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Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 05:49 am
What do PhD students do after they graduate? What should they do? And what are the unexpected challenges and limitations they encounter?
The first thing a PhD graduate should do is rest and gather their thoughts. It can actually feel stressful to rest after you’re finished because you’re used to pushing yourself to the limit. It can almost be a letdown for some people to have time to rest. However, it is vital to allow yourself to return to a baseline that is a healthy pace of life. Take time and gather your thoughts.
After that, it’s time to take a look at how to navigate your career after you graduate with your PhD.
Getting a Job as a PhD Graduate
Traditionally, many people moved on to academia after getting their PhD. They would become a professor or instructor. The ideal was to become an assistant professor and do the teaching, research, and service needed to continue; then become an associate professor; and then get tenure and eventually become a professor. That has been the traditional route for people with PhDs.
But what people do with a PhD is expanding dramatically. In some fields such as education, having a doctorate leads to administrative positions. Many principals and superintendents with doctorates, whether it’s a PhD or EdD, use their degree to enhance their career outside of colleges and universities. They do administrative activities and fill administrative roles in school systems or specific schools.
Are Universities Failing PhD Graduates?
“Instead of seeking work across society, many highly skilled doctorate holders end up teaching a course here and there – for low wages – in the vanishing hope of full-time jobs as professors. This proliferation of adjunct labor devalues the people doing it and the academic workplace together.” – The Conversation
People are beginning to wonder: Is getting a PhD worth it? Are schools actually doing the right thing by putting out more PhDs?
Over-Producing PhDs
There are more PhDs than academic jobs at this time. And, the pandemic didn’t help hiring; uncertainties are all over the place. The number of college-age students is lower, so demand for professors is lower.
What have many universities done in response to all this? They have said, “we are not going to hire tenure track people, we will hire instructors or even adjunct professors.” Doing so frees them from the obligations of tenure.
Over 50% of doctoral candidates don’t finish their dissertations.
Tenure is almost like locking people up for lifetime contracts. Abandoning this practice gives universities a lot more flexibility to handle their demand. However, this also means that there is a whole group of people who are getting paid a lot less.
This is especially hard on those in adjunct positions who have earned a PhD. They have spent lots of years working to get paid $2,000 to $10,000 to teach a class. It’s hard to support yourself on that, let alone support a family and pay student loans.
The Adjunct Faculty Rut
Many people who come from a PhD program get stuck in the adjunct faculty rut while searching for a full-time position. They have to do the research to keep current, but they could make more money working a $15 to $20 an hour job that doesn’t require much education. People entering a PhD program should understand that is one of the realities they may face. Now, many people consider careers outside of academia and what a PhD can do for them.
Careers Outside of Academia
Challenges for PhDs Looking for Jobs Outside Academia
One of the challenges people with PhDs face is having employers understand who they are, what their skills are, and why they should hire a PhD. Some people have this perception that PhDs are overqualified to work for them. Other people think PhDs are just theoretical and want somebody who will “actually do work.” You have to combat that thought process.
Selling the Skill Set of a PhD to Non-Academic Employers
Presenting the skills you acquired doing a PhD to employers and showing them that your skill set is going to be highly valuable is one challenge. This will be less of a challenge over time as more PhDs enter the workforce.
How do you sell the skill set of a PhD to a non-academic employer? It’s all about communicating the skills you acquired and proved by doing your PhD. Here are some examples:
- In order to get a PhD, you had to be highly organized.
- In order to keep track of all the research you were doing, you had to be able to carry out a long-term project.
- You had to be able to work with people, even though some may think you did it alone.
- You had to be able to work with a committee and essentially manage a group of people.
- You have planning skills: the planning of your degree, doing the research, and then carrying out the research. It’s a huge endeavor and skill set.
- You have the technical skills
- Critical thinking has become part of your normal life. You bring the ability to look at problems from many different sides and then break the problem down and come up with the creative solutions employers are looking for.
PhDs have to market the skill set more than the degree.
How Does the Glut of PhDs Affect Society?
From a positive perspective, having a group of highly educated people with the skills we just outlined is potentially highly beneficial for society. People within society with these skills can help solve and tackle many problems.
However, on the opposite side, to get a PhD, you spend time outside of the productive world. You have what some economists might call pent-up demand for materials and services. If there’s a glut of PhDs and you don’t have the capacity to get the jobs you wanted within academia, that can cause unemployment.
For example, there are places in the United States like Austin, Texas where they say all the taxi drivers have PhDs. People fall in love with Austin, but there aren’t many jobs there. They dedicate huge portions of their life to their PhD and then end up working in jobs they never needed that degree for.
Is Getting a PhD a Waste of Time?
You shouldn’t get a PhD for financial rewards. However, there is joy in following the pursuit of knowledge. If you are the type of person who really wants to answer questions, explore issues, and come up with solutions, a PhD may be an ideal route for you. If this is the case for you, figure out how to monetize it and become successful.
For many people, there’s no greater feeling than finding a problem and then providing solutions to it. That can be the beauty and non-monetary reward of being involved in a PhD. Just make sure to cover the financial side of things as well.
Final Thoughts
When you’re doing a PhD, you are surrounded by people who are also on a quest. The camaraderie of supporting each other on these quests can be very rewarding.
Ultimately, you should not enter into a PhD program lightly. You should understand not only the process of getting a PhD – the rules and procedures – but also why you want to get a PhD. What about it is going to be worth over three years of your life? Explore that, and if you can answer that question, a PhD can be very rewarding.
