Despite tales of English PhDs driving taxis and science PhDs endlessly bouncing from one postdoctoral position to another, a new survey by Berkeley researchers finds that most of those who earn a Ph.D. are relatively satisfied with their career 10 to 13 years later. Cerny and Maresi Nerad, director of graduate research, were the two principal investigators on the project. Nevertheless, the results, point to problems both in the way PhDs are trained and with the role played by postdoctoral positions, Nerad said. They hailed from 61 universities around the country.
Postdoctoral positions can bridge the gap between a Ph.D. and a career position.
We had individual stories, but no empirical data. There hadn't been a good study in 15 years. Cerny and Nerad summarized their findings regarding the role of postdoctoral appointments of PhDs in biochemistry and mathematics in the Sept. 3 issue of Science. Yet English PhDs who now work in business, government or the nonprofit sectors are as satisfied overall as those PhDs in academia. If you no longer think of the Ph.D. as a preparation for the professoriate, then we are not training too many PhDs.