{"id":897,"date":"2015-05-12T06:35:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T06:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klbtrblgdb01.cloudapp.net\/blog\/?p=897"},"modified":"2017-06-23T17:16:17","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T17:16:17","slug":"where-do-the-brightest-phds-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do the brightest PhDs go?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of articles have been written on the challenges faced by PhDs and postdocs. The 2014 National Academies report states that about 65% of US PhD-holders continue into a postdoc, and only 15\u201320% of those move into tenure-track academic posts. The European situation is even more competitive \u2014 in the United Kingdom, for example, only about 3.5% of science doctorates become permanent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/ensuring-reproducibility-in-ai-driven-research-how-freelance-experts-can-help-in-biotech-and-healthcare\/\">research<\/a> staff at universities.<\/p>\n<p>PhDs also graduate with a significant debt to pay, as shown in this chart below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/d3ly393cqi31mg.cloudfront.net\/wJ17I\/2\/\" width=\"548\" height=\"557\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/education\/archive\/2016\/04\/bad-job-market-phds\/479205\/\">The Atlantic<\/a> also reports that, &#8220;Nearly 40 percent of the Ph.D.s surveyed in 2014 hadn\u2019t lined up a job\u2014whether in the private industry or academia\u2014at the time of graduation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Permanent employment options are scarce, and talented researchers continue to face a bleak future despite being <a title=\"Subject Matter Expert\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\">subject matter experts<\/a> in their own right. This results in scientists dropping out of the lab to pursue other interests.<\/p>\n<p>Some people perceive this as a systemic filter to help only the brightest graduates get into the few permanent faculty positions on offer. It\u2019s akin to separating the wheat from the chaff. However, the reality on the ground is much different.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of scientists with very promising credentials too are walking away from academia. But as most mentors know \u2014 this is not the full picture: sometimes the scientists who move on are the ones with the most promise. Their motivations are diverse \u2013 some want more money or more time with family and the others are lured by opportunities elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>The painful part is that most of these scientists would\u2019ve liked to stay on in research if it was viable enough. At the end of the day, it\u2019s a huge loss for both science as well as scientists. It\u2019s quite ironical that the academic system struggles to sustain even the brightest <a title=\"Find experts with PhDs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/find-an-expert\/\">PhDs and postdocs<\/a> who can make significant contributions to science.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to invite comments from principal investigators, professors, and postdocs citing examples of some very promising scientists who\u2019ve left science to pursue other interests out of sheer frustration or the lack of options to continue in research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of articles have been written on the challenges faced by PhDs and postdocs. The 2014 National Academies report states that about 65% of US PhD-holders continue into a postdoc, and only 15\u201320% of those move into tenure-track academic posts. The European situation is even more competitive \u2014 in the United Kingdom, for example, only<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[59,70,55,39,44,15,62,35,38],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.1 (Yoast SEO v20.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where do the brightest PhDs go? - The Kolabtree Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where do the brightest PhDs go?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hundreds of articles have been written on the challenges faced by PhDs and postdocs. The 2014 National Academies report states that about 65% of US PhD-holders continue into a postdoc, and only 15\u201320% of those move into tenure-track academic posts. The European situation is even more competitive \u2014 in the United Kingdom, for example, onlyRead More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Kolabtree Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kolabtree\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-12T06:35:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-23T17:16:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/graduate-2091032_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Minhaj Rais\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kolabtree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kolabtree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Minhaj Rais\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where do the brightest PhDs go? - The Kolabtree Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where do the brightest PhDs go?","og_description":"Hundreds of articles have been written on the challenges faced by PhDs and postdocs. The 2014 National Academies report states that about 65% of US PhD-holders continue into a postdoc, and only 15\u201320% of those move into tenure-track academic posts. The European situation is even more competitive \u2014 in the United Kingdom, for example, onlyRead More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/","og_site_name":"The Kolabtree Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kolabtree","article_published_time":"2015-05-12T06:35:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-06-23T17:16:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/graduate-2091032_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Minhaj Rais","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kolabtree","twitter_site":"@kolabtree","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Minhaj Rais","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/"},"author":{"name":"Minhaj Rais","@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c221d0fe6368ffe0093225eba39ea307"},"headline":"Where do the brightest PhDs go?","datePublished":"2015-05-12T06:35:02+00:00","dateModified":"2017-06-23T17:16:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/"},"wordCount":354,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Academia","Hire PhD Researcher","PhD Freelancer","PhD Jobs Outside Academia","PhD Qualified Experts","Postdoc","Postdoctoral Fellow","Principal Investigator","Subject Matter Experts"],"articleSection":["Postdoc Jobs"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kolabtree.com\/blog\/zh\/where-do-the-brightest-phds-go\/","name":"Where do the brightest PhDs go? 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