Nonacademic Career Pathways for Engineering Doctoral Students: An Evaluation of an NSF Research Traineeship Program

Denton, Maya; Borrego, Maura; Chang, Che‐Wei; Boklage, Audrey; Arróyave, Raymundo

doi:10.18260/1-2--34996

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Given the value of U.S. government postdoctoral positions to the training of PhD scientists and engineers in all areas of the economy, national laboratories might consider initiatives to expand the number of postdoc positions, alone or in collaboration with other organizations. There are a few existing initiatives that encourage the consideration of non-academic pathways and help prepare for such roles for both doctoral students (e.g., [ 38 ]) and postdocs (e.g., [ 6 ]). Future work should involve expanding such programs, as well as examining how the postdoctoral workforce and trajectory has been impacted in recent years by the ongoing pandemic and the resulting new labor market conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

U.S. postdoctoral careers in life sciences, physical sciences and engineering: Government, industry, and academia

2022

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Discussions about science and engineering postdoctoral researchers focus almost exclusively on academic postdocs and their chances of eventually securing tenure-track faculty positions. Further, biological sciences dominate policy research and published advice for new PhDs regarding postdoctoral employment. Our analysis uses the Survey of Earned Doctorates and Survey of Doctorate Recipients to understand employment implications for physical sciences and engineering (PSE) and life sciences (LS) graduates who took postdoctoral positions in government, industry, and academic sectors. We examine postdoc duration, reasons for staying in a postdoc, movement between sectors, and salary implications. There is considerable movement between employment sectors within the first six years post-PhD. Additionally, postdocs in PSE are shorter, better paid, and more often in nonacademic sectors than postdocs in LS. These results can help science and engineering faculty discuss a broader range of career pathways with doctoral students and help new PhDs make better informed early career decisions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%