What is the CGE graduate employment survey?
The national reference for measuring the professional integration of graduates from French Grandes Écoles.
An annual, standardized, coordinated survey
The graduate employment survey of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE) is an annual statistical study that has been conducted for more than thirty years among graduates of member schools. Its goal is to measure how young graduates enter the labor market and their trajectory during their first years of professional life. The questionnaire is harmonized across all participating schools, which makes results comparable from one institution to another and allows the aggregation of a national barometer published every year by the CGE.
Both a statistical and a strategic instrument
For schools, the CGE survey serves three complementary purposes. First, it is an internal steering instrument: the indicators (net employment rate, share of permanent contracts, median salary, average time-to-first-job, satisfaction) help adjust teaching, corporate partnerships and career services. Second, it is an external communication tool: results feed rankings, recruitment brochures and institutional materials. Third, it is a condition of membership: participation in the survey is part of the commitments of CGE member schools.
Who is concerned?
- CGE-member management schools that deliver a Master's-level degree or an MSc.
- CGE-member engineering schools, regardless of their governance (public, private, consular or association-based).
- Institutions delivering a CGE-accredited Mastère Spécialisé (MS).
- More broadly, all programs whose qualification is registered with the RNCP are required to publish graduate employment statistics — and many use the CGE methodology by analogy.
CGE 6 months vs CGE 30 months: the two tracks of the survey
A single questionnaire, two populations surveyed simultaneously to produce indicators at two horizons.
The CGE 6-month track: immediate integration
The six-month track surveys the most recently graduated class — typically the N-1 class — about six months after the degrees are awarded. It measures how quickly graduates enter the job market: share of graduates in employment, average job search duration, share of hires made before graduation, first gross annual salary. This is the indicator most watched by candidates and rankings, because it reflects the immediate performance of career services.
The CGE 30-month track: stability and trajectory
The thirty-month track surveys the class that graduated two and a half years earlier. The goal is no longer to measure access to the first job but the solidity of professional integration: share of permanent contracts, share of positions of responsibility, salary progression since the first job, international mobility, satisfaction in the role, share who have changed employer. This track is particularly useful for assessing the medium-term value of the degree.
At-a-glance comparison
| Dimension | CGE 6 months |
CGE 30 months |
|---|---|---|
Population surveyed |
Class N-1 | Class N-3 |
Purpose |
Speed of integration | Solidity of integration |
Flagship indicator |
Net employment rate, first salary | Share of permanent contracts, median salary, mobility |
Collection window |
January to March | January to March |
Typical use |
Candidate communication, rankings | Corporate relations, academic steering |
Official methodology and typical questions
What the harmonized CGE questionnaire contains and how it is administered.
Questionnaire structure
The CGE questionnaire covers several thematic blocks, in a consistent order from year to year to preserve comparability:
- Current professional situation: employed, job-seeking, continuing studies, on gap year, starting a business.
- Employment characteristics: job title, contract type (permanent, fixed-term, freelance, temp), working time, tenure in the company, start date.
- Employer: name, sector, size, type (private, public, non-profit), location (France/abroad, region, country).
- Compensation: gross annual base salary, variable, benefits, currency.
- Recruitment channels: how the job was obtained (internship, apprenticeship, unsolicited application, referral, alumni network, school platform, recruiter), search duration.
- Satisfaction and plans: job satisfaction, fit with the training received, medium-term plans.
- Socio-demographic variables: gender, nationality, scholarship holder, disability, pathway (initial training, apprenticeship, continuing education).
Administration and collection
Collection typically runs from January to March. Each school distributes the questionnaire to its entire targeted class via email, its alumni space, and sometimes via SMS or supplementary phone calls to non-respondents. The most organized schools combine several channels and several reminder waves, with differentiated messages depending on the segment (employed, job-seeking, silent for X months).
Processing and reporting
Data is then cleaned, standardized and transmitted to the CGE in a standardized tabular format (one row per respondent, harmonized columns). The CGE carries out the national aggregation and publishes consolidated results every year, along with breakdowns by discipline (management vs engineering), by gender, by location and by sector.
Typical national benchmarks
The orders of magnitude you should know to position your own results.
Indicators observed at the national level
The results published every year by the CGE serve as common reference points for all schools. Without citing specific figures for any given year (to be verified in the official annual publication), here are the indicators you should systematically position against the national benchmark:
- Net employment rate: share of graduates in employment among those job-seeking or in employment (excluding continuing studies).
- Share of permanent contracts: proportion of employed graduates with an open-ended contract.
- Gross annual median salary excluding bonuses, broken down between France and international.
- International share: proportion of graduates working outside France.
- Average time-to-first-job, in months.
- Share recruited before graduation, an indicator particularly watched in engineering schools.
- Job satisfaction, on a 1-10 scale or as a percentage of satisfied respondents.
How to interpret gaps
A gap of a few points compared to the CGE benchmark is not necessarily significant: it may stem from non-response bias, a sector specificity (a school specialized in finance or data should not be compared to the all-sectors average) or a year-specific effect. Analysis becomes more meaningful when compared to a homogeneous subgroup (benchmark by discipline, degree level or school size) and tracked across several consecutive years.
Obligations, sanctions and calendar
What schools must respect to remain compliant.
Statutory obligation for CGE members
Participation in the graduate employment survey is part of the statutory commitments schools make when joining the Conférence des Grandes Écoles. A school that fails to report its data twice may see its membership status called into question. Beyond the formal sanction, non-participation sends a negative signal to rankings, candidates and corporate partners.
RNCP obligations
All programs whose qualification is registered in the Répertoire National des Certifications Professionnelles (RNCP) are required to publish graduate employment indicators regularly. The CGE methodology, because it is standardized and legible, is commonly used as a foundation to meet this regulatory requirement.
Typical annual calendar
- October-December: questionnaire preparation, alumni directory updates, targeting of the population.
- January: official launch of the collection, first email wave.
- February: targeted reminders by segment, phone calls to key non-respondents.
- March: collection closes, responses cleaned and standardized.
- April: consolidated file sent to the CGE.
- June-September: CGE publishes the national barometer, schools communicate individually.
Tools: Google Forms vs dedicated platform
Why choosing the right tool gains or loses you several points of response rate.
Google Forms, Typeform, Qualtrics
Generalist solutions. Free or low-cost. Quick to set up. But: no pre-filling from the alumni directory, manual reminders, no standardized CGE output format, no real-time segment tracking, heavy Excel reprocessing downstream.
Dedicated alumni platform
Standardized CGE 6-month, CGE 30-month and CTI questionnaires. Automatic pre-fill from the profile (current job, employer, position). Automated segmented reminders. XLSX export in the format expected by the CGE. Real-time dashboard with embedded national benchmarks. Several extra points of response rate.
Full external provider
Some schools fully outsource the collection to a provider that handles distribution, reminders and reporting. Higher cost. Less control over the alumni relationship. Useful for very small teams without a tool, less relevant once a modern alumni platform is in place.
Tips to maximize response rate
The levers that really move the needle, beyond simply sending emails.
Up-to-date directory before launch
The main failure factor of a CGE survey is not questionnaire quality but contact database quality. An outdated professional email is a lost respondent. Three months before the collection, running a directory-update campaign (personal email by default, mobile phone, known professional situation) pays off across the entire cycle.
Pre-filling known fields
A graduate who opens a questionnaire where name, graduation year, current employer and job title are already pre-filled responds far more easily than a graduate facing a blank form. Pre-filling reduces average completion time and mechanically boosts the completion rate.
Segmented reminders
Not all reminders are equal. A graduate who has never opened the email needs a different message from one who opened but did not complete. Dedicated platforms allow segmented reminders: non-openers, openers who didn't click, clickers who didn't complete, partial completers.
Complementary channels
Email remains dominant but is no longer enough. In-app notifications (in the alumni application), SMS for a targeted subset, relays through class representatives and phone reminders for key non-respondents are all levers to secure the response rate.
Participation incentives
Schools that combine the CGE survey with a value proposition (access to a mentorship platform, inclusion in an alumni directory usable for professional bridges, a personalized report) see their rate improve. The survey should not feel like an administrative chore but like a moment of contribution to a community.
How Terrilink industrializes the CGE survey
The module included in the Terrilink for Alumni Premium plan.
Ready-to-use standardized questionnaires
The three major formats of the French ecosystem — CGE 6 months, CGE 30 months, CTI — are natively available on Terrilink. Zero configuration: schools activate the current-year questionnaire, choose the target population, and launch the collection. The output format matches the reporting expected by the CGE.
Automatic pre-fill and smart reminders
Known fields (current job, employer, position) are pre-filled from the alumni profile. Reminders are automatically sequenced by segment (non-opener, opener who didn't complete, partial respondent) with tailored messages and optimized send times.
Real-time dashboard and benchmarks
During collection, the dashboard displays the response rate in real time by class, discipline and channel. At close, key indicators (net employment rate, share of permanent contracts, median salary, satisfaction) are shown against national benchmarks. XLSX export with 29 columns in the CGE format and institutional-ready PDF.
To go further, see the guide CGE vs CTI: key differences for schools and the comparison How to choose your alumni software in 2026. To discover the platform, visit Terrilink for Alumni or the AlumnForce alternative.