PhD No Guarantee of Job

A PhD is regarded as a golden ticket to employability and success, except it isn’t according to a study into the early careers of PhD graduates

Employment outcomes are determined by many factors, like the personal and professional networks students have formed, the discipline area and institution, graduating from a Group of Eight University, and graduating from a non-medical and health-science based PhD degree.

Senior Researcher in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Dr Thanh Pham, explains that this study looked to address a gap in the knowledge relating to long-term employability outcomes for this cohort of students. 

“In this research, we define employability as a sustainable, rewarding and long-term career. This is the ultimate goal of graduates; however, much of the existing research has only looked at short-term employment outcomes. 

“Our findings identified three main issues that need to be addressed in order to make long-term employability outcomes more accessible to PhD graduates,” said Dr Pham.  

The findings include:

• A three-year PhD course was too short a time for graduates to develop their expertise. As a result, graduates were having to rely on their previous degrees in order to obtain employment outcomes and kick-start their careers.
• Graduates who succeeded in obtaining employment had not only expanded but also leveraged their social networks.
• Graduates exercised agency in negotiating employability. Graduates' level of agency was supported and constrained by a range of factors, including motivation and interests, work experience, living experience, specialisations, the conditions of the labour market, and their beliefs, confidence and level of engagement.

The findings in this research showed that although graduates possessed a range of resources, they were constrained by labour market conditions and employers’ expectations. 

“I completed my PhD in an area where very limited industries in Australia need my expertise. I eventually decided to complete another degree after my PhD in order to obtain my current employment. From my experience, students should think carefully about how their PhD can be used for a prospective career before they finalise their research topic,” said a PhD graduate in a STEM course. 

“I applied for more than 50 jobs during the last two years of my degree. I was shortlisted for four positions but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in all of them. I eventually looked at what my peers were doing and why they were able to secure a job, and soon realised it was because they had an extensive list of networks and work experience that they were able to draw on. This was something I didn’t have and upon reflection I felt that I should have been guided and mentored by my course director to make these additional skills a priority in my overall degree,” said a PhD graduate in a non-STEM course.

Non-technical skills, such as communication, planning and project management, problem-solving, and analytical skills play an important role in the employment outcomes of PhD graduates. 

It’s up to doctoral education programs to embed these skills into their curriculum and expose PhD students to a range of resources beyond the official curriculum in order to develop well rounded graduates that are better equipped for the labour market.

To view the research paper, visit: https://bit.ly/3zhWgkt

Image by Mo Eid