140904 presentation cathelijn waaijer sti 2014 slideshare

Career perspectives and job choice: a survey of recent PhD graduates of five Dutch universities

Cathelijn J. F. Waaijer

STI conference, 4 Sept 2014

Disclaimer: preliminary results. Further analysis may change conclusions.

Numbers of PhD graduates

Source: VSNU


Sectors of employment

Auriol, Misu & Freeman (2013)


Career aspirations

Sauermann & Roach (2012)


Career perspectives in academic R&D and their effects – some evidence

• Uncertain prospects and long spells on temporary contracts decrease attractiveness of scientific career according to leading scientists (Waaijer 2014)

• Insecurity about career affects well-being of postdocs (Höge, Brucculeri & Iwanova 2012)

Fox & Stephan (2001)

1: poor2: fair3: good4: excellent


Research questions

• How do PhD graduates perceive their career perspectives in different sectors of work?– Academic R&D

– Non-academic R&D

– Non-R&D

• Do career perspectives influence the choice of sector of work?– Measured effect on sector of work

– Opinion of PhD graduates


Main variables

– Career perspectives: rated very good – good – neutral – bad – very bad• Long-term career perspectives (in general)• Availability of permanent positions• Usual length of period holding temporary positions• Quality of human resource management and career policy

– Employment sector: academic R&D, non-academic R&D, non-R&D• Constructed from variables “involved in basic research”, “involved

in applied research” and “involved in experimental development”, and description of employer


Survey

• Follow-up to 2008 Netherlands Survey of Doctorate Recipients among PhD graduates (April 2008 – March 2009) of:– Delft University of Technology (engineering and technology)

– Erasmus University Rotterdam (focused on social sciences, medicine)

– Utrecht University (all scientific fields)

– Wageningen University (agricultural sciences, natural sciences)

• New: PhD graduates from Leiden University (January 2008 – April 2012): all scientific fields except economics, and engineering and technology

• Total: 2,430 PhD graduates (half of them from Leiden)

• Surveyed sample: 2,207 PhDs; through email or LinkedIn

• Survey open for 91 days


Descriptive statistics• 51.5% (partial) response rate

• 43.6% progressed to the final question– Respondents were allowed to leave questions unanswered,

except if a response was required for routing

• Females: 45%

• 96.3% had paid work at time of survey

• Scientific field of PhD by university (in %)Delft Leiden Rotterda

mUtrecht

Wageningen

Total

Medical and health sciences 0 38 61 36 9 34

Natural sciences 17 23 5 33 70 26

Social sciences 7 18 31 16 9 17

Humanities 4 19 3 9 1 13

Engineering and technology 73 3 1 7 11 11


Perception of career perspectives


Long-term career perspectives by sector of work

Opinion on:Academic R&D

Non-academic R&D

Non-R&D

Current sector of workAc R&D

N-Ac R&D

Non-

R&D

Ac R&D

N-Ac R&D

Non-R&D

Ac R&D

N-Ac R&D

Non-R&D

Very good 11 6 5 6 14 6 8 15 14

Good 31 17 10 36 50 30 34 49 47

Neutral 22 28 30 39 30 49 44 32 31

Bad 26 37 40 16 4 14 12 2 7

Very bad 10 12 16 3 2 1 3 2 1

p-value <0.001 <0.001 <0.001


Self-reported influence of perspectives in academic R&D on job choice by sector

Current sector of work Ac R&D Non-ac

R&D Non-R&D Total p

Long-term career perspectives 53 57 50 54 0.443

Availability of permanent positions 35 49 45 40 0.001

Usual length of period holding a temporary position

23 35 35 27 0.001

Quality of HRM/career policy 12 25 23 17 <0.001

% who agree “strongly” or “very strongly”, in %


Other factors in job choice


Factors important for job choice – by sector of work

Ac R&D N-ac R&D Non-R&D p-value

Intellectual challenge 87 78 68 <0.001

Degree of independence 76 58 57 <0.001

Possibility to develop new skills 69 77 62 0.008

Creativeness 66 60 39 <0.001

Job security 28 41 43 <0.001

Salary 24 45 38 <0.001

Job opportunities within organization

19 35 24 <0.001

Benefits 21 31 17 0.002

Availability of permanent jobs within organization

21 28 21 0.049

Personal and family-related circumstances

25 16 17 0.006

Organization's career policy and HRM

8 21 11 <0.001


Multinomial logistic regression – several factors included• Perception of career perspectives in academic R&D

• Perception of own scientific oeuvre

• Availability of sufficient job opportunities

• Years since PhD

• Field of PhD

• Which job characteristics play a role in job choice

• Personal characteristics (nationality, gender, age)

• Pseudo R2: Cox and Snell 0.369; Nagelkerke 0.449


Non-academic R&D cf. academic R&D• Career perspectives in academic R&D:

– More positive about long-term career perspectives -> less likely to work in non-academic R&D

– More positive about HRM -> more likely

• Other factors:– More positive about sufficient number of positions in preferred sector of work

-> more likely

– Medical sciences, social sciences, humanities -> less likely than engineering

– Value intellectual challenge, degree of independence and personal circumstances -> less likely

– Value contribution to society, salary and job opportunities within organization -> more likely

– Dutch nationals -> more likely


Non-R&D cf. academic R&D

• Career perspectives in academic R&D– More positive about availability of permanent positions -> less

likely to work in non-R&D

– More positive about HRM -> more likely

• Other factors:– More positive about own scientific oeuvre -> less likely

– Value creativeness, intellectual challenge, and personal and family-related circumstances -> less likely

– Value job opportunities within organization -> more likely


Conclusions

• Career perspectives perceived as much worse in academic R&D than non-academic R&D and non-R&D

• Difference in career perspectives between sectors perceived as larger by those working in non-academic R&D and non-R&D

• Self-reported influence of different career aspects in academic R&D quite large, even more so for PhDs in non-academic R&D and non-R&D

• Aspects of personal development and job content main factors influencing job choice, but less so for people outside academic R&D

• Perception of career perspectives plays a small but significant role in job choice (controlled for other variables)

Acknowledgements

• Cornelis van Bochove

• Rosalie Belder

• Inge van der Weijden

• Rens van de Schoot

• Hans Sonneveld

• Moniek de Boer

• Danique van den Hanenberg

• Malu Kuhlmann

• Lisa van Leeuwen

• Lisette van Leeuwen

• Suze van der Luijt-Jansen

• Laura de Ruiter

• Bert van der Wurff


Other factors that might play a rolePush factors

• (Own perception) of academic quality (e.g., Sanz-Menendez et al.)

• Preference for current job

• Field of PhD

• Year of PhD

Pull factors

• Job characteristics job satisfaction is acquired from (personal development vs. terms of employment: “taste for science” cf. Sauermann & Roach)

• Personal characteristics: gender, age, nationality




Positions for PhD graduates

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140904 presentation cathelijn waaijer sti 2014 slideshare

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