By MacGregor Obergfell
The Council of Graduate Students (CGS) recently published a research brief examining job changes within the last three years for three cohorts of PhD holders. The data was collected from 4,766 PhD holders at 51 institutions three-, eight-, and fifteen-years after receiving their doctoral degrees.
Among the findings:
- 90% of PhD holders who received their degree three years earlier experienced a job change within that same time frame. Among fields of study, Education was the outlier – only 80% of the cohort changed jobs within the last three years.
- Roughly 50% of PhD holders who received their degree eight years earlier experienced a job change within the last three years, and about 30% of PhD holders who received their degree fifteen years earlier experienced a job change within the last three years.
- Most job changes occur within the same sector, such as within academia or within the business/government/non-profit (BGN) sector. However, a significant number of job changes occur across sectors.
- For example, 21% of PhD holders who earned their degree three years earlier in the Life and Health Sciences left academia and joined the BGN sector within the last three years, while 11% of the same cohort joined academia from the private sector in that same period.
- PhD holders in the STEM fields in all three cohorts were most likely to transfer across sectors within the last three years. PhD holders in the Arts and Humanities transferred across sectors at roughly similar rates in all three cohorts.
- Generally, most job changes across sectors are from academia to the BGN sector, with Education PhDs being the exception.
- Job changes occur at different rates across cohorts.
- For PhD holders who earned their degree in the Life and Health Sciences eight years earlier, 13% left academia and joined the BGN sector within the last three years, and 11% of the same cohort joined academia within the same period.
- For Life and Health Sciences PhD holders who earned their degree fifteen years earlier, 10% left academia and joined the BGN sector within the last three years, and only 6% joined academia within the last three years.
- PhD holders who left the BGN sector within the last three years entered academia with different positions at each stage in their career.
- 26% of PhD holders who earned their degree three years earlier entered academia as non-faculty researchers or post-docs, compared with 18% of PhD holders who earned their degree eight years earlier and 6% of PhD holders who earned their degree fifteen years earlier.
- 17% of PhD holders who earned their degree three years earlier entered academia as an administrator, compared with 18% of PhD holders who earned their degree eight years earlier and 50% of PhD holders who earned their degree fifteen years earlier.
It is clear from the data that PhD holders do not have linear career paths.
