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Category: PhD Career Path Tracking

Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Communications Report

Communication PhDs find faculty positions more readily than doctorate holders in other social science fields. Whether in faculty positions or working in business, government, or non-profit sectors, the majority are satisfied with their jobs and career paths. When assessing careers from the perspective of balancing work and family, both men and women report problems combining work and family, but women delay parenting because of their career more often than men do. According to graduates’ assessments, communication PhD programs prepared them well for their careers. Jobs outside of academia are more likely than faculty positions to require skills in data analysis and synthesis, team collaboration, working in interdisciplinary contexts, and managing people and budgets. Most respondents rated their PhD programs as “excellent” in terms of academic rigor and training in critical thinking. However, major criticisms included a lack of training in skills important to obtaining and administering grants, less than adequate formal teaching training, and little guidance from mentors in publishing and in finding a job.

Hickerson, Andrea, Elizabeth Rudd, Emory Morrison, Joseph Picciano, and Maresi Nerad. 2008. Communicating the PhD Experience: Communication PhDs Five+ Years after Graduation. CIRGE Report 2008-03. CIRGE: Seattle, WA. www.cirge.washington.edu

 Download: Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Communications Report

Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Sociology Report

Presents key findings from the Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out based on sociology graduates’ views of the quality of training and on their career paths. The sociologists in this study, like respondents in other fields, reported positive evaluations of their graduate training programs.  They rated their programs highly with respect to academic rigor and training in thinking critically. However, ratings were substantially lower for training in skills for presenting, writing, and publishing. The study suggests that sociologists from these cohorts encountered a relatively strong job market, especially as compared to historians and anthropologists. Sociology, the field in this study with the most women, is also the only field with clear evidence of gender inequalities in careers.

Morrison, E., Rudd, E., Nerad, M. & Picciano, J. (2008). Sociology Report: PhD Program Quality, Early Careers, and Gender Stratification. CIRGE Report 2008-05. CIRGE: Seattle, WA. www.cirge.washington.edu

Download: Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Sociology Report

Career Outcomes of Political Science PhD Recipients

The PhDs – Ten Years Later study, allowed us to provide detailed information about the actual employment patterns of nearly 4, 000 PhDs recipients in biochemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, English, mathematics, and political science.   This report, offers a specific examination of the career paths of those who completed the PhD. in Political Science.

Surveying PhD recipients in political science ten years after degree completion provides rich information about the career paths, job satisfaction, and their retrospective evaluation of the usefulness of the PhD. Understanding the variety of educational outcomes and the high job satisfaction of PhD recipients outside academia, leads us to conclude that a too narrow focus on the academic job market in doctoral education leaves a large proportion of doctoral student unprepared for a variety of intellectually satisfying careers.

Download:  Career Outcomes of Political Science PhDs

Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education – University of Washington, 2003.  “Career Outcomes of Political Science PhD Recipients:  Results from the PhDs–Ten Years Later Study.  Report for Political Science Association.

Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Anthropology Report

Presents key findings from the Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out based on anthropology graduates’ views of the quality of training and on their career paths.  Offers evidence for the continuing relevance of PhD training for anthropologists’ careers and also suggests that programs and dissertation advisors leave students too much on their own when it comes to mastering practical skills and knowledge that would facilitate the transition from student to practicing professional in the actually existing labor markets for PhD anthropologists.

Rudd, Elizabeth, Emory Morrison, Joseph Picciano, and Maresi Nerad. 2008. Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: Anthropology Report. CIRGE Report 2008-01. CIRGE: Seattle, WA. www.cirge.washington.edu

Download: Anthropology Report

See a related article by Tami Blumenfield: Anthropologist in Motion

PhDs in Art History—Over a Decade Later

PhDs in Art History – Over a Decade Later surveyed all PhD recipients who graduated from US art and architectural history programs during the academic years 1985 to 1991. The survey response rate was 66 percent (792 respondents). Respondents completed a 22-page questionnaire that focused on their employment histories from degree completion to the present and on the intersection of career and family. We also asked about respondents’ career goals, prior work experience, job search processes, factors important to the choice of their first jobs and their current jobs; for retrospective evaluations of their doctoral programs and the usefulness of the doctoral degree; the number and kind of their publications and memberships in professional organizations; and demographic information about respondents, their spouses and life partners, and their children.  The study was funded by the Getty Grant Foundation.

Main Findings:

  1. Although art history is a field with a majority of women (70 percent), men achieved tenure status more often and faster, earned more money, and were employed at institutions of greater prestige than women
  2. The main gender differences in career achievement are attributes of family status (marriage and children). Men benefited from marriage and fatherhood; women were disadvantaged by marriage and motherhood. Single women’s career achievements were nearly on par with married men
  3. The internal family/partnership arrangements of dual-career couples affected career outcomes
  4. Nearly 100 percent of the respondents were employed 10 to 15 years after PhD completion, most of them in jobs related to their fields of study
  5. The gap between academia and museum careers is wide; there are almost no crossovers between the sectors
  6. Dissertation advisors mainly encouraged academic career choices
  7. Job satisfaction was high, especially among museum professionals and tenured professors
  8. Respondents praised their education but criticized mentoring, job preparation, and help from faculty with job placement

 

Researchers: Renate Sadrozinski, Senior Research Associate, CIRGE, University of Washington, Seattle; Maresi Nerad, Professor and Director, CIRGE, University of Washington, Seattle; Joseph Cerny, Professor and Graduate Dean 1985-2000, University of California, Berkeley; and  Sylvia La, Project Assistant, University of California, Berkeley.

Report

This report presents extensive information on individuals who received their PhD in the relatively small field of Art History. And yet many of its findings are applicable to a variety of fields both within the humanities and outside of it.The unique and original aspect of this study is its focus on generating an analysis of career paths and of family paths and the interconnections between these two paths.

Sadrozinski, Renate, Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny. 2003. PhDs in Art History—Over a Decade Later.  Download: PhDs in Art History—Over a Decade Later

Publications

  • Rudd, E., Morison E., Nerad, M., Sadrozinski, R., & Cerny, J. (2008).  Equality and Illusion:  Gender and Tenure in Art History Careers.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 70, no. 1, 228-238. Download: Equality and Illusion
  • Aanerud, R., Homer L, Rudd, E., Morrison, E, Nerad M., & Cerny, J. (2007).  Widening the Lens on Gender and Tenure: Looking beyond the Academic Labor Market, NWSA Journal, 19:3, pp. 105-123. Download: Widening the Lens on Gender