‘“Expecting” an academic career’: things to consider if that sounds like you

Last month, I found one of my New Favourite Things On The Internet… An ‘expectations vs. reality’ meme generator.

Apart from being yet another distraction when I should be doing productive things like taking out the recycling, this procrastination wormhole struck a chord over something I’ve thought a lot about recently. Over the past 18 months, I’ve read a lot of research on post-PhD employability for the chapter I have forthcoming soon in the SAGE Handbook of Graduate Employability [shameless plug over].

It ended up not being a main focus of the chapter itself, but something I kept getting stuck on in my research was this:

1) Reading stuff suggesting that ‘most’ PhD researchers ‘expect’ to pursue academic careers

2) At the same time, reading lots of stuff suggesting that most PhD graduates don’t ultimately end up in academia

3) Is this really just a case of there not being enough academic jobs to go around, or is something else going on here?

And therefore, which is what this post is trying to do… 4) If you’re a doctoral researcher and think you want to pursue an academic career, what are some things to bear in mind as you work towards this goal?

PGR Career expectations

So, where was this information coming from? Well, the report I remembered most clearly was a policy note released in 2020 looking at PhD graduates’ responses the UK’s Graduate Outcomes Survey (a survey sent to all graduates 15 months after graduation). It found that 67% of respondents said that they thought that they were ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to pursue a career in ‘research in academia.’ Did that surprise me? No. but it certainly felt uncomfortable when in the other ear I had the booming echo of pieces like that 2010 report from the Royal Society that (in)famously claimed that that only 3.5% of scientific PhD graduates secure permanent jobs in academic research, with just 0.45% becoming Professors.

It felt easy to call this a symptom of what we hear all the time: people going into PhDs with wide-eyed, dreamy, ill-managed aspirations of becoming a professor, only to realise that there aren’tenough academic jobs to go around, and that those dreams need to be promptly abandoned and cast asunder.

BUT… my gut, plus my years of working with PhD researchers on their next career steps, told me that this was an oversimplification. Was this really just a clash of career expectations vs. job market reality? Why would so many PhDs say that they expected to pursue an academic career, if we’re constantly being told that this outcome is unlikely…? But also… for people who really want an academic career, is it worth event trying…?!?

I really, really want to say yes. But, based on my research and my practice, here are a few things that I think might be going on here with this apparent mismatch of expectations vs. reality, and some points that I think it’s worth bearing in mind, and checking yourself for.

1) Do your perceptions of an academic career reflect the reality?

One thought was that these stats might be influenced by some PhD researchers stating that they ‘want’ or ‘expect’ to pursue an academic career based on initially skewed perceptions of what an academic career entails. When these perceptions start to get tested against the reality – perhaps in late-stage PhD, or postdoctoral positions – people leave academia because their expectations of academic professional life don’t match their expectations, and they are left disillusioned.

In my own career guidance practice, I frequently hear postgrad researchers say that they favour an academic career because they believe it will give them the freedom ‘to research whatever they like,’ and to further pursue knowledge and scholarship in their area of greatest passion. If that sounds like you, then think carefully about the extent to which a career in academia will allow you this. In a seminal 2020 report by Wellcome, 43% of academic researchers surveyed agreed that their institution placed more value on meeting metrics than on research quality, whilst 44% agreed that their institution’s expectations of them to undertake a multiple other roles (think teaching, admin, grant writing, financial stuff, staff management, etc.) left them with little time for actual research.

Now, that very report added momentum to a renewed interest in addressing these issues and improving research culture. Who knows, maybe in several years’ time the picture will look significantly rosier. For now though, if you have dreams of an academic career that will allow you ample time and resource to dig as deeply into your intellectual passions as your PhD has, then make sure you reality check those workload expectations by talking to people further up the academic ladder.

2) Is academia the ‘best use’ of your ‘best bits?’

I’ve talked a lot before about working out what bits of academia you really enjoy, and then finding types of work/ career areas that will then let you do those bits you like for most of the time. That keep/lose/add exercise I bang on about all the time? If you were going to turn your PhD into your ideal job, what bits of it would you keep, what bits would you lose, and what would you want to add to it…? Think carefully about that and whether academia will give you most of your keep/lose/adds.

This is because something else that I think may be afoot with the stats I mentioned is the number of researchers who realise that, long term, academia just isn’t a close enough match for their priorities or personality. Now, whether that’s somehow inherent within academic work, or whether that’s to do with the structures and culture of modern academia…? It could easily be both. What I guess I’m saying is that if you came this far only to realise that you don’t think your personality can ‘cut it’ in academia, then there’s a good chance that that’s not a ‘you problem.’

3) Is an academic career what you feel like you should want?

Here’s another thing I hear more often than I’d like to. It comes in several guises, including:

• PhD researchers who apply for postdoc jobs because they ‘feel like they should’
• PhD researchers who are reluctant to identify themselves as interested in ‘careers beyond academia’ or ‘careers in industry’ because they fear that their supervisors and peers will treat them differently, or will think they are ‘less committed’, if they do so
• PhD researchers who feel like they are ‘failing’ either themselves of their supervisors if they don’t ‘at least have a go’ at applying for academic positions

This is something else I think might be going on here. Surely some of those PhDs who indicated a likelihood to pursue academic jobs did so because they ‘think they should?’ I wonder if this is something that people reading relate to as well. This came to a head in one paper I read from 2019 where one participant was actually quoted as saying:

 
“With my PI, there is this penalty for thinking about or going into industry…like, you are dead to me” (Hayter & Parker, 2019: p.563).

Just… wow.

So if this is you, then first of all… I’m sorry. Remember, there are supportive communities out there if you are interested in exploring industry careers but don’t feel like these interests are supported (or are actively shunned) by those around you. But if you are considering continuing in academia, then make sure it’s because that’s where your ambition lies, rather than fulfilling other people’s.

4) Are you prioritising academia because you don’t know what your other options are?

I have a rationale for this one, too. The university I work for takes part in the Postgraduate Researcher Experience Survey (PRES) every two years. If you’re not familiar, the survey asks questions about postgraduate researchers’ experiences and, amongst other things, asks about their career intentions. In many subject areas, ‘Research career in academia’ was the most popular chosen option. However, when an ‘undecided’ option was added for the first time in 2019, it was really interesting to see the majority in some academic disciplines swing from ‘research career in academia’ to ‘undecided.’ That really made me think… were some PGRs in the past just ticking ‘research career in academia’ because it was all they knew? Or because they just couldn’t clearly picture what any of the other options like ‘research career outside of academia’ or ‘other professional career’ might look like, and the survey gave them no alternative?

I suspect so. And I also suspect this might be the case in the research I’ve been reading.

So finally, if you do intend to further your career in academia, make sure that isn’t because you just aren’t aware of any other options… or that you feel you have no other options. There are myriad career areas out there that value and that let you use your skills, whether you’re from a STEM subject or you’re from the humanities or social sciences,. So, if you have them, make sure that your academic career aspirations are more than just a referral to your default factory settings.