Navigating careers: perceptions of sciences doctoral students, post-PhD researchers and pre-tenure academics

Abstract

While the doctorate was once perceived as preparation for an academic position, internationally more than half of all graduates leave the higher education sector by choice or lack of opportunity. We know little of how they perceive and navigate the transition from PhD to other career. This longitudinal study of 23 sciences doctoral students, post-PhD researchers, and pre-tenure academics in Canada assessed the interpretive value of two constructs in explaining changes in career thinking and decision-making. The interaction of horizons for action (personal influences on future intentions), and opportunity structures (knowledge of career opportunities) provided a means to explain individual shifts over time and differences across roles in career thinking. Generally, over time and across roles, their knowledge of career opportunities grew, but concurrently their personal horizons for action became narrower due to changing personal relationships and responsibilities. Both the significance of the findings and the pedagogical implications are explored.

Keywords:

• doctoral students
• post-PhD researchers
• pre-tenure academics
• early career academics
• career transitions

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We also wish to thank other members of the research team who helped collect the data and make this analysis possible: Cheryl Amundsen, Shuhua Chen, and Greg Hum.

Notes

1. These findings reflect little change in the last decade, e.g. Fox and Stephan (2001). Interestingly, despite a relatively large Science, Technology and Society (STS) literature on scientists, it largely deals with learning and carrying out research, with little attention to early career decision-making.

2. This methodology is just one among many qualitative ones, each of which takes a different stance towards the meaning and use of participant data (Creswell 2013).

3. The analysis was facilitated by the use of qualitative data analysis software.

4. Horizons for action is presented first as it is necessary to understand individuals' personal lives in order to understand what they constitute as opportunity structures.