Chris Woolston's Nature article (2022), "What Hope Do I Have?" describes survey results about the views 3200 graduate students have about their job prospects.
66% of grad students believe their degree will improve their job prospects and the rest see little or no benefit .
Does this match with your experience in grad school? For me, I felt like it was the reverse, at least with doctoral students. I often felt very optimistic about the options I would have after finishing my degree, whereas I picked up on a lot of pessimism from other doctoral students about their jobs post-degree.
47% of grad students are dissatisfied with the career options guidance and advice in their programs.
Now this I completely agree with. I was fortunate to have some mentoring in regards to post-degree options, but most of it was done on my own. As I've mentioned before, about three years into my PhD was when I decided that self-employment was my preferred route instead of academia.
What that looks like for me now is that I have a part-time clinical counselling practice, I'm engaged in some research and consulting, and I also teach one class at a time at a postsecondary institution. This is the right fit and balance for me.
48% of survey respondents want to continue to work in academia.
Again, I think this is due to a variety of reasons, but the reality is that if half of grad students want to continue on in academia, this means that career options need to be expanded.
As things stand now, with minimal career support for most grad students, this will be up to you. You may have a supervisor or other mentor who can help with this, but taking an active approach from day one in grad school is how you can find hope for your future career. Here are three ways you can make your career development a priority:
1. Dedicate time every month to focus on your career development.
Once a month, I would spend about an hour on tasks related to career development. Most months, this would look like me taking the time to update my academic CV. Doing this every month helped me catch the little things, like workshops, and bigger things, like conference presentations or volunteer roles.
At the beginning, I was structuring my CV to focus on teaching, research, and service and by updating my CV every month, I was revisiting how I was doing in each category and could plan for what to make sure I could add in the future.
I would also occasionally look at job postings to determine what types of jobs I could do. I had a few phrases I would save (e.g., research associate) and see what jobs came up for those. I also kept an eye on teaching opportunities at other nearby institutions so I could familiarize myself with how hiring worked.
I tried to attend any career-related sessions at conferences as many conferences have grad student related sessions. These were often more helpful than sessions at my university, but broadening my perspective on careers was also worthwhile. Becca and I talk more about what you can do on the podcast, season 1, episode 5.
2. Create a LinkedIn profile.
I created a LinkedIn profile during my third year, once I decided I wanted to pursue self-employment. This helped me connect with colleagues and friends I had met in the first part of my PhD program. I wasn't too active on there but it did help connect me with people that I have reached out to professionally for a variety of reasons. And, often people share job postings at their institutions or workplaces so it is helpful for that.
LinkedIn, like most social media sites, has evolved recently so I took a free workshop on how to set up a new profile and make the most of your time on that site. Depending on what types of careers you're interested in, I think that LinkedIn is a great resource for grad students to think about your options.
3. Find relevant work/volunteer experience.
Working during grad school is pretty much a necessity these days due to high costs of living. It may not always be possible to volunteer (and I do recommend that grad students avoid working for free), however, if you can choose relevant work experience, this goes a long way toward giving yourself hope in grad school.
It was through my numerous jobs in grad school that I honed what I wanted to do as a career. For example, I found that I loved postsecondary teaching ( I had previously taught postecondary for two years and worked in K-12 for 7 years) and ended up doing a postgraduate certificate in teaching in higher education as a result.
I learned so much about conducting research, how to apply for grants, collaborating, and all the other parts and still use so much of this knowledge in my present research.
I also learned what combinations and types of jobs I wouldn't be interested in, based on conversations with mentors, colleagues, and peers. It was also through these experiences and conversations I realized I had many more options than I had previously thought.
Starting with these three approaches can help you feel like you can prioritize your career development during grad school and give yourself some hope that you have options and they are numerous.
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