Life After Stanford

Career Development & Alumni Networking

The Career Development Center is dedicated to helping our students think about their career plans and assisting in the transition from student to working professional. The Center provides a vast array of services to Stanford undergraduates, including libraries and databases on career information, contacts and interviews with prospective employers, career programs and workshops, and individual career counseling.

The office of Undergraduate Academic Life also advises undergraduates on applying to graduate school, finding fellowships to fund your particular goals, and preparing compelling application materials for both graduate school and fellowships.

Stanford students graduate with a remarkably strong global alumni network and their entrepreneurial spirit fuels Stanford’s reputation.  While Stanford may be known for its venerable alumni like William Hewlett and David Packard (both from the class of 1934), or even more recent graduates like Jim Plunkett ’70 or Sally Ride ’73 - consider the achievements of our even ‘younger’ alumni:

• Emanuel Pleitez '05, former special assistant to LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who recently made a nearly successful bid to win the California congressional seat vacated by now-U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis - at just 26 years old.
• Matty Merrill ’00, founder of Distilled contemporary ‘geek chic’ menswear.
• Kerri Walsh ’00, Olympic gold medalist.
• Yul Kwon ’97, CBS Survivor winner.
• Marissa Mayer ’97, Google vice president.
• Nicole Kraus ’96, New York Times best-selling author of The History of Love
• Rachel Maddow '94, first openly gay American to win a Rhodes Scholarship and the first openly gay anchor to host a primetime news program.
• Scott Forstall '91 & '92, Senior Vice President of iPhone Software. Reporting directly to the CEO, Forstall leads the team responsible for delivering Apple software for the iPhone including the user interface, applications, frameworks and the operating system.
• Tim Westergren ‘88, founder of Pandora, radio from the Music Genome Project
• Tracey Edmonds ’87, entertainment executive
• Jeffrey Taylor ’87, US attorney for the District of Columbia
• Dan Goldie ’86, ranked #37 on Barron’s list of the top 100 independent financial advisors
• John Keitel ’86, Kiss the Bride and Latter Days editor
• Susan Rice '86, United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice is the first African-American woman named as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.