Career Resources for Current PACE Students
- Go to SF State Career and Leadership Development for assistance with your career services
- Make sure to catch the career panels and speakers hosted by PACE and CLD throughout the semester
- Check out PACE’s student-facing Canvas site for career resources & job opportunities, including public and nonprofit employment sites and job/internship announcements
- Check out our alumni profiles and Advisory Board bios to learn more about what our graduates do with their degrees
Internships
Most of our students are employed full-time and attend school part time. Consequently, only a small minority of students are required to complete an internship to meet the degree requirements; most are able to obtain a waiver of the internship requirement. For information about how to request a waiver, contact PACE Director Dr. Jennifer Shea (jshea@sfsu.edu).
Check out the PACE Canvas page and follow us on LinkedIn to find internship opportunities.
MPA Alumni Employment (Graduates 2023 – 2024)
Six months after our Academic Year 2023 – 2024 graduates completed the distribution of their employment by sector mirroring past years, with the greatest number employed by local government and domestically oriented nonprofit organizations. Employment by state government agencies was also consistent with past years. More were employed by internationally oriented nonprofits.
- Seventy-two percent of students who graduated in academic year 2023 – 2024 were employed when they began the MPA Program. On average, they had 8.2 years of professional experience and 3.6 years in the position they held upon enrolling in the MPA Program.
- One hundred percent indicated they were on the right career track when they graduated as compared to when they began the program.
- Many of them experienced career changes while pursuing their degrees, with 31% being promoted, 45% getting new jobs, 13% changing sectors, 24% changing agencies, and 21% changing sectors.
- Our 2022 – 2023 graduates felt that the MPA Program prepared them well for their careers. According to the exit survey that year, on average graduates scored us near the top of a 7-pointrating scale for each of the following:
- Feeling qualified for an entry-level position (6.5)
- Feeling qualified for a mid-level position (6.5)
- Feeling the MPA prepared them well for their job/career (6.3)
Sector of Employment
|
|
| State, provincial or regional government |
11% |
| City, county, or other local government |
22% |
| Foreign government or international quasi-governmental |
6% |
| Nonprofit domestic-oriented |
31% |
| Nonprofit/NGOs internationally-oriented |
3% |
| Private Sector, not research or consulting |
8% |
| Unemployed (not seeking employment) |
3% |
| Unemployed (seeking employment) |
8% |
| Status Unknown |
8% |
| Total |
100% |