PhD Discussion Forum

Hi,

I graduated from my PhD in July 2013. Since then I have tried everything I can to get a job or a postdoc position. I started by looking for local science jobs using websites such as indeed, totaljobs and reed. At the same time I looked nationwide for postdocs in subjects close to my own PhD subject Biomaterials. I've also used keywords related to my subject to find the few companies working in my field. I've applied directly to Astra Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson.

The closest I've had is one interview for a postdoc position but unfortunately I was unlucky. Is it just me or is it difficult to get a job after completing a PhD? During my PhD I was working in a Dental School and I've become envious of the 98% employment rate after graduation. I'm trying to think about what else I could try. Possibly, train to become a patent attorney or a science writer.

Dear Biomaterials,
Join the club!!! I finished my PhD in Economics a few months ago and you can see from previous posts that I'm also unlucky. I applied to so many postdocs and jobs I've lost count. I'm still waiting on two teaching jobs and one job as a senior economist at a government institution so fingers crossed but everyone is telling me how hard it is to get jobs. What's worse, my PhD is from a top UK uni and my topic is very relevant to economic policy design and implementation.

The only thing you have to do is try: remember these are very tough times and I had to leave the UK to find a part-time teaching job at a college and even here in Canada it is very difficult to land jobs immediately after graduation. I've decided not to get stressed and depressed about it: my CV is great, I have friends around me, and I'm working on other things to improve my CV and myself as a person (publications, attending conferences, learning new skills, self-improvement in general). Have you considered volunteer work to get experience? I'm doing that on the side at the moment.

Keep in touch and don't get depressed. I don't think you need to change your field. I would consider part-time employment and volunteer work temporarily if I were you.

I would definitely agree with volunteer work, if only for a short while - it looks extremely good on your CV. If you're lucky, this could co-incide with your career aspirations. Otherwise, it may be worth writing to interesting research groups and perhaps offer your services for a short period of time, particularly if you have any ideas for future collaborations. These 'internships' may lead to something more permanent and paid, or a co-authored grant proposal.

Is there a reason you're using those sites rather than specialist ones like jobs.ac.uk, newscientistjobs, naturejobs etc?

It's also worth setting up a LinkedIn profile, joining a few groups and starting to network. They will also send you alerts of relevant jobs.

It sounds like you haven't received the best advice as to how to go about this. Are you still eligible for access to your uni careers service?

I get the impression that it's to be expected to have to wait a while after graduating before getting anywhere. I have a friend who walked straight out of her PhD into a 3-year fellowship, but she's probably the only person I know in my field (humanities/literature) who has been lucky. I'm handing in my thesis next week and have only this week already received two rejections (which hasn't put me in the best frame of mind for finishing my thesis corrections!). I have another fellowship application pending but I'm not expecting a good outcome from that either.

There are definitely too many PhD graduates for the relevant positions available. Somebody like me who has got loads of teaching experience but only one publication (despite lots of conference presentations) might as well give up going for a research fellowship at least until I can get my thesis published as a book and have some papers put out. But by then I'll probably no longer qualify for the 'early career' positions anyway!

Biomaterials, have you considered signing up with an agency? I think that's what I'm going to do post-submission, as I have some decent admin skills (and a little professional experience) so I should at least get interviews. A PhD certainly offers transferable skills in terms of showing that you are determined and hard-working, and obviously you will have decent computer skills too. Agency work can be good in the short-term and in the long-term it might even give you some ideas of where you can go if you can't find an academic opening.

It's not just Europe- when I moved to Canada from the UK (because I got a "lowly" part-time teaching job) I thought things are looking up especially since my PhD is from one of the UK's top two- the names that Canadian employers apparently orgasm to when they hear. Nonetheless, I'm in the same boat ub40, and I'm also multilingual. So far I've only had 1 job interview and still waiting for the outcome. Depressing times.

To me, the most cruel caveat about being an aspiring research university professor is that if you step away from academia and go work in the industry (UN, NGO or Consultancy firm in my case) it seems like that's a big no-no and unless you stick it out, being a charity publishing machine until you get lucky, then forget about academia.

Hello fled, It seems your PhD is in international law. Do you know how to look for a job in the UN or NGOs? I heard about an exam must be done before applying to the UN, is it true?