Thriving after your PhD

After years spent expanding your knowledge, learning how to think critically, and defending your research to a committee of experts, it all abruptly comes to an end with an expensive piece of paper proclaiming your doctorate. But where do we go from here? Are we truly prepared for entering the post-PhD world?  

At its annual meeting last fall, the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS) presented the results of the fifth National Postdoctoral Survey, which analyzed data collected in 2024. This survey reveals important data on career concerns expressed by current and previous postdocs. 

In this article, we mobilize evidence from the National Survey and supplement it with advice from previous postdocs and career advisors who participated in CAPS’s Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) 2025. The aim is to give late-stage graduate students and current postdocs a sense of early career needs and how to address them.  

Networking is key 

In 2024, the most common careers among previous postdocs were in research associate/staff scientist positions (30 per cent) and the public service (20 per cent), with only 15 per cent in tenure-track roles. This means that most doctoral graduates do not follow the so-called traditional academic career trajectory. So, are our institutions equipping us with the professional development needed to secure these early career positions?  

Our data reveals that previous postdocs received training in career development (25 per cent) and research ethics (22 per cent), but less so in networking (14 per cent in 2024, versus 25 per cent in 2020). Yet 26 per cent of postdocs said that networking is an area of training of special interest to them. 

Our PAW speakers offered practical advice on what constitutes networking, summed up by the imperative “get yourself out there.”  Their advice includes organizing symposia and conferences (not just attending them) and taking advantage of commercial networking sites such as LinkedIn. This requires understanding that, contrary to conventional career advice, social media is where employers find you. Employment visibility emergesby creating opportunities early in one’s graduate and postdoc tenure, and it should be done alongside interviewing potential employers to assess their needs. Indeed, several panelists recommended recasting networking less as a job search and more as a case of “filling a gap” for a potential employer. 

Equally important is developing mutual support practices with your research team by sharing examples of job materials, grant proposals and experiences of job talks for supportive feedback. Much networking is understood as calculated reconnaissance in the pursuit of employment, but many of our panelists explained that it’s more helpful to practice it as an organic process based on mutual reciprocity, honest criticism, empathetic support and occasional commiseration. Colleagues, supervisors and potential employers, among others, should be seen as allies and not a means to an end.  

Finally, panelists advised that current graduate students and postdocs would benefit from immersing themselves in cross-sectoral work and cultivating supportive, trust-based relationships.  

Preparation lacking for non-academic careers 

Nearly half of current (49 per cent) and previous (46 per cent) postdocs reported that their postdoc experience did not prepare them for non-academic career opportunities, a sentiment often echoed by graduate students. PAW panelists offered some important advice and concepts to this end, such as taking the time and resources offered by your position to acquire IT, administrative and financial literacy skills.  

The world of university research has quite different dynamics from what is found in government, industry and the not-for-profit sector. It is thus worthwhile to learn how to navigate different disciplinary norms and ways of accomplishing tasks — from conforming to office etiquette to negotiating different personality types. One speaker at a PAW workshop suggested that you should articulate the potential value you offer as a colleagueas opposed to an employee. Are you engaging and reliable? Do you lift people up?  Your personality may be as much of a consideration to your employer as your professional skillset. 

Are we ready? 

Are we truly prepared to enter the post-PhD world? We are well-trained in research and have a multitude of skillsets at our fingertips, yet we often feel as though we are struggling to successfully leverage this to take the next career step. Our advice to recent PhDs is to practice professional development as collective empowerment, and to understand career advocacy as mutual support at the collegial, institutional and national level. Rethinking and reframing our potential through collaborative and commiserative solidarity with other grad students and postdocs recasts the path to employability as an empowering end in itself.