Exploring Career Options for PhD Students: Planning for Success

Earning a PhD opens doors to a wide range of career opportunities across academia, industry, government, and beyond. While many students begin their PhD programs with specific career goals, research shows that career interests often evolve during their training (Brown et al., 2023). Therefore, exploring career options and remaining flexible to opportunities is important. By embracing career exploration and self-assessment, students can identify their best career options and make informed decisions about their next steps after graduation.

The Many Career Options for PhD Graduates

PhD graduates today find themselves in diverse roles, with opportunities extending beyond traditional academia. Career paths include:

  • Academia: Research-intensive faculty positions, teaching-focused roles, or administrative leadership.
  • Industry: Roles in biotechnology, data science, or consulting, often in research or management positions.
  • Government and Nonprofit Organizations: Research or policy roles in agencies such as the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and others.
  • Additional Careers: Science communication, medical writing, marketing, patent law, or entrepreneurship.

During their training, PhD students develop highly transferable skills—critical thinking, project management, data analysis, communication, and problem-solving—that are highly valued across sectors (Sinche et al., 2017). Recognizing the value of these skills can expand career options for graduates.

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Demystifying What It Means to Be Good Enough…

Today’s post is written by guest blogger, Elizabeth Smith, PhD, Field Client Support Specialist at Promega

As a person of color (POC), I would like to share my story to raise awareness on how important diversity programs are in my community and how they helped to shape my career. My hope is that it will inspire the younger generation and provide insight into a different perspective. Growing up, I always felt like there was something great out there for me to achieve. As a young child, never did I imagine that I would have what it takes to obtain a PhD. This was not on my radar as a young student, and not something that I thought would ever be in my future. I did not see people that looked like me reflected in this space, so I never considered it early on.

I knew that I wanted to go to college with a science focus, but I did not really explore what life would look like or should look like after that. What I was sure of was being involved in science in some way. Whenever, someone asked my younger self, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer would always be, “A Scientist!” All throughout elementary and high school, I focused on science related courses and did very well. This enabled me to apply for and receive a full undergraduate scholarship.

At this level of my education, I felt like I had to prove to everyone, and even myself, that I belonged here. That I was deserving of this scholarship and placement at the university. That I was good enough to receive a bachelors.

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Sitting on the Moon

Today’s blog is from BTCI Instructor and guest blogger Jackie Mosher.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. —Norman Vincent Peale

mosher_a_editThis motivational quote has echoed throughout my life from childhood.  It has inspired me to be fearless in dreaming, to be ambitious and to reach for those goals without fearing failure. So, naturally at the ripe age of 10, my goal was to become a scientist and discover a cure to both AIDS and cancer with a secondary plan of becoming this nation’s first female President. However, as I grew older, I realized my genuine interest and excitement for science and that I enjoyed not only learning about various scientific concepts but also sharing this information with others. Therefore, I completed a Bachelor’s of Science degree with a major in Molecular Biology and minor in Chemistry and decided to continue my studies as a graduate student at UW-Madison in the Cancer Biology graduate program.  My goal was to graduate and aid in disseminating scientific knowledge.

Why teach and not become a scientist? 

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