Insights and Perspectives from the PhD to Employee Forum

Data shows that PhD graduates pursue diverse careers. Recent data from Canadian universities report that fewer than 35% of health-science PhD graduates are employed in research intensive, or tenure-stream, faculty positions up to seven years after graduation. Perhaps surprisingly, this is higher than previous estimates, which indicate that up to 80% of basic biomedical PhDs are employed outside of tenure-track positions within 6-10 years of obtaining their degree. The “From PhD to Employee Forum” was born out of a pressing need to identify specific solutions to manage the challenge of effectively engaging trainees in career development during their doctoral degree. To address this challenge, we sought to bring together career development experts to collect insights regarding the approaches of different institutions to address the career planning needs of life science trainees. Here we summarize key presentations at the forum, review what we see as some of the key challenges in the career preparation of life scientists and summarize three key insights raised in the forum.