Career Preparedness: The role of Experience before a PhD

Abstract

OECD-wide the number of PhD holders has been growing every year, but the job opportunities in the Higher Education Sector, as their privileged employer, do not seem to keep up with PhD holders’ numbers. This scenario paired with the current shifts in career trends may intensify the pressure on PhD students while considering the development of their future career paths. Past work experiences are a central aspect in the career development paradigm, but there seems to be a scarcity of information about PhD students’ professional experiences prior to their enrolment in the PhD. In this sense, this study aimed to explore the extent to which previous professional experiences determine PhD students' feeling of preparedness to act on their career development. Quantitative research was conducted involving 377 Portuguese PhD students, with the objective of analysing students’ perception of preparedness to conduct actions related to their career development. Findings identify that PhD students with more diverse past professional experiences, report a greater capacity for reflection both on the labor market and on themselves for the development of their career, than PhD students with past professional experience exclusively in Academia or with no professional experience. This study confirms that having diverse past professional experiences seems to contribute to a greater sense of preparedness to act upon career development, which can be essential when transversal career trends are changing towards less linear and less homogeneous paths.