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Supporting the Career Planning of
Early-Stage Researchers
Results of the TOHTOS-project
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When TOHTOS-project was established in 2015
● Unemployment rates of doctoral graduates were
increasing rapidly
● Many universities were having cooperation negotiations
leading to lay-offs
● Funding of research institutes was being cut down
→ it was clear that future doctors would have to find jobs
outside the traditional fields (academia and research
institutes)
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Now, in 2019
● The unemployment rate of doctors has decreased to 3.5
% BUT
● A career at the university remains a rocky road ○ Nearly 40% of the doctoral graduates work in the university sector
○ About 60% of the contracts are temporary
○ There is a huge competition for teaching and research positions
○ Only 5-10% of the funding applications are successful
○ The majority of university staff find their jobs stressful
The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers, 2018 & Guthrie ym. 2017
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Now, in 2019
● Early-stage researchers are not feeling well
“Hopelessness, unawareness and uncertainty are niggling the
career dreams of the early stage researchers”
The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers, 2018
→ Need for career planning is still (even more) urgent
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● Choice to be made between academic and non-academic
career
● Career in research comes with the pressure of finding
funding, competitiveness, long working hours and low pay,
insecure future
Worries of the early-stage researchers
Is there a
turning
back?
Do I really
want and
manage it?
Who to talk
to about my
worries?
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● Facing the world outside academia & lack of experience
outside of university
● Lack of networks / Unbalanced networks
Worries of the early-stage researchers
What do I have to
offer to other
employers outside of
academia
‘all I know is how to
study and do
research’
My only
networks are in
research
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Career counselling at the Finnish Universities
● 2/3 of present early-stage researchers have not received
any career counselling during their doctoral studies (The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers, 2018)
● Why?○ History: “We educate researchers”
○ The scarce resources of the career services
○ Who should take the responsibility?
○ Special needs of doctoral students e.g. lack of career counselling
materials in English
→ TOHTOS- project aims to change the situation!
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TOHTOS- project and Career counselling
- Two different tools:
i) model for career discussions and support material
ii) Online career courses
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
Graduate School aims to enable an opportunity for annual
career and review discussion:
1) to all doctoral candidates (employment, research grant or
other funding)
2) between the doctoral candidate and the scientific
supervisor (and administrative supervisor)
3) once a year (February – March)
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
General guidelines
1.The doctoral candidate should schedule a meeting for this
discussion with the supervisor(s) attending.
2.The doctoral candidate fills in career discussion form (form
includes questions (and answers) from the progress report
and some new questions concerning career plans.
-> filled form to the supervisor
3.The supervisor should get acquainted with the doctoral
candidate's answers.
Please note:
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
4.The doctoral candidate and supervisor will have the review
and career discussion
5.The doctoral candidate fills the questions marked "to be
filled during the discussion" during / based on the discussion.
6.As a result, all the participants should have pdf or/and
paper copy of the filled form with agreed goals. The doctoral
candidate and supervisor are supposed to save the pdf-file of
the review and career discussion form.
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
According to the agreed goals the personal study plan, and/or
the mobility plan of the candidate can be updated and/or the
candidate can get other support (mentoring, career courses
etc.)
In some doctoral programmes the Career and Review
Discussions can also be combined to annual advisory/follow-
up committee meetings.
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
During the TOHTOS project, support guide to the supervisors
(and doctoral candidates themselves) was developed:
https://www.utu.fi/en/research/utugs/for-doctoral-
candidate/career
The primary goal is to serve as a tool
i) to make it possible to achieve the desired career path
after the defence of the thesis.
ii) for supervisors for the implementation of career planning
for doctoral candidates.
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TOHTOS- project and career discussions University of Turku
Guide encourages to think
● Why have you decided to write a thesis (why do you need
it in terms of your career)?
● Which skills and qualifications must you acquire to
achieve your career goals?
● How and when are you planning to acquire the necessary
skills and work experience to reach your goals?
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
The discussions contained considerations from:
- challenges related to scientific career
- alternatives outside academia
- significance of the time-management and how to cope with it
- deceiving of schedules
- prioritization, project management and leadership
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
Most useful to doctoral candidates- Auto reflection
- Analysis of own strengths
- Talking about the future
Most useful to the supervisors - discussions about the plans of the future after doctoral
thesis
- discussions about the long term career goals
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TOHTOS- project and career discussionsUniversity of Turku
Feedback from doctoral candidates
- Clearer structure
- Discussions both at first stage and final stage of the thesis
work
Feedback from supervisors
- Focusing the discussions to the ones who are uncertain
of their future
- Help to the analysis of the strengths and career wishes
- Discussion would suit better to the professionals of the
field (career counsellors, student advisers etc.).
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Online career courses 2018-2019 in University of Eastern Finland, University of Tampere and University of Turku
Organized
in
Students Online vs.
meetings
Structure Workload
UEF Autumn 2018
Spring 2019
25/33
?/28
(ongoing)
8 wks online
5 wks online + 4 meetings
Career planning
porfolio
Job searching tools
2 ECTS
2 ECTS
UTA Spring 2019 17/26 initial 5 wks online
2 meetings (4 hours each,
wks 2 & 5)
20 min feedback session
(wk 4)
Photosession
Get started
Know yourself
Market & plan
Job hunting I
Job hunting II
1 ECTS
UTU (together
with ÅA)
Autumn 2018
(and in spring
2019)
44 6 wks online
kick off -meeting and 20 min
CV-feedback -meetings
Get Started
Know Yourself
Dream Job
Where are the Jobs
+2 weeks of job
hunting
No credit points
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DEMO: the Tohtos career course for doctoral
researchers
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Feedback from earlier courses
● Every doctoral researcher should do this!
● It’s opened my eyes to other possibilities, made me think
outside of the box
● I really appreciated the personal contact and peer feedback
● Highly important, I could have used this earlier on in my career
already.
● Good combination of thinking about what you want to do
and the practicalities of the job hunt
● This was very important, not everyone wants to stay in
academia and the opportunities to learn about the outside
world are few and rarely focus on researchers.
● To think about the WHY was very useful/what to bring in focus
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● Personal feedback much appreciated
● The course “forced” to identify strengths and values, and
reflect different career options
Working online vs. face to face
● Mostly positive feedback: allowed flexibility
● Group work online has it’s challenges - different levels of
commitment
● A combination of face to face meetings and working online
might work best
Feedback from online courses
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Recommendations
All universities should invest in career counselling
● Counselling available in Finnish and English
● Dedicated Counsellor for doctoral students that knows
their situation
● Career course for researchers as part of curriculum
● Supervisors
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How career guidance helps
Early-stage researchers
● Find new career opportunities (outside academia)
● Learn how to identify their skills and interests, and
practice telling about them
● Recognize also the areas of competence they need to
develop.
● Develop wider networks
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Benefits at the university-level
● Being aware of the meaningfulness of doctoral studies for
career opportunities enhances engagement to doctoral
studies (Sakurai, Vekkaila & Pyhältö, 2017)
● Social support prevents burn-out and drop-out intentions
(Peltonen ym. 2017)
→ by supporting early-stage researchers we enhance
their well-being and engagement
→ Higher flow-through rate
→ Increased interest in doctoral studies (better image)
→ Increased appreciation of doctoral degree in non-
academic world
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References
● The Finnish Union of University Researchers and
Teachers. 2018. Hullun hommaa?
● Guthrie S. et al. 2017. Understanding mental health in the
research environment.
● Sakurai Y et al. 2018. More or less engaged in doctoral
studies? Domestic and international students’ satisfaction
and motivation for doctoral studies in Finland.
● Peltonen J. et al. 2018. Doctoral students’ social support
profiles and their relationships to burnout, drop-out
intentions, and time to candidacy
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Thank you!