careerladder.fyi › Career paths › Columbia University
How people got research & staff jobs at Columbia University
What 32 people did before they joined Columbia University: where they worked, what they studied, which role they came in through, and how long it took.
32
people in our data got there
50%
had a graduate degree first (of those listing one)
5
typical years since first job
- The most common step right before: from other companies (66%).
- The most common way in was Research (72% joined in that kind of role).
- Of those who list their education, 50% had a graduate degree before arriving and 18% a PhD.
- The typical person arrived about 5 years after their first job.
How Columbia University compares
- 18% had a PhD, below the 30% across other universities, the 3rd-highest of the 3 in our data.
- 50% had a graduate degree, below the 61% across other universities, the 3rd-highest of the 3 in our data.
Among people who list their education; places with at least 10 such people.
Show as a table
| People listing education | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | 24 | 42% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 25 | 24% |
| Columbia University (this page) | 22 | 18% |
Show as a table
| Median years | ||
|---|---|---|
| Columbia University (this page) | 5 yrs | |
| Stanford University | 4 yrs | |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 4 yrs | |
| University of California, Berkeley | 3 yrs |
Which role they joined in
Kinds of role with fewer than 5 people are combined into "All other roles".
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Research | 23 | 72% |
| All other roles | 9 | 28% |
What they did right before
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| From other companies | 21 | 66% |
| Other | 11 | 34% |
Education
Among the 22 of 32 people who list their education.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 11 | 50% |
| Master's | 6 | 27% |
| MBA | 1 | 5% |
| PhD | 4 | 18% |
A person can count under more than one school.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Columbia University | 5 | 16% |
How much experience they had
Among the 29 of 32 people with an earlier job listed.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 years | 8 | 28% |
| 3-5 years | 6 | 21% |
| 5-8 years | 8 | 28% |
| 8-12 years | 3 | 10% |
| 12+ years | 4 | 14% |
Where would your path lead?
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Columbia University, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Columbia University →
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Columbia University, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Columbia University →
Related
How these numbers are made. From 3k+ public career histories collected for careerladder.fyi (dated jobs, degrees and publications). The collection was built around particular employers, so people who reached well-known tech, AI and finance employers are over-represented: read shares as "among people in this dataset", not as hiring odds. Names are shown only when at least 5 people are behind them; smaller groups are combined into "Other". No individual profile is shown. Updated November 2026.