Tracking job outcomes is the heart of the CIRR standard. Create another field in your CRM or spreadsheet for each graduate’s employment status. (Alternatively, track this data in the same field as the enrollment status.) Create a status for each of the CIRR outcomes:

1. Full-time employee (1A)

2. Full-time apprenticeship, internship, or contract position (1B)

3. Short-term contract, part-time position, freelance, or unknown length (1C)

4. Started a new company or venture after graduation (1D)

5. Employed out-of-field (2A)

6. Continuing to higher education (2B)

7. Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons (2C)

8. Still seeking a job in-field (3)

9. Could not contact (4)

10. Excluded

Process

Upon graduation, first categorize every student who responded to the pre-class survey, who did not intend to start a new in-field job within 180 days of graduation, or who is not authorized to work in the country of study, with the status of "Excluded". Then categorize every remaining student as "Still seeking a job (in-field)".

If your school is regularly in touch with your graduates about their job search, be sure that as your students report their employment outcomes, your career services staff obtains the required CIRR documentation (explained below). If your school does not contact all of your graduates on a regular basis, we recommend that you implement a follow-up schedule for outreach at least once a month after graduation to ensure that you gather the required documentation in a timely manner. The more time that elapses between a student’s employment and your outreach to gather documentation, the less likely you are to obtain that documentation.

Documentation requirements

To report a student as having any outcome except "Still seeking a job", the school must obtain documentation from the graduate, the graduate's employer, a third-party recruiter, or legal, credentialed third-party employment history service.

The documentation may be verbal or written, including any electronic communication, such as email, text message, chat, or electronically submitted form. For information obtained verbally, the records must contain a written statement indicating:

1. The date of the conversation,

2. The school representative or agent who conducted the conversation,

3. The person who provided the information, and if that person is not the student, the person’s relation to the student, and

4. The content of the conversation as relates to the data being collected.

Non-job outcomes

Could not contact: If the school attempts to contact the student a minimum of 4 times through 2 different means of communication, and the student never responds, the student may be classified as "Non-reporting". The school must keep documentation including the dates of the attempted contacts and the student’s contact information used in those attempts.

Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons: The graduate states that they were prevented from finding a position within 180 days of graduation due to a personal, family or medical situation.

Continuing to higher education: The graduate states that they are continuing education at another institution.

Started a new company or venture: The graduate states that she or he is pursuing entrepreneurship full-time in lieu of searching for a job. The endeavor may be for-profit or not-for-profit.

Job outcomes

Documentation for all job outcomes must:

1. State either the offer date or start date. (If both are available, use the earlier to compute placement data.)

2. State that the offer is paid. (Exact payment rate is not required. Unpaid offers do not qualify.)

3. Indicate that the offer was accepted.

Documentation for in-field positions must either:

1. Include a statement that the job requires the skills for which the student was trained at the school; or

2. Have a job title that would fall under an in-field classification used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics SOC codes.

Documentation for "Full-time employee" roles must:

1. State that the offer or contract is permanent, at-will, or greater than six months.

2. Indicate that the job is full-time, or at least 30 hours per week.

Documentation for "Full-time apprenticeship, internship, or contract position" roles must:

1. State that the offer or contract is three to six months.

2. Indicate that the job is full-time, or at least 30 hours per week.

For the avoidance of doubt: a contract-to-hire arrangement, wherein a contract states three-month employment, and a potential full-time offer thereafter, counts as "Full-time apprenticeship, internship, or contract position" until a permanent offer is documented.

Documentation for "short-term, part-time, or freelance" roles must:

1. Indicate that the student would be employed or contracted for 150 hours, either with a) with a single employer, starting within 180 days of graduation, or b) multiple employers, all within 180 days of graduation.

Documentation for "unknown" roles must:

1. Be a screenshot of the student's LinkedIn profile.

2. If the profile includes the month the position started, the last day of that month may be used for the start date. If the profile does not, the date of the screenshot may be used.

3. The "unknown" status may only be used if a student would otherwise qualify as "non-reporting" or the student has requested that the school not contact them.

Create a field to track the salary of your graduates. Salary includes only base compensation and excludes bonuses, equity, relocation, and any other non-base compensation. If a student has held multiple positions, you may report on the position acquired at your discretion. However, you must use the salary of the position that matches the student’s offer or start date. If salary information is known, it must be included.