Career Paths

Many career paths

The employment outlook is positive for students with a degree in sociology, partly due to the range of interest areas within the major. Because sociology is a study of social life, group interactions, and relationships among people, the skills and knowledge you will gain are of vital interest to businesses, governments, and other organizations.

Sociology majors take their education in many directions, whether moving directly into a career or going on to graduate or professional studies. As technological advancements make the world smaller, understanding new and old cultures is necessary for better working relationships across a wide range of professional fields.

Initial and long-term destinations for graduates include positions in employment sectors such as: human services, counseling, psychology, social work, medicine, college student personnel, higher education administration, planning, criminal justice, law, education, government, social science research, business, marketing, sales, environmental sociology, and other related fields.

Talk with Sociology faculty, the academic advisor, career coach, and other students to gain insights into the career paths taken by graduates with this degree. The Occupational Outlook Handbook from the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers career information about hundreds of occupations.

Job placements

Recent IU sociology majors have found positions in the following organizations:

  • Product Specialist (Qualtrics)
  • Academic Mentor (Americorp)
  • Director of Client Services (Meals-on-Wheels)
  • Family Court Mediator (Indiana Health and Rehabilitation Services)
  • Case Management (HIV Outreach)
  • Social Worker (Gary Community School Corporation)
  • Staff Coordinator (Center for Women in Transition)
  • Human Resource Manager (Apple)
  • Business Analyst (Bank of America)
  • Manager (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
  • Consultant (Accenture)

Professional organizations

The following are just a few of the professional organizations with interests in sociology:

Use the Indiana University Library system to search Associations Unlimited, an online directory of associations, professional societies, nonprofit organizations, and much more.