Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference

By Dr Susan Gasson, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at The Cairns Institute,  James Cook University, Australia (ORCiD)

The employability of doctoral graduates is a thorny issue. First raised soon after the creation of the European doctorate in the 1600s, discourse on this topic has always involved trying to address two key questions. One relates to the quality of doctoral graduates – are they suitably prepared and ready for work? And the other relates to their quantity – are there just too many of them?

The need to address those questions in relation to the contemporary doctorate has been spurred on by the massification of higher education, which has led to growth in the number of graduates. As part of the higher education community, I frequently met with and talked about graduate employability both with committees and with graduates.

Exposure to these discussions helped me in framing the first of seven tensions I see impacting postdoctoral pathways to employment all explored in my book Early Career Research Pathways, Tensions and Stories (Gasson, 2025). That tension is between the enduring and the evolving purposes of the doctorate. The enduring purpose I defined as “the requirement for the doctorate to create the next generation of research workers”. The evolving nature of the doctorate, I describe as “a response to the changing demands of the world of work”.

Over time, in meetings and in the literature, I saw reviews and surveys seeking to address questions about ‘How best to prepare graduates for work?’ and ‘What was the nature of their employment?’. I contributed to reviews and redesigns of doctoral programs, adding workshops and online programs in response to concerns about the preparation of graduates for work. Intensification of transferrable skills development, mentoring and internship schemes and specialist graduate research career services were among the responses made to address concerns.

I began to appreciate the value of stories shared by doctoral graduates in helping their peers and doctoral educators to understand pathways to employment. Ultimately, I committed to a doctoral program myself so that I could collect stories from recent doctoral graduates and explore their experiences with more intensity. I saw this as a complement to a largely quantitative response to questions raised about graduate employability. Out of that research, I first gained a PhD and then a book contract.

Spotlighting career stories

Early Career Researcher Pathways, Tensions and Stories, the resulting book, shares the experiences of eight doctoral graduates as they complete their studies and progress into the workforce. The book then discusses seven tensions that emerged from the analysis of those stories. Chapters of the book first explain the tension using stories, and then discuss strategies for navigating those tensions to assist doctoral graduates in advancing along their chosen career pathways.

These tensions were seen in the stories shared by all my participants, despite their diverse backgrounds. That diversity was evidenced in their age, ethnicity, gender, career and life stage. Their ages varied from their 20s to 50s. The study included participants born and/or working in Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. With equal numbers of men and women, some were married with children, others were single. Some were looking for career advancement in their current profession, while others saw the doctorate as an opportunity to consider a change of career direction.

Workload and balance

Common challenges spoken of, included COVID-19. That experience raised questions about the role of online networked learning and the place of working from home, and the use of technology in research. Increasingly, the capacity to work from home created new freedoms and flexibility, but also provided the potential to work continuously. I used this challenge to frame a key tension – one between managing workload and wellbeing.

Workload issues included questions about how to balance teaching, research and service commitments. Many faced challenges in making time to meet commitments to personal wellness, friends and family. Taking on a higher workload was often seen as the short-term key to realising secure employment and advancement, confounding the ability to realise a balanced lifestyle.

A potential strategy proposed in the chapter on this tension was to consider different notions of time. Seven notions of time are introduced and the reader is invited to consider how each of these may inform or enable their planning and use of time. The priority to address the demands of different notions may vary over time.

Those contemplating enrolment in a doctoral program may focus on Life Time. This notion of time accounts for personal and career circumstances, when considering whether you can accommodate the demands of thesis work.

For those commencing a new project a focus on Candidature/Contract time will allow you to consider the policy, infrastructure, funding and deadlines involved. Accounting for this notion of time will assist you in meeting the requirements of the project. 

Throughout a research career new opportunities arise, Opportune Time allows you to consider the implications of these opportunities. Before saying yes, Opportune Time prompts you to consider how the new opportunity aligns with your existing commitments, career and researcher development plans.

Use of different perspectives can assist in meeting priorities, progressing career plans and making better use of time and resources.

Open or closed?

The potential for doctoral researchers to engage in open and closed research cultures also emerged in the stories I analysed. Participants spoke of the difficulties surrounding getting their research funded, published and cited to support career advancement. Those working in public institutions acknowledged the need to comply with workplace policies that required them to ensure open access to their research. They spoke of the value to their careers of seeing their work translated to realise social goods. For others, the commercial nature of the workplace required their adoption of closed research practices, with great care needed in the construction of communications to the public to protect commercially confidential products.

In responding to the tension between open and closed research cultures, a strategy proposed is to make time to understand and account for the opportunities and challenges these cultures offer. The choice is informed by factors including the nature of their research project, employment policy and sponsor expectations. While open research cultures enable engagement and offer potential for broad social impact, closed cultures ensure security, protecting the interests of key stakeholders.

Stay or go?

For those struggling with advancement and finding employment, the question of working within or beyond the academy emerged as another tension. Working beyond the academy was viewed as potentially more lucrative and secure, while within the academy, the struggle for longer-term appointments and to engage in job searches across the globe overshadowed consideration of career advancement. The difficulties of bridging the gap between these worlds of work were raised. Three career trajectories are introduced in this chapter as insights into managing this tension. The reader is invited to explore their own career expectations and how these align with the trajectories discussed before being invited to explore common questions like: How can you identify potential roles and reframe your doctoral and research experiences to respond to the selection criteria of diverse employers?

While pathways to employment may continue to be precarious, a better understanding of the nature of the doctorate, available job options and diverse workplace cultures may assist. Stories are used to show the application of strategies, and a postscript featuring stories of ‘Where they are now?’ gives the reader a chance to consider available career trajectories and research pathways.

Book reference: Gasson, S. C. (2025). Early Career Researcher Pathways, Tensions and Stories. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://bookstore.emerald.com/early-career-researcher-pathways-tensions-and-stories-pb-9781835490921.html