What do PhD graduates in non-academic careers actually do?

Abstract

Abstract A growing literature examines PhD graduates working beyond academia. These studies are critiqued for rarely addressing the sectoral and organisational structural factors that influence actual work. So, we examined how the non-academic, contextually situated, organisational job specifications of fifteen PhD graduates interacted with their daily work experiences – looking particularly at the role of (a) communication since effective communication is reported as an employer concern, and (b) research since this is an expected outcome of PhD programmes. References to data collection and analysis were largely absent in interviews and job specifications, but research-related capabilities, for example, analytic thinking, were present, intertwined with communication in multiple ways, with dialogue and reading central. The graduates recognised these capabilities as having been finely honed in the PhD and inherent to their jobs.