Career Challenges Research Articles

Humanities PhD Graduates: Desperately Seeking Careers?

National and international statistics show that across disciplines there are many more PhD graduates than academic positions. In fact, more than half of graduates find their careers outside the academy—though the kinds of positions they accept, their work satisfaction, and the relevance of their PhDs is much less clear. As regards scholarly studies on post-PhD careers, most have examined social scientists and scientists with little attention to humanities doctoral graduates. This study addresses this gap by exploring the career experiences of Canadian PhD humanities graduates through descriptive statistics and narrative analysis. Specifically, it highlights the PhD experiences and post-graduation career trajectories of 212 Canadian humanists from 24 universities who graduated between 2004 and 2014. The study offers insight into humanities career challenges, including during the PhD, the range of non-academic careers that humanists find, as well as their work satisfaction and the perceived relevance of the PhD.

Northern Ghana final-year nurses' attitudes towards nursing and remaining post qualification.

BackgroundRecruitment and retention concerns nursing globally, including Ghana, as the country attempts to meet health demands. A link exists between nursing students’ attitudes towards nursing and decisions to enter, remain in or withdraw from the profession.ObjectivesTo describe northern Ghana final-year student nurses’ current attitudes towards nursing and remaining in nursing post qualification.MethodNon-experimental quantitative descriptive design used convenient sampling targeting final third-year student nurses (n = 80) studying towards a Diploma in Registered General Nursing in a northern Ghana college (N = 220). Data were gathered using the attitude dimension of a self-administered questionnaire, developed by Al-Omar.ResultsThe response rate was 87.5% (n = 70). Respondents were 20–30 years of age, more men and predominantly from urban areas. The mean attitude dimension score (range 10–50) was 35.41 (SD 4.03) with no skewness (0.37); mean of single-item question about intention to stay in nursing was 3.68 (SD 1.14) with negative skewness (-0.92). Male and urban respondents’ attitudes were more positive than those of female respondents. No association was found between attitude score and demographics or intention to stay in nursing, but significant association was found between gender and habitation and attitude categories. Medium positive correlation existed between intent to stay in nursing and attitude score. Pay, travel opportunities and nursing being a challenging career attracted unfavourable attitudes.ConclusionGhanaian male student nurses’ attitudes are non-typical of general stereotypes held of nurses and gender, suggesting increased recruitment of male nurses. Demographic variables hold a small amount of value in the development of attitudes in Ghanaian nurses.

In Memory Virginia N. Gordon December 13, 1927 to November 21, 2017

In Memory Virginia N. Gordon December 13, 1927 to November 21, 2017

Doris Taylor: All Heart.

There’s an undeniable warmth to Doris Taylor, Director of Regenerative Medicine Research and of the Center for Cell and Organ Biotechnology at the Texas Heart Institute and Texas A&M University in Houston. Professionally, she may be most famous for engineering the first bioartificial mammalian heart.1 But, on a personal level, her own heart is compassionate, generous, and not remotely artificial. Taylor went through great turmoil in early childhood, but rather than mentally closing herself off to pain and difficulty, she’s endeavored throughout life to ease the pain and suffering of others. In a recent interview with Circulation Research , she explained that she does this in two ways. At a community-level, she’s an ardent advocate for social justice, spending her spare time promoting local political organizations and spearheading worthy causes, while at the global-level, her scientific research adds to the body of medical knowledge that enables innovations, improves treatments, and saves lives. Doris Taylor Her research has certainly, and consistently, broken new ground. Her pioneering stem cell research, regenerative medicine strategies, and investigations of sex-specific physiological differences have driven new lines of enquiry in cardiovascular disease research and have also challenged established attitudes toward how such diseases might be treated.2–6 I was born in San Francisco and I had a twin brother. We were born very prematurely and, in those days, premature twins didn’t live, so neither of us were supposed to survive. My mother told us that the doctor came in and told her, if she was religious and believed in doing something for the end of life, she should do it for us. So, she called the hospital chaplain and he came, but then, according to my mother, the minute he left the room, my brother and I rallied. It was as if we’d …

What can be done to promote resilience in GPs?

BackgroundMedicine is a challenging career. There are reports of high rates of exhaustion, burn out and maladaptive coping strategies amongst doctors, GPs in particular. Accordingly, the issue of GP resilience is extremely topical.AimTo explore perspective of GPs and GP registrars regarding what can be done to promote resilience.MethodThis was a qualitative study involving face-to-face, semi-structured, recorded interviews with GPs and GP registrars in the West of Ireland. Data analysis was done by six stages of thematic analysis based on Braun and Clarke.ResultsThree major themes emerged from data analysis: a) Within the person, b) Within the profession and society, and c) Within the healthcare system. Subthemes within the person were ‘What resilience means to me’, ‘Me as a doctor’ and ‘Me as a human’. Within the profession and society, the subthemes were ‘Traditional view of GP’, ‘Societal expectations of the GP’, ‘Formal supports’ and ‘Education and training’. The healthcare system theme incorporated three subthemes ‘Finances’, ‘Manpower’ and ‘Relationship with the healthcare system’.ConclusionIdentifying means to promote resilience in GPs involves an in-depth understanding of the challenges to resilience at various levels. From this research, it is evident that there is no “one size fits all” with regard to promoting resilience at a personal level. Views differed as to where resilience training would be best placed regarding formal resilience education. As to solutions within the health care system, GPs need to be adequately resourced to meet the evolving demands of general practice.

P165: A Non-hierarchical mentorship model for professional development

Introduction: Mentorship is an essential component of professional development and benefits include increased career satisfaction, scholarship, and efficiency of academic promotion. The Mastermind group, a collaborative, network-based model for mentorship has gained popularity in the business world. It comprises of a group of colleagues that provide mentorship and career advice for each other through regularly scheduled meetings. The group benefits from the combined intelligence and accumulated experience of the participants, who may be at different career stages. Methods: Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM; www.aliem.com), a digital health professions education organization, conducted two Mastermind groups for 14 team members in 2017. The groups included all levels of academic rank from full professor to instructors, and represented 14 different medical schools in North America. Each Mastermind group completed a self-assessment summarizing their professional strengths and weaknesses, two homework assignments, and two 90-minute videoconference meetings, using a structured, moderator-facilitated format. Meetings were conducted on Google Hangouts on Air© (Google Inc.). In the initial group meeting, participants discussed their self-assessments, current projects, and career challenges. The second meeting allowed discussion of suggested professional development resources for each participant, actionable next steps, and an accountability timeline for each participant. The free, cloud-based platforms and voluntary basis for the Mastermind groups resulted in a zero-cost innovation. Results: In a post-intervention survey, the 14 participants rated the experience as 9.4/10 (response rate 100%) using a Likert scale. In a quasi-experimental analysis participants cited the need for career advice or assistance with a project as their reason for participating. Participants received specific resource recommendations during the sessions, including books, training courses, or conferences. Contacts outside the group for additional mentorship were made possible given the breadth of networks among the participants. All participants had at least one identifiable next step with accountability to the group. Overall, the participants described a synergy of energy, commitment to one anothers longitudinal success, and benefit from the diverse range of talent and expertise in the group. Many of the members discussed plans to replicate this mentorship model at their own institutions. Conclusion: Our experiences suggest that the Mastermind conceptual framework is an easily replicated, feasible, zero-cost, and effective model for professional development. Though the model was originally proposed as a method for in-person discussions, we report a more modern, online experience for professional development in our diverse, globally-distributed team.

Um olhar para a formação inicial a partir do subprojeto PIBID educação física

No presente trabalho trataremos das relações do Subprojeto “PIBID Educação Física” com a formação inicial e iniciação a docência dos acadêmicos bolsistas deste programa. A caracterização do estudo é de natureza qualitativa, um estudo descritivo, utilizando-se de questionários como coleta de dados. Entre os resultados, destacamos que o Subprojeto vem qualificando a formação de seus bolsistas no sentido de mostrar os desafios da carreira docente. Concluímos serem positivas as trocas de experiências entre a universidade e a escola, pois os saberes articulados em ambas podem auxiliar os acadêmicos a melhor compreender as práticas educativas e a atuação profissional.

Preparing future-ready graduates through experiential entrepreneurship

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an experiential entrepreneurship work-integrated learning (EE WIL) model recognising that the development of an entrepreneurial mindset enables graduates to manage their careers in uncertain labour markets. The model shows how students develop relationships with their professional community, and not only a few employers.Design/methodology/approachThe pedagogical underpinning of the conceptual model, attributes associated with the entrepreneurial mindset and relationships between the student, professional community and university are explained, and illustrated through a case study at the University of the Sunshine Coast.FindingsThe EE WIL model enables students to develop agency through structured engagement with a professional community, facilitating the development of bridging social capital. Bonding social capital can be developed through intense, sustained interaction between students and their professional community.Practical implicationsWIL curricula should be scaffolded and directed towards developing sustained interaction and information sharing, underpinned by professional community norms. This approach enables students to develop an aligned professional identity and emotional attachment to the professional community. The experiential development of an entrepreneurial mindset enables students to solve career challenges, by viewing these as opportunities. Professional communities and universities both share the responsibilities of preparing the future graduate workforce.Originality/valueThe conceptual model draws on effectual entrepreneurship pedagogy and contributes to the WIL literature, showing that an entrepreneurial mindset can be cultivated experientially through an intensive, emotional and authentic learning experience.

Chinese Immigrant Teachers in American Institutions of Higher Education: Challenge, Adaptation, and Development

This paper explores Chinese immigrant teachers’ career challenge, adaptation and development in American institutions of higher education. The researcher used a qualitative approach to explore two respondents and found that language barrier, feeling of isolation, pressure of teaching, difficulty in doing research are the four major challenges that Chinese immigrant teachers have in their experiences. Besides, the researcher also found that personality matter in adaptation. Quiet person tends to adapt to the new culture easier. Because of the challenges, both of the Chinese immigrant teachers have ordinary mind without any aggressive plans in career development. Both of the respondents didn’t feel any racial bias or prejudice in their field. But one of the respondent mentioned that people who get their degrees from American universities or European universities are more likely to be employed in American universities. Those who get their degrees from universities in Asia are difficult to be acknowledged by American universities.

Chances and challenges of a successful scientific career

Chances and challenges of a successful scientific career

Realizing Identity and Overcoming Barriers: Factors Influencing Female Japanese Paralympians to Become Coaches

The purpose of this qualitative study was to (a) determine structural barriers that must be overcome to cultivate female leaders and coaches and (b) study the development of a support system for female leaders and coaches. This study relied on in-depth interviews as the primary means of collecting data. Formal semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven former or currently active female Paralympians, including some who were current coaches. After analyzing the participants' responses, five distinct themes emerged: (a) social identity, (b) challenges of “double minority status” as women and persons with a disability, (c) underrepresentation of women as Paralympic coaches, (d) athletes wanting to be coaches indicating they needed formal training, and (e) current coaches feeling overwhelmed by task requirements not related directly to working with athletes. The first of these relate to realizing identity and the other four to overcoming barriers. The results offer insight into the career challenges and career perceptions of coaches and also former or currently active female Paralympians. The results provide researchers with insight into the status of careers of women in a segment of the sport industry, the Paralympic Movement, which has not yet been thoroughly explored.

Voicing Mathematics Teachers: A Holistic Overview of Their Early Career Challenges

Voicing Mathematics Teachers: A Holistic Overview of Their Early Career Challenges

Attracting and retaining female chefs

Attracting and retaining female chefs

Professional fulfillment and parenting work-life balance in female physicians in Basic Sciences and medical research: a nationwide cross-sectional survey of all 80 medical schools in Japan

BackgroundIn Japan, the field of Basic Sciences encompasses clinical, academic, and translational research, as well as the teaching of medical sciences, with both an MD and PhD typically required. In this study, it was hypothesized that the characteristics of a Basic Sciences career path could offer the professional advancement and personal fulfillment that many female medical doctors would find advantageous. Moreover, encouraging interest in Basic Sciences could help stem shortages that Japan is experiencing in medical fields, as noted in the three principal contributing factors: premature resignation of female clinicians, an imbalance of female physicians engaged in research, and a shortage of medical doctors in the Basic Sciences. This study examines the professional and personal fulfillment expressed by Japanese female medical doctors who hold positions in Basic Sciences. Topics include career advancement, interest in medical research, and greater flexibility for parenting.MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire survey was distributed at all 80 medical schools in Japan, directed to 228 female medical doctors whose academic rank was assistant professor or higher in departments of Basic Sciences in 2012. Chi-square tests and the binary logistic regression model were used to investigate the impact of parenthood on career satisfaction, academic rank, salary, etc.ResultsThe survey response rate of female physicians in Basic Sciences was 54.0%. Regardless of parental status, one in three respondents cited research interest as their rationale for entering Basic Sciences, well over twice other motivations. A majority had clinical experience, with clinical duties maintained part-time by about half of respondents and particularly parents. Only one third expressed afterthoughts about relinquishing full-time clinical practice, with physicians who were parents expressing stronger regrets. Parental status had little effect on academic rank and income within the Basic Sciences,ConclusionScientific curiosity and a desire to improve community health are hallmarks of those choosing a challenging career in medicine. Therefore, it is unsurprising that interest in research is the primary motivation for a female medical doctor to choose a career in Basic Sciences. Additionally, as with many young professionals with families, female doctors seek balance in professional and private lives. Although many expressed afterthoughts relinquishing a full-time clinical practice, mothers generally benefited from greater job flexibility, with little significant effect on career development and income as Basic Scientists.

Frontoparietal Structural Connectivity in Childhood Predicts Development of Functional Connectivity and Reasoning Ability: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Investigation.

Prior research points to a positive concurrent relationship between reasoning ability and both frontoparietal structural connectivity (SC) as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (Tamnes et al., 2010) and frontoparietal functional connectivity (FC) as measured by fMRI (Cocchi et al., 2014). Further, recent research demonstrates a link between reasoning ability and FC of two brain regions in particular: rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) and the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) (Wendelken et al., 2016). Here, we sought to investigate the concurrent and dynamic, lead-lag relationships among frontoparietal SC, FC, and reasoning ability in humans. To this end, we combined three longitudinal developmental datasets with behavioral and neuroimaging data from 523 male and female participants between 6 and 22 years of age. Cross-sectionally, reasoning ability was most strongly related to FC between RLPFC and IPL in adolescents and adults, but to frontoparietal SC in children. Longitudinal analysis revealed that RLPFC-IPL SC, but not FC, was a positive predictor of future changes in reasoning ability. Moreover, we found that RLPFC-IPL SC at one time point positively predicted future changes in RLPFC-IPL FC, whereas, in contrast, FC did not predict future changes in SC. Our results demonstrate the importance of strong white matter connectivity between RLPFC and IPL during middle childhood for the subsequent development of both robust FC and good reasoning ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The human capacity for reasoning develops substantially during childhood and has a profound impact on achievement in school and in cognitively challenging careers. Reasoning ability depends on communication between lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. Therefore, to understand how this capacity develops, we examined the dynamic relationships over time among white matter tracts connecting frontoparietal cortices (i.e., structural connectivity, SC), coordinated frontoparietal activation (functional connectivity, FC), and reasoning ability in a large longitudinal sample of subjects 6-22 years of age. We found that greater frontoparietal SC in childhood predicts future increases in both FC and reasoning ability, demonstrating the importance of white matter development during childhood for subsequent brain and cognitive functioning.

The Dual Career Challenges of Introverted Women

The Dual Career Challenges of Introverted Women

Female Physicians' Lived Experience in Career development in Korean Academic Medicine

The increasing participation of women in the medical field seems to be a universal phenomenon across countries. However, the gender gap in leadership positions is still prevalent due to a stereotype and career barrier. In this study, we aimed to investigate what female physicians experienced in their career development in academic medicine in Korea. This investigation focuses on their lived experience, including support or obstacles in their career. We used a qualitative research approach based on grounded theory. Twenty one female physicians participated in individual interviews. Through constant comparison process during open coding and axial coding, several themes were emerged from the data. The themes include (1) Limited choice of specialty in early career, (2) Commitment to work and work-life imbalance, (3) Social and cultural impact on career development, (4) Individualism overlooks gender discrimination, (5) Negative career aspiration to be a leader and a vicious cycle of a lack of social networking, and (6) More female physicians but culture change varies. The current study has provided a potential framework that helps one understand some aspects of career challenges for female physicians in Korea academic medicine. The simple increase in the number of women doctors has not affected fundamental cultural changes. Nevertheless, increase in diversity in academic medicine brings inevitable changes in organizational culture. Given the weak social network and role models for leaders, planned changes to develop female physician leaders is imperative.

Career guidance in multicultural societies: identity, alterity, epiphanies and pitfalls

ABSTRACTThis paper provides a scoping approach to the issue of career guidance in multicultural societies. It starts off by exploring the meaning of ‘culture’, moving away from ‘back-pack’ approaches that consider culture as a set of worldviews and dispositions that are readily shed or put on, to anthropological understandings of culture as deeply held ways of meaning making that permeate all levels of one’s life and one’s relationship with others. Such complex approaches to culture challenge career guidance workers to problematise notions they hold of themselves and of others, and to face up to the challenge of alterity. In effecting this troubling reaching inwards and reaching outwards, and in striving for the epiphany of ‘knowing’, a number of pitfalls need to be acknowledged and overcome. These include our own incipient monoculturalism, the romanticisation, essentialisation and exoticisation of culture, as well as restricted notions of equality.

Identifying the sources of stress and rewards in a group of Australian apprentice jockeys

Previous stress-in-sport research has generally focused on elite athletes while overlooking the experiences of professional, paid athletes. Similarly, despite their susceptibility to chronic stress, professional athletes have rarely been examined by occupational stress researchers, and little is known about the adverse health effects of the stressors they experience. Despite the unique demands faced by jockeys, there is a paucity of research examining the incidence and impact of occupational stress on professional jockeys within the thoroughbred racing industry. This paper describes the results of a qualitative study aimed at identifying the sources of stress (demands vs. rewards) experienced by a group of Australian professional apprentice jockeys. The study also aimed to investigate whether the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model of occupational stress can be generalised to this group of professional athletes. Thirty-five apprentice jockeys registered in an apprentice jockey training programme in an Australian capital city took part in semi-structured focus group discussions. Five major themes relating to demands emerged: time demands, role suppression, physical demands, cognitive demands and ancillary demands. Demands not only stemmed from the competitive environment, but also from the broader work environment. Five themes emerged relating to rewards: financial rewards, positive emotion, status, winning and new experiences, which generally aligned with the categories highlighted by the ERI model. Although undoubtedly a challenging career, it also emerged as an extremely rewarding vocation. For this group of apprentice jockeys, it is conceivable that the rewards outweigh the demands of the occupation.

Career Experiences of Women Working in Paralympic Sport Organizations Internationally

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and understand the career factors considered important for women working in leadership positions in the Paralympic Movement. This study relied on in-depth interviews and demographic information as the primary means of collecting data. Formal semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants who have worked in leadership positions in the Paralympic Movement for a minimum of 5 years. The three parts of the interview were (a) personal life history including demographics and career path, (b) career experiences including the most/least enjoyable and greatest challenges as a woman working in the Paralympic Movement, and (c) career aspirations and career advice. The results provide insight into the career challenges and work climate for women working in Paralympic sport.Keywords: Women , Paralympic sport, Social Role Theory