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The postdoc decision
Career ambitions are the most popular reasons for taking on a postdoc, followed closely by a love for science.
OK, no surprises there, but we at NatureJobs are always interested in our readers’ career choices. Knowing our audience is the first step in providing you with useful information.Our latest poll, “Why did you decide to do a postdoc?” sought to uncover the reasons why our readers took on a postdoc position. On average, these are three year, fixed-term contract research positions; a chance for researchers to develop their skills and get some papers under their belts.
Readers were given the chance to choose three of the following reasons:
- Because it is the next step in your academic career after your PhD
- Because you love science and research
- To reach your dream of becoming a tenured academic
- Because you couldn’t find another job
- To discover something new
- To contribute to the body of scientific knowledge
- Don’t know what else to do
- You’re afraid of the unknown outside of academia
- To change location
- Because you couldn’t find a tenure-track position
- To contribute to society
- For convenience
- Because you entered on the promise that the lab was expanding and further opportunities would become available
- Other
Nearly a quarter of votes were for “Because it is the next step in your academic career”, indicating that, for better or worse, many scientists’ default option is to continue on their current career path.
However, it’s not all about the career conveyer belt: the more altruistic option of “Because you love science and your research” was second most popular with 16% of the votes. Another career-focused answer, “To reach your dream of becoming an academic” came a close third with 15% of the votes.
We can group these answers into 3 (overlapping) categories:
Future ambitions
- Because it is the next step in your academic career after your PhD
- To reach your dream of becoming a tenured academic
- Because you couldn’t find another job
- To change location
- Because you entered on the promise that the lab was expanding and further opportunities would become available
- For convenience
- Because it is the next step in your academic career after your PhD
- Because you couldn’t find a tenure-track position
- Don’t know what else to do
- Because you couldn’t find another job
- You’re afraid of the unknown outside of academia
- Because you love science and research
- To discover something new
- To contribute to the body of scientific knowledge
- To contribute to society
What does it mean?
Our small-scale survey is only for interest, but it does support other more robust investigations into the career paths of scientists.
In 2012, Sauerman and Roach (1) looked at US PhD students’ career preferences. They surveyed students from all life science and physics disciplines and found that a faculty research career was deemed “extremely attractive” for more than 50% of those surveyed.
Then in 2012, the Eurodoc Survey I published results from a survey that ran from 2008-2009 and found that more than three-quarters of PhD students consider an academic research career the most attractive.
So our “future ambitions” group of votes is representative of these broader findings.
However, as attractive as the academic career path is, it is not an easy one. In the UK, the Royal Society’s The Scientific Century, analysed HEFCE, the Research Base Funders Forum, HESA and DLHE surveys and found that only 47% of UK science PhD graduates remain in academia.
Scientific Century, Royal society
In contrast, for those outside with non-science PhDs, the prospects of becoming a professor is more promising. HEFCE recently released data that researchers in arts, humanities and social science disciplines make up 55% of all academics but only 34% work in STEM subjects.
Of course, as difficult as it is to stay in academia, it can seem harder to leave. The 23% of votes that were in the ‘lack of other options’ category tell a sad but all-too common story. Many a PhD graduate will struggle to find employment outside of academia, so jumping onto the postdoc treadmill is at least a temporary fix.
But let’s not forget our lovers of science, and we salute you! May your votes move up from the 30% share of our survey where they currently stand. And if you need inspiration for your chosen career, why not check out the #IAmAScientistBecause Twitter campaign Naturejobs started last month.
