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Where Badgers Work

Like seeing what your fellow Badgers are up to? Consider this your socially acceptable social media creep…on an an epic scale.

The Internet is full of great ways to waste an hour. How about a great way to spend time online that connects you with fellow University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni? Check out the University of Wisconsin-Madison on LinkedIn.

According to LinkedIn, 201,088 people on the site identify as having attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The charts below show you exactly what those Badgers do, where they live, what they studied, and what their skills are.

Badgers Get Around

The first observation is that while most of us stay close to our Midwestern base in Madison, we are also well represented in urban centers across the country and world. Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee are the top three destinations for Wisconsin graduates, although you find large concentrations in New York; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Boston. Most of the 200,000 LinkedIn Badgers live in the U.S., but roughly 12,000 are based internationally.

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One of the least surprising findings is likely the number of Wisconsin grads working at Epic, the Verona, Wisconsin-based health care software giant. The company was founded by Wisconsin grad Judith Faulkner MS'76, and it makes a concerted effort to recruit the best Wisconsin students every year. Target, which is based in Minneapolis, is the second largest employer of Badgers. The biggest surprise is likely the number three on the list: the University of Minnesota. Apparently, the Gophers have a good eye for talent.

Skills That Pay the Bills

A lot of Wisconsin graduates are using their education to pursue careers that give back to their world. We have more educators and researchers than any other profession. In addition, it seems that UW grads are succeeding in careers that have generally low success rates. For example, journalism is considered a dying or struggling profession, but we find that almost as many Badgers (11,023) are currently working in media as those who studied journalism or communications (13,758). And if you look at the field of law — another industry that has been hammered with contraction and declining job opportunities — more UW graduates are working in the legal industry (7,136) compared to just 6,000 who engaged in legal studies.

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And despite our reputation as modest Midwesterners, Badgers are not shy. Our most common skill is public speaking. Interestingly, UW-Madison grads do not use that skill to make sales, which only 6,248 list as something they’re skilled at. We are also an adaptive bunch, learning skills such as social media and social media marketing, relatively new areas of expertise figure prominently on the list. In addition, we also have the basic skills needed to work in the world today, such as Microsoft Word and Excel.

Take some time to dig through these charts for more insight into the world of Wisconsin alumni. The same interface lets you look for notable alumni and other interests related to our alma mater. And of course, we encourage alumni to join our Wisconsin Alumni LinkedIn discussion group to connect with fellow alumni on a more personal level.

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