Analysis of NIEHS Postdoctoral Alumni Career Outcomes

Abstract

BackgroundPostdoctoral fellows are highly skilled scientists that, classically, have been trained to enter into academic tenure‐track positions. The number of these tenure‐track academic positions has remained largely flat while the number of postdoctoral fellows has increased over the past 10 years by more than 150%. This disparity causes increased competition for tenure‐track positions and inevitably leaves a large percentage of postdoctoral scientists searching for other types of jobs. To search for these jobs, fellows first need knowledge about their available options, which could be obtained from analyzing postdoctoral alumni career outcomes. Obtaining this information will also provide institutions with information that could be used to improve their programs. Therefore, we sought to analyze the career outcomes of all NIEHS postdoctoral alumni within the past five years.ObjectiveTo analyze the specific career outcomes of all NIEHS Division of Intramural Research (DIR) postdoctoral fellows that completed their fellowship between January 2010 and June 2015 (N = 291), and to determine if select factors were associated with specific career outcomes.MethodsA database containing information on postdoctoral alumni was developed, and additional information (e.g. job position and employer) was collected from sources such as: exit interviews, social media, professional webpages, etc. This information was categorized into three defined groups: job sector, job type and job specifics, so that a standard comparison of career outcomes could be made. A variety of methods were used to analyze the data, including standard Excel functions, and the FREQ procedure within SAS.ResultsMore than 90% of the 291 fellows could be identified and their career outcomes determined. Job Sector: Approximately 45% enter into the academic sector, while only 21% enter into tenure‐track positions—figures that mirror those in the 2012 NIH Biomedical Workforce report (43% and 23%, respectively). 15% enter into the government sector, and 28% enter into for‐profit companies. Job Specifics: More than 53% of NIEHS alumni enter into research positions while the rest enter into a range of fields such as: science writing, grants management, sales, technical/customer support, etc. Gender: The overall alumni population was [50/50: male/female] and [55/45: non‐visiting/visiting], with significant variation in these ratios across specific job types. Location: 72% remain in the United States and 18% travel abroad; at the state level, a large proportion (41%) remained in North Carolina. Interestingly, only 17% of individuals who entered into academic tenure‐track positions found employment in North Carolina. Also of note, nearly half of the visiting fellows remain in the United States after leaving NIEHS. Duration of fellowship: The average time spent at NIEHS was 3.8 years, with some variation between specific career outcomes (e.g. government sector = 4.2 years).ConclusionsWe have completed one of the most comprehensive in‐depth analyses of specific postdoctoral alumni career outcomes at a single institution, notably identifying outcomes of nearly 90% of all fellows within a specified time range. Additionally, we identified factors associated with these outcomes (such as gender, visiting status, and duration of postdoctoral fellowship) which will ultimately help us evaluate the NIEHS training program and predict likely career outcomes based on given sets of parameters.Support or Funding InformationThis research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (CAN 8380839 to TRLC)