Beyond Cloning the Academic:
Preparing Doctoral Students for Postgraduate Opportunities

Post-graduate placement data offer some interesting insights into the career paths of Penn State doctoral graduates. Across colleges, a wide distribution of graduates is employed in a variety of work environments. Although slightly more than one-third enter the workforce as faculty in institutions of higher learning, a substantial proportion of graduates take their first jobs in either business/industry or in post-doctoral training.

To stimulate thinking about how Penn State may best prepare our doctoral students for the diverse career paths available to them, The Graduate School hosted a workshop titled "Beyond Cloning the Academic: Preparing Doctoral Students for Postgraduate Opportunities" on October 20, at The Nittany Lion Inn.

The workshop provided a platform for people to share successful approaches to preparing doctoral students for the job marketÑacademic and non-academicÑand for tracking students once they have graduated. It also served to inform graduate faculty members of the range of career options open to doctoral students and to update participants on current employment conditions, both at Penn State and nationally.

Dr. Rodney Erickson, vice president for Research and dean of The Graduate School, gave the opening remarks to kick-off the program. On hand to deliver the keynote address was Dr. Peter Syverson, vice president for Research and Information Services of the Council of Graduate Schools. Following his presentation, the workshop included a panel discussion and small group sessions.

In his address, titled "Looking Beyond Academe: Aspirations, Expectations, and the New Job Market," Dr. Syverson presented data on the overall unemployment rates and annual incomes for various educational levels; discussed recent job trends; and offered his thoughts on what can and should be done to respond to the new doctoral job market.

He noted, "Overall, Ph.D. unemployment is low and salaries are positively related to level of education. However, in the mid 1990s the labor market experienced a series of shocksÑhigher immediate unemployment, longer time to find permanent employment, and a shift away from academic employment to other sectors."

Given these changes in the Ph.D. labor market, Dr. Syverson offered the following recommendations:

Provide better information about jobs and the job market
Conduct seminars or workshops on the relationship of graduate education and employment.
Make career counseling services available to graduate students.
Develop curricular modifications to allow more flexibility in doctoral programs.

The panel discussion focused on preparing doctoral students for the job market and tracking their professional careers. Panelists presented their views on preparing students for non-academic positions, professional development for academe, what to do to track alumni and why, and making career decisions.

Topics for the small group sessions were:

Preparing graduates for non-academic careers
The job search process
Tracking graduates and working with alumni
Internships and cooperative programs
Professional development programs

Highlights from these sessions and recommendations include:

Mentoring

Successful mentoring should be carried out by the whole department and not by the individual professor exclusively
Guidelines and standards for mentoring students should be established
Training programs should be in place to evaluate procedures for mentors

Tracking

Regular communication with alumni is critical and should be mutually beneficial
A standard protocol to track alumni should be developed and funding should be made available to support tracking efforts

Internships

Internships should be complex in terms of job expectations and students should be compensated for their work
Faculty pursuing funding from industry for research grants may be able to facilitate internship opportunities with these industries on behalf of the students
Mentors should advise students on ways to make an internship a useful part of their program

Professional Development

Supervisors should know where the likeliest jobs for students are to be found and watch trends within the discipline to get some idea of what subdisciplines are likely to be more marketable.
Departments should provide a variety of services to prepare students for the job market and begin early in the students’ careers to offer these services.
Workshops on writing letters for employment, vitae, abstracts, and teaching portfolios should be offered. Faculty should facilitate discussion and provide guidance and advice on these documents.

Participating in the panel discussion were:
Dr. Nina Fedoroff, director of the Biotechnology Institute
Dr. Deborah L. Clarke, associate professor of English and women’s studies
Dr. Eunice Askov, professor-in-charge and director, Adult Literacy
Dr. William Blair, Department of History
Dr. Blannie Bowen, professor and head, Agricultural and Extension Education
Ashish Dugar, graduate student in pharmacology, Hershey Medical Center

Small group sessions were facilitated by:
Dr. Robert Milner, professor and chair, Department of Anatomy, Hershey Medical Center
Dr. Marie Secor, associate professor of English
Dr. Janice Light, associate professor of communication disorders
Dr. Robert Hendrickson, professor and head, Educational Policy Studies
Dr. Deborah L. Clarke