Succeeding beyond Your Doctorate: The Importance of Identity, Industry Awareness, and Decisive Action

Abstract

Students are drawn to doctorates for both the intellectual journey and the aspirational destination. However, many contemporary doctoral students and graduates are feeling like battlers, in that victory does not assure a career. In this context, the weapons of choice are a clear vision, identity and strategic choices. The aim of this chapter is to inform students, their supervisors and university executive leaders how to achieve heightened graduate employability. As such, it has been written for four audiences: (a) PhD students, who want academic careers, and (b) those who want careers beyond universities; (c) PhD supervisors; and (d) university executive leaders. The key takeaways are practical recommendations for each of these four groups. The content is informed by an Australian national research study into postgraduate student experience, which included 319 postgraduate students as research participants. The first chapter author was one of two principal researchers leading the study, and the second chapter author was the project manager and researcher. The authors have added their reflections and personal experiences as supervisor and PhD student respectively.