Four-fifths of graduates who worked as full-time K–12 teachers in April 1994 believed that their teaching job both required a bachelor’s degree and had possible or definite career potential. Although a similar proportion (79 percent) of graduates who worked full time as engineers, scientists, or lab/research assistants perceived their jobs as having similar professional status, graduates who worked full time in all other occupation categories were less likely to share that perception. In April 1997, 78 percent of graduates employed full time as K–12 teachers reported that their jobs required a degree and had possible or definite career potential. In contrast, 68 percent or less of all other full-time employed graduates—except engineers, scientists, or lab/research assistants and those in legal occupations—reported the same. In 1997, full-time teachers were not more likely than part-time teachers to report that their jobs required a degree and had career potential.

Again as one might expect, graduates who perceived their April 1994 occupations as requiring a degree and having career potential were less likely than those who perceived otherwise to be working in a different occupation in April 1997. Among graduates who worked in both April 1994 and 1997, 32 percent of those who reported that their April 1994 jobs required a degree and had career potential were working in a different occupation in April 1997. In contrast, 71 percent of those who reported that their 1994 job did not require a degree and did not have career potential worked in a different occupation 3 years later.