Thursday, December 3, 2015

The 2014 Survey of Earned Doctorates is out

The 2014 Survey of Earned Doctorates is out. Here's the data on graduates in the 2014 academic year and their post-graduation plans. I've taken a screenshot, here's the data in PDF and Excel format. 
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15 comments:

  1. AnonymouseDecember 4, 2015 at 9:27 AM

    So am I reading this correctly? At the time of graduation, 60% of new chemistry PhDs who hadn't accepted a post doc position were seeking employment? That's disturbing. Even including the post docs, it's still almost 40%. The data on the nsf website lists the other physical sciences as well, which aren't great but are at least better than chemistry.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 4, 2015 at 11:13 AM

    I was a number on this survey! Thankfully at least I had my postdoc lined up.

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    Replies
    1. ChemjobberDecember 4, 2015 at 11:16 AM

      Boomshakalaka.

      (Dunno why I decided to say this, but it seems appropriate.)

      Delete
    2. AnonymousDecember 4, 2015 at 12:34 PM

      Congrats!

      Delete
  3. bad wolfDecember 4, 2015 at 12:18 PM

    Weird, my boss told me the easiest way to graduate was to have a job/postdoc lined up. I admit to having attended a number of thesis defenses in the last couple of years where the graduate did not seem to have either one lined up already, though.

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  4. Eka-siliconDecember 4, 2015 at 12:27 PM

    And how many of the 800 postdocs took a fourth/fifth/sixth choice to avoid unemployment?!

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    Replies
    1. JLDecember 4, 2015 at 1:37 PM

      A lot. Unfortunately, I may join this group soon. Ugh.

      Delete
    2. TheSustainableChemistDecember 4, 2015 at 8:12 PM

      Better than being the one overnight Merchandising Execution Associate at the local Home Depot with a PhD in Organometallic chemistry.

      Delete
    3. Eka-siliconDecember 5, 2015 at 12:23 AM

      Good luck both- it's grim out there....

      Delete
  5. AnonymousDecember 4, 2015 at 2:20 PM

    So out of 2700 new chemistry PhDs, 530 actually got a real job or at least a fulltime temp job? Sounds like getting a chemistry PhD a winning life strategy to me. We'll definitely need more of these STEM professionals in the future.

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousDecember 5, 2015 at 10:55 AM

      Then how does this explain the ~5% unemployment rate among chemists?

      Delete
  6. AnonymousDecember 4, 2015 at 4:09 PM

    Almost 90% of US graduates are employed in the US? I would have thought more would go abroad for work.

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    Replies
    1. NCDecember 6, 2015 at 1:24 PM

      In general, they appear to refuse to even where it would suit them. *shrug*

      Delete
    2. AnonymousDecember 7, 2015 at 5:43 PM

      In my case it wasn't that I wasn't interested in opportunities abroad...it's just that adding visas into the equation seemed like one more complication to working out my and my husband's desire to both get postdocs in the same area.

      In the future I would definitely be open to going abroad if it solves our "two body" problem. Conversely, if my husband weren't able to find suitable work/get an appropriate visa that would allow him to work (or vice versa), it would be a dealbreaker. But I would hazard a guess that my situation is analogous to many people's situation. Even those without a scientist partner tend to have partners with careers, and when you go abroad, it can be difficult for their partner to work. It's not all patriotism and attitudes about 'Murica--it's just life logistics.

      Delete
  7. AnonymousDecember 8, 2015 at 3:02 AM

    Same story in Canada, 100 PhDs for every two jobs. Tonnes of people extending their postdoc contracts or taking a second or third postdoc just to get by.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20

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