Supporting the Career Planning of

Early-Stage Researchers

Results of the TOHTOS-project

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)

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

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

● 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?

● 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

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!

TOHTOS- project and Career counselling

- Two different tools:

i) model for career discussions and support material

ii) Online career courses

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)

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:

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.).

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

DEMO: the Tohtos career course for doctoral

researchers

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

● 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

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

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

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

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

Thank you!