The Risks of Leaving Research

Given the large number of science PhDs who end up working outside academia, the decision to leave the bench must be easy, right? Well, not exactly. Despite the fact that nonacademic options are no longer the ‘alternative’, opting for one can nonetheless appear to be a risky endeavor.

For one, it can be scary to deviate from the straightforward course of grad school-to-postdoc-to-professor. Researching non-faculty positions- identifying what they are, what they entail and how to get them- can be overwhelming especially without any guidance or support. While information and resources on the subject are becoming increasingly available, students and postdocs often don’t know they exist or where to begin and faculty mentors tend to be equally ill-equipped to advise on the topic. As a result, the path outside academia can be quite murky and, hence, the seemingly riskier option.

Two, after dedicating so many years to working in the lab, it may seem strange or counterintuitive to do anything else. There are misconceptions that skills learned during graduate and postdoctoral training are not transferable to other fields or that there are not rewarding ways to advance science outside research. This can lead to fears that the PhD will be wasted or that the person will be perceived as a failure if they are no longer running experiments and writing papers. Regrettably, these fears can be fueled by naysayers who believe that research is the only valid career path for a science PhD and, consequently, stigmatize leaving the bench. So not only is the path murky, it can be fraught with emotional conflict, as well.

All things considered, deciding what to be with a PhD can be a source of great stress and, dare I say, panic. Some respond by following the default path without reflecting on if it’s the right choice or considering the alternatives. Others put off making a decision for the very end, waiting until the dissertation is turned in or funding runs out. Both lead to missed opportunities of engaging in activities that could reduce the apparent risk involved in making a career change.

So what's a PhD (or PhD candidate) to do?

To decrease the uncertainty, it is important to dedicate time to self-assessment, career exploration and, frankly, getting outside the lab. Self-assessment and reflection (i.e. identifying your skills, interests, and values) are important because once you have a firm grasp on the kind of position that will bring the greatest satisfaction, pursuing that path will seem worthwhile despite risks involved (see the Who Am I? section in the PDF Putting Your PhD to Work). Talking to individuals who have made the leap, watching the interviews here, and attending career panels will provide additional insight that can demystify the options. Finally, participating in non-lab activities will not only keep you sane but also develop skills that can be useful for making a career transition (see Transferring Skills into Career Options). Attending courses and workshops offered by your institution (and Science Alliance!) will provide beneficial education and training, as well.

Institutions can also do their part to ease the career transitions of their graduate students and postdocs by making career options transparent and developing basic job skills. Career and professional development programs need to be implemented and trainees need to be encouraged to avail themselves of these resources, which I have observed go underutilized if awareness and support are lacking. This may require informing faculty about available resources so that they can better advise their trainees, or even integrating programs within the curriculum to make them more visible. What's more, we need to combat the  “hidden curriculum” persisting in many institutions that a PhD in science is only valuable when applied to research. Until other options are acknowledged and embraced as legitimate trajectories for our graduates, leaving the bench will remain a risky proposition for many.

Making any major life decision is hard and this is no exception. Not to mention that it is a risk to leave academia. But it can be an informed and calculated risk with exceptional payoff. In fact, the greater risk may be in not taking one at all.

Do you find the idea of leaving academic research risky and why? What would be helpful to you in making this decision?

If you need help getting started with career exploration, click here.

Wait, We Need More Scientists?

After posting about why more PhDs aren’t professors, I came across this interesting article called The Real Science Gap by Beryl Lieff Benderly, a journalist who also authors the Taken for Granted column for Science Careers. Intriguingly, this article brings to light that there is actually a fear we are not training enough scientists, a notion that runs counter to what I and others have written about. While true that a majority of science PhDs leave academia, Beryl counters “It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities.”

Beryl provides a number of arguments to support this and I really appreciated her historical account of how we got into this predicament. Her story starts back with the intense push by the US government to support civilian research following World War II through the creation of the National Science Foundation and the expansion of the National Institutes of Health. Grants issued by these agencies fomented the growth of large research universities and, consequently, made lots of room for new faculty. At the time, this meant that most doctoral students could expect to run their own labs upon graduation. Eventually, though, the “pyramid paradigm” of “self-replicating” professors began to unravel to the point where we are today: more science PhDs produced than there are available faculty positions.

Knowing that there is an overabundance of highly-qualified science PhDs generated every year, it is befuddling that some believe we need to be training more scientists. In fact, this approach merely exacerbates the problem and likely discourages others from going down this path to begin with. Nonetheless, it happens because graduate students and postdocs are required to drive the research of their lab heads. As Beryl asserts, the solution is not to increase enrollment in graduate programs, but to instead provide more opportunities for science PhDs to remain in research long-term.

Implementing these kinds of changes would require a complete overhaul of the current system, which is a long time coming. Until then, it remains imperative to prepare science PhDs for careers beyond the ivory tower, where most end up anyway under the current model.

Academia, the New Alternative?

In a previous post I cited that only a fifith to a quarter of recent PhD graduates will end up in tenure-track faculty positions.¹ This is in spite of the fact that a large percentage of doctoral students and postdocs start their programs and fellowships with the intention of becoming faculty. ² If this is the case, why are there not more PhDs becoming professors?

One of the main contributing factors is that there are not enough faculty positions available in the US to keep up with the growing number of PhDs granted every year. Tenure-track faculty positions have remained fairly stable since 1991 while PhDs earned have increased 55% over the same period.^3,4 To put this in perspective, there were 168,000 full-time faculty in 2006 and 41,000 science and engineering doctorates awarded the following year alone (ibid). This trend has led to fewer PhDs employed in academia (down to 45% from 55% over 1973-2006) and of those in academia, a greater proportion are now found in postdoctoral or non-tenured positions.^5,6

This mismatch is the result of an inherently problematic training system in which new scientists are continually churned out but then left to flounder somewhere in the middle because positions at the top are few-and-far between, the result of a notoriously slow turnover rate in academia. Making matters worse, a spate of hiring freezes instituted during the recent economic recession led to even fewer academic job prospects.⁷ Even the stimulus package of 2009, which pumped 21.5 billion into science and engineering research, was not expected to alleviate this problem.⁸ PhDs are often rightly dismayed when unable to secure a job in the profession for which they have been trained, prompting many to ask "Are We Training Too Many Scientists?"⁹

The difficult job market does not garner all of the blame as aspects of faculty life can be equally discouraging to fresh graduates, as well. According to a 1999 survey, PhD candidates reported being concerned “about the problematic nature of the tenure process, onerous workload expectations, difficulty of obtaining research funding, and low salaries.”¹⁰ In addition, the average age of first obtaining a faculty position in the biomedical sciences has risen to 38, which means more time spent in low-paying postdoctoral fellowships¹¹- not an appealing prospect for many young professionals who have already spent four years in college and an average 7.2 years in graduate school.¹² By the end, a third of doctoral students across all disciplines reported decreased interest in faculty careers during graduate school.¹³

Beyond job market and faculty life concerns, yet others are steered away due to shifting career and life interests. In the journey to a PhD, some find scientific research to be less fulfilling than expected or discover new passions along the way. Former neuroscientist Laura Malisheski had her career epiphany during a postdoc: “I had been spending so much of my energy developing skills that I didn’t enjoy that I was forced to suppress my natural abilities . . .  Finally, I had learned to appreciate the skills that truly motivated and energized me.” ¹⁴ Laura left the bench and found success as a career counselor for other PhDs. Not an isolated case, PhDs are now flourishing in many careers in industry, education, communications, consulting, patent law, policy, and the list goes on.

Although not its original intention, the PhD has evolved into a bridge to many career paths and academia has ironically become the “alternative”. As a solution to this "problem" is not in plain sight, the philosophy that a PhD is narrowly defined as training solely to be an academic scientist is outdated and needs to revisited.

References

     ¹  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Table 3.18. Doctorate recipients holding tenure and tenure-track appointments at academic institutions, by years since receipt of doctorate and selected field: 1993, 2003, and 2006

     ²  Golde and Dore "At Cross Purposes: What the Experiences of Today's Doctoral Students Reveal about Doctoral Education" 2001. Table 1. Proportion of Students Interested in a Faculty Career.

     ³  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Appendix Table 5-15. Full-time faculty with S&E doctorates employed in academia, by tenure status and degree field: 1979–2006

     ⁴  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Appendix Table 2-28. Earned doctoral degrees, by citizenship, field, and sex: 1993–2007.

     ⁵  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2008. Table 5-11 S&E doctorate holders employed in academia, by years since doctorate: Selected years, 1973–2006

     ⁶  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Table 5-6 S&E doctorate holders employed in academia, by position: Selected years, 1973–2006

     ⁷  Siri Carpenter. Discouraging Days for Jobseekers. Science Careers, 2009.

     ⁸ Beryl Lieff Benderly. Shovel Ready Science. Science Careers, 2009.

     ⁹  Bijal Trivedi. Are We Training Too Many Scientists? The Scientist, 2006.

    ¹⁰  Golde and Dore, 2001. pg 9. 

     ¹¹  Bridges to Independence: Fostering the Independence of New Investigators in Biomedical Research. National Research Council (US) Committee on Bridges to Independence: Identifying Opportunities for and Challenges to Fostering the Independence of Young Investigators in the Life Sciences. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2005.

    ¹²  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Table 2-4. Median number of years from S&E doctorate recipients' entry to graduate school to receipt of doctorate, by Carnegie classification of doctorate-granting institution: 1993–2007.

     ¹³  Golde and Dore, 2001. Table 2. Level of Interest in Various Career Options.

     ¹⁴  Laura Malisheski. In Pursuit of Happiness: My Transition from Neuroscientist to Career Counselor. ASBMB Today, 2007.

Lights, Camera, Action: A New Video Series Exploring PhD Career Paths

I am excited to announce that I will soon be unveiling a new feature for this blog- a video podast series, or vodcast (the hipper term I just learned at the CUNY Science Day), exploring career options for science PhDs. The series will consist of 10-15 minute interviews with science PhDs on their post-graduate career trajectories and include both those who have moved away from the bench as well as those who have remained in research. My motivation for launching this series is to help science PhDs make better-informed career decisions by demystifying life after grad school (or a postdoc) and presenting the many options before you.

Increasing awareness of the career options available to science PhDs is critical because the realities of the job market tell us that most will not end up in tenure-track faculty positions. In 2003-2006, only 19% of recent doctoral graduates and 26% of graduates 4-6 years out held tenure-track academic appointments.¹ Nevertheless, a 1999 survey of doctoral students showed that a majority entered graduate school with the intention of being a professor and did not think there were enough workshops on career options; they also reported not feeling encouraged to participate in the ones that did exist. ² One of the recommendations borne out of this study was that graduate programs should “make available and publicize opportunities to help students explore and prepare for a variety of careers, in and out of academia (ibid.).”

Since this report was published, there has been an expansion of resources available to science PhDs, if not on individual campuses then via the web, through school career services offices, postdoctoral affairs offices, national associations, websites like Nature Jobs and Science Careers, and programs like Science Alliance. Typical resources include articles, books, panels, and workshops; the new video podcast series I’m introducing here is but one more tool to add to your career exploration toolkit.

Although one of many resources available to you, I expect you will find unique value in these videos in that they are like experiencing a virtual informational interview- something which everyone should do before deciding on a career path. Informational interviews, not to be confused with a job interview, are helpful because not only do you quickly learn about the practical aspects of a particular job or field but you also have an opportunity to hear about the personal side. In the videos presented here, I will be taking on your role in the informational interview, asking other science PhDs how they selected their chosen career paths, the circumstances that played a role, the steps taken to ready themselves for their career transitions, what they love about their jobs, and the truth about the pitfalls and challenges. And remember, the responses will all be coming from individuals who have at one point been where you are likely to be now: in the midst of grad school or a postdoc struggling to figure out what the heck to do with your PhD. Hopefully these interviews will inspire you and serve as jumping-off points for your own career exploration process.

So stay tuned! The first vodcast will be coming soon….

In the meantime, what are some careers you are most interested in hearing about? What are the questions you would like answered that would have the greatest impact on your career decisions?

References

     ¹  Science and Engineering Indicators, 2010. Table 3-18. Doctorate recipients holding tenure and tenure-track appointments at academic institutions, by years since receipt of doctorate and selected field: 1993, 2003, and 2006.

     ²  Golde and Dore "At Cross Purposes: What the Experiences of Today's Doctoral Students Reveal about Doctoral Education" 2001 Table 1. Proportion of Students Interested in a Faculty Career.