Is there life after a PhD? Proceeedings from a symposium presented by the Graduate School

Abstract

The flippant title conceals a real and serious question. How does one go about building a career after completing a PhD? The larger context includes the motivation for doing a PhD in the first place and the various market places which might employ PhD graduates and their needs. Most students undertake PhDs after successful undergraduate careers that awaken their interests in a particular subject and a desire to penetrate more deeply into it. The implicit expectation is usually a career in research and/or teaching in a university. The rewards and the style that can be expected of a life in the academy have, however, changed greatly over the last two or three decades. The impetus for arranging the symposium was our increasing concern that students undertaking PhD studies are not sufficiently aware of the shrinking job opportunities and intense competition now endemic in the traditional arena and, conversely, of the potential of other less often considered avenues providing for rewarding careers. There is plenty of hard, as well as anecdotal, evidence for the first proposition. For example a recent Nature (vol. 383, p195, 1996) review of an American study reports that it found that fewer than half of PhDs in academic institutions hold tenure track positions. In the light of this finding, the US National Academy of Sciences recommends that young scientists 'approach their careers with a broad view, with the well-developed set of professional survival skills that today's job market requires'.Good advice surely. But what are these skills and how do you acquire them? It occurred to us that a good way to explore this question and to illustrate the wider horizons that PhD graduates, and, better, intending PhD candidates, should be scanning, would be to enlist as speakers in a symposium people who had successfully deployed a PhD degree as a spring- board to develop careers outside the conventional sphere. To our surprise there are many such individuals and, more gratifyingly, these outstanding Australians when approached were generous in agreeing to participate in our symposium. As may be judged from the accounts collected here, the presentations were interesting, pertinent and often provocative. We are grateful to the participants for their time, their enthusiasm and for agreeing to provide the written scripts which form the basis of this publication. It was evident from the capacity audience throughout the day and the lively discussion following each talk, that students in the Graduate School do feel the need for creative and practical career advice. It seemed to us well worthwhile to make the proceedings available for continuing reference as a Graduate School Occasional Paper. For this first symposium we decided to focus on PhDs in science and engineering. Clearly, a good deal that was said was relevant to other disciplines too. Still, we hope in future to broaden the scope of related symposia to include, explicitly, career options for PhDs in the social sciences, humanities and other areas. We hope that Symposia like 'Is There Life after a PhD?; will form a nice complement to the Induction Program-- 'How to Manage Your Research Degree'--offered by the Graduate School,whose emphasis is on giving students good advice on how to equip themselves for a successful career.