratulations to three MIT '14ers from my large urban school district in southern Texas: hint--two of you are from the same school and all three of you have school mascots that are big cats. And I think I've met you at UIL math/science before. Have tons of fun, hack something, and eat some nitrogen ice cream for me!! Maybe I'll see you all in a year or two?

(Hope this is in now way creepy sounding; that was not the intent at all!)

Good luck and best wishes!--
A person from a school with a bird of prey (which some other schools claim resembles a chicken) for a mascot. ^_^

Posted by: Anonymous on June 13, 2010

Unrelated question but crucial, at least in my mind: when are we notified of whether or not we got "accepted" into an FPOP?

Posted by: Jess on June 14, 2010

Hello, Thanks for the experiences shared, but I am quite new to this and I have a question for Mr. Matt McGann. Please let me know how I can contact you privately.

Thanks

Posted by: Mathew on June 14, 2010

I want to go to MIT now! I want to be a Mechanical Engineer, and this school has been the most impressive so far!

Posted by: Stephanie on June 15, 2010

Wow, so amazing that is. your classmates are quite great so that both of them got a very good job/degree.
By the way ,I like the last too^^

Posted by: Passerby on June 16, 2010

Wow, so amazing that is. your classmates are quite great so that both of them got a very good job/degree.
By the way ,I like the last too^^

Posted by: Passerby on June 16, 2010

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