non-academic careers

Exploring Career Options for PhD Students: Planning for Success

Posted on by Lindsey Drake

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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In the Face of Failure, Create Your Own Path

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

Do you ever wonder whether you’re on the “right” career path? If you’re in academia, the trajectory you should follow can seem pretty rigid—undergrad degree, PhD, postdoc, PI, and then the elusive tenure. Have you considered that there isn’t a single “correct” path?

The hosts of HelloPhD, Josh Hall and Dan Arneman, interview Promega Science Writer Julia Nepper for their podcast.

That’s the message one of Promega’s Science Writers, Julia Nepper PhD, emphasized when she was interviewed recently on the HelloPhD podcast. The HelloPhD podcast offers advice to help students, postdocs, faculty and scientists navigate the hard questions they face every day related to graduate school and careers in science.

In Episode 121: A Teenager Goes to Grad School, Julia offered her insight on dealing with failure and finding a scientific career path that’s right for you. She also shared her unusual story of starting grad school at age 17 and some of the unique experiences she had along the way that led her to choose a career in scientific communications.

To listen to this podcast and learn more about HelloPhD, click here.

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