Transitions Survey: Oh, The Places We'll Go

Danielle Fatzinger (@bonniecelt) is the current PGR Office Intern and in the third year of her PhD in Celtic & Gaelic, studying late-seventeenth century Gaelic manuscripts written in Kintyre, Argyll, their scribe, and his patrons. In this post, she discusses her thoughts about the career destinations and time to secure a position of recent PhD graduates from the Transitions Survey conducted last fall.

I don’t know about my fellow PGRs, but I’ve been thinking even more lately about my post-PhD life. I’ve signed up to Coursera for access to free courses to explore on a variety of subjects, like personal branding, marketing, and programming (FutureLearn is another such site). I’ve been thinking about my own skills and looking at available job positions, contemplating how the job market will be affected by the pandemic (the Careers Service has some positive thoughts on that). I’ve also been wondering how previous UofG PGRs have fared in the job market.

Thanks to the Transitions Survey that was conducted last autumn, we have some idea of the destinations of recent PhD graduates. Results of the survey are limited by the number of individuals who answered, but they come from schools and institutes across the university, and they demonstrate the diverse paths that individuals from every college take.

This is demonstrated nicely in the following graphic:

Sankey diagram displaying where graduates worked by college. The information is listed below.

There’s an interactive version of this graphic available as well, so you can get a better look (which I recommend doing).

The graphic shows that individuals from each college went into multiple sectors:

MVLS to Higher Education (Academic), Management Consultancy, Biotechnology, Human Resources, Government, the Third Sector, Business, and Retail.
CoSS to Higher Education (Academic), Government, and Policy.

Arts to Higher Education (Academic), Government, the Third Sector, Heritage, Performing Arts, a Portfolio Career, Culture, Higher Education (Professional), Digital Media, and Education.
CoSE to Higher Education (Academic), Higher Education (Professional), Business, Science, Civil Service, NHS, and Engineering.

To me, these results demonstrate something that individuals in the university have been interested in for a while now: the transition of PGRs into non-academic careers, combined with the persisting bias towards PhDs remaining in and training exclusively for academic. The information from the Transitions Survey shows that the opposite is true, and more than half of the respondents transitioned outside academia.

To me, that means PhDs are valued throughout the job market, and current PGRs (myself included) could benefit from exploring non-academic options, developing transferable skills, and learning how to relate research experiences to other sectors (more things that PGRs can be doing to succeed were suggested by respondents to the Transitions Survey). More information about non-academic career options can be found through the SULSA Careers profiles and Vista at Sheffield University, and you can join a free online course on career management for assistance thinking about career options.

There’s one other question I have, though, about the paths of recent graduates: how long did it take them to secure a position?

The answer is positive:

Pie graph displaying the time it took to secure a job after graduation. About three-quarters of the graduates had a position secured before graduation.

Most recent PhD graduate respondents had a job secured before graduation or shortly afterwards! That’s a positive sign that with effort, PhDs can be on track starting the next phase of their life/career even before officially securing the doctorate degree.

Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on the results indicating longer job searches: more than a year and yet to find employment. These may be results of other circumstances (perhaps starting a family or illness), but it also indicates that some PhDs may struggle to enter the job market. If this concerns you, the Careers Service has a lot of resources, advice, and instruction available (they’re doing virtual workshops and virtual one-to-one appointments, too: Katrina Gardner works with PGRs and has appointments available).

Overall, these results from the survey give me hope: there are many job options out there, and my skills can be useful in a variety of them. Plus, while the job search may be difficult, it’s more likely that I’ll find something than not.

What do you think? Let us know on Twitter or Instagram at @UofG_PGRblog or through our contact page.