To complement the ‘What do researchers do?' series on researchers' career destinations Vitae commissioned three projects to address multiple aspects of career planning by researchers:
- What do researchers want to do? The career intentions of doctoral graduates
A survey of over 4,500 current postgraduate researchers undertaking doctoral degrees investigated the career intentions and aspirations of doctoral researchers, their career decision-making to date and what influenced those decisions, including the impact of work experience, as well as highlighting differences by research discipline.
- The transition from doctoral study to an early career researcher in higher education
A survey and interviews investigated the factors influencing doctoral researchers' choice to pursue a research career in higher education (HE), including reasons for undertaking a doctorate, career aspirations, employment experiences, perception of progression opportunities and other considerations that impact upon their decision-making.
- Straight talking: the role of non-specialist advice and social networking in career conversations for researchers
A survey and interviews, with both researchers and researcher developers, explored the social aspects of researcher career development to highlight how researchers use their social capital to elicit careers advice, who they ask, how they rate their networking skills and their career aspirations, attitudes and constraints.
Each report provides unique insights into the career decision-making process of researchers but also include many overlapping themes and findings which will be detailed in an overview briefing.