ZIM-Careers-training/Postdoc-paths.html at main · kia-z/ZIM-Careers-training · GitHub

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        <h1 class="text-center" style="padding-top: 90px; padding-bottom: 30px">After the PhD</h1>
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            <p>After the PhD, postdocs have a variety of options. The first big decision is whether to stay in academia or not: indeed, there are not enough academic jobs in relation to the number of PhDs being awarded, so many researchers will transition to jobs outside of universities. These reports present relatively recent data on the destinations of PhD graduates:

                <ul>
                    <li><b>Austria</b>(2016): <a href="https://www.oif.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_oif/Working_Paper/wp_86_wissenschaftskarrieren.pdf" target="_blank">Baierl, A., Familiale und berufliche Perspektiven von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern.</a></li>
                    <li><b>Germany</b> (2017): <a href="https://www.bmbf.de/files/buwin_2017_kurzfassung.pdf" target="_blank">Report on Academic career</a></li>
                        <li><b>Some European countries, including Austria</b> (2017): <a href="https://www.esf.org/fileadmin/user_upload/esf/F-FINAL-Career_Tracking_Survey_2017__Project_Report.pdf" target="_blank">Career Tracking Survey
                        of Doctorate Holders</a></li>
                    <li><b>UK</b>(2020): <a href="https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2020/02/17/the-employment-of-phd-graduates-in-the-uk-what-do-we-know/" target="_blank">Employment of PhD graduates</a></li>
                </ul>
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            <h5>’Alt-ac’</h5>
            <p>Especially in the last decade, there has been an increasing amount of ‘quit literature’, i.e. stories from researchers leaving academia. In parallel, many of the debates about careers outside of the university have been grouped under the ‘alt-ac’ label. If you search online for ‘alt-ac’, you will find a huge number of articles, blog posts, and resources, including a number of books on how to develop such career paths. Something that should be emphasized is that ‘alt-ac’ should not be considered negatively: Karen Kelsky (author of the blog ‘The professor is in’) as pointed out very clearly why we could as well <a href="https://theprofessorisin.com/2018/12/30/call-it-real-ac/" target="_blank">call it ‘real ac’</a>.
                Many universities and funding agencies offer also workshops and training resources for developing career paths outside of the academia: this type of career offer more stability and, in many cases, better pay in comparison to the more precarious path of a postdoc. PhDs can enter various industries, e.g. in DH,  agencies offering digital services for research institution; R&D in digital technologies groups and labs; and digital roles in cultural heritage institutions. In addition, going freelance and working as consultants is also a common path.
            </p>

                <h5>Academic postdocs</h5>
                <p>If PhDs choose to stay in academia, a lot will depend on the situation of the market and the jobs they can actually find. In principle, there are teaching and research paths; in practice, candidates will be moving between contracts and combination of the two paths for the first years post-PhD. </p>

                <p>In general, the disadvantages of a postdoc life are due to the precarity, long hours, relatively lower pay (esp. for scientific and technology fields), frequent moves of city/institution, and the constant pressure to publish in an extremely competitive situation, where a researcher can received dozens of rejection (for jobs, publications, grants). The advantages, on the other hand, are due to the independence and flexible work schedule, the enjoyment of research and teaching, being part of an international community and contributing to advance knowledge.</p>

                <p><b>Teaching contracts</b> can be to cover only a single course, for a semester or an academic year (with multiple courses and student supervision duties). Often, these positions open because a full member of staff is on research leave (e.g. if they have won a major grant that allows them to take time off teaching), on maternity or sick leave, or simply the departmental staff cannot cover everything independently (because of an increase in student numbers). In many institutions, the majority of the teaching might be delivered by people on temporary contracts: this is due to university management policies, which considers looking for a temporary teacher financially more convenient than offering a permanent contract. In this sense, for example, there are a lot of protests against this increasing casualization of university teaching (and the use of ‘zero hours’ contract for those appointments).</p>
                <p>In the UK, teaching-focused roles are known as ‘teaching fellows’ or, sometimes, ‘temporary lecturer’ (to not be confused with permanent teaching and research roles). In the US, the situation of PhDs being employed (and exploited) on temporary teaching contracts is that of ‘adjuncts’. In Austria, they are known as ‘LektorIn’ or they might be on the ‘(senior) lecturer’ path, which could lead to permanent contracts. </p>

                <p>Research contracts can be as <b>research fellows on someone else’s project</b>, something that it is common especially in the first period after the PhD. In this case, the postdoc will work under the direction of a more senior scholar: this is a way of building the CV, acquiring knowledge in lateral fields and new methods, and – realistically – it is also the first step in developing further one’s research skills and career.</p>

                <p>Finally, a postdoc can aim to <b>obtain funding</b> in his/her name. Becoming a PI (Principal Investigator) is indeed the way further for continuing a research career. There are funding streams reserved to ECR (Early Career Researchers) and, of course, a postdoc can apply for project funding as any other academic (in this case, he/she might be competing with more senior scholars, which might put him/her at a disadvantage). These opportunities will be explored more in details in the next section.</p>

                <p>An important challenge for a postdoc is that of maintaining a university affiliation, so to keep on having access to a university library (and the consequent subscription to academic journals, whose price is otherwise beyond the possibility of an individual researcher). For this purpose, in some countries researchers can try to obtain honorific positions (e.g. honorary research fellow in the UK or ‘Cultore della Materia’ in Italy), which – in exchange of little contributions (e.g. a reduced number of lectures or a mention in the acknowledgements section of research outputs) – guarantee the continuity of access to an institution.
            </p>

              <p><b>More resources</b>:
                <ul>
                    <li><a href="https://www.unibe.ch/unibe/portal/content/e1133/e9726/e9783/e41501/e249533/section249599/files249600/leitfaden_promotion-und-dann_2015_web_ger.pdf" target="_blank">Leaflet by the University of Bern</a> (in German)</li>
                    <li><a href="http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/sectors/academia/files/planninganacademiccareer.pdf" target="_blank">Leaflet by the University of Cambridge</a></li>
                </ul>
            </p>

        <h5>Habilitation</h5>
        <p>In many countries, a postdoc is also required for some form of evaluation, in order to be able to apply for permanent academic positions. In Germany and Austria, a postdoc should aim to complete an Habilitation and obtain a 'Venia Legendi' (permission to teach), in order to apply for professorships. In France and Italy, there are also evaluations based on publications and academic track record in order to pass from the position of temporary postdoc (maitre de conferences in France; RTD-A in Italy) to tenure-track positions. In the US, once someone gets a tenure-track contract, he/she has a certain number of years to prepare and submit a tenure dossier, based on which they will be offered a permanent contract as associate professors.
              Conversely, the UK is an exception in this regards, since it does not require further qualifications post-PhD and a new PhD can obtain a permanent lectureship (equivalent to assistant professor posistions) - although in practice many permanent lectureships receive dozens of applications, so early career researchers might be competing with more experienced scholars.</p>

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