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Dear Andrew, As with most people who have already responded or been in touch in the past, I wholly sympathise that you have undertaken very lengthy training (probably undergrad, Masters, PhD) of at least 7 years with a view to developing a career in academia, only to find that employment opportunities are limited. I really do emphasise with the situation that you and others find yourself in. However I feel compelled to pen a response because I do take issue with two points that you make. Firstly you state that: “…there does seem to be a fairly widespread acknowledgement that we are collectively engaged in something rather illogical and potentially damaging by channelling significant resources into professional training programmes for a shrinking and largely inaccessible profession.” And secondly you state that: “An even more misguided comment, to which we are regularly subjected, suggests that we should consider ‘just going back’ to another sector, where the pay is allegedly better and HR managers are apparently appreciative of our qualifications. In most cases this is completely deluded. Unless we’re willing to erase all of our most significant achievements from our CVs (as I’ve done to secure my current job), there is often nowhere else to go.” I disagree that there is widespread acknowledgement anywhere other than in the ivory tower, where too often people cannot imagine that there might be a world beyond higher education in which high skills are both required, and appreciated. For sure you do need a PhD for an academic career, but a PhD is a higher research degree and it is not a professional training programme. I don’t believe that we (the government, universities, the system) are engaged in training thousands more PhD students than there are employment opportunities within the profession just for the sake of it. In the same way that we still provide funding for people to undertake undergraduate degrees in history of art, philosophy, and Latin, funding is provided to undertake higher research degrees because through these programs people gain valuable skills that can be put to use in a very wide variety of professions. I don’t think the question is “are we training to many PhD students?” But is actually two other more important questions. Firstly, have we ensured that new PhD students have realistic expectations about their future employment prospects within academia (for example, noting that a Royal Society report in 2010 states that only 3.5% of the science PhD cohort go on to become permanent research staff in universities)? Secondly, are we ensuring that PhD programs provide students with the relevant skills they need in a world outside of academia? When I undertook my postgraduate studies I wanted to be an academic. The Director of the Postgraduate Research Program in the first ten minutes of our first induction lecture laid out the situation to us, telling us that the statistics showed that only a handful of us would go on to become academics. If other universities are not doing this then I think this is a real failing. I note that the room didn’t empty when he made this statement. We need to move away from the ingrained notion that somehow not becoming an academic following a completion of a PhD is somehow a failure, and moreover, that non-academic careers are a less worthwhile outcomes than academic careers following completion of a PhD. It’s probably fair to say that the PhD in some disciplines, and in some universities, might benefit from a refresh. We are training very bright people and they are gaining highly developed skills. These skills are transferable outside the academic world. However we need to ensure that PhD students have the right assistance to help them apply these skills outside of universities. For some time this has been appreciated at the undergraduate level, and it needs to follow through to postgraduate research degrees. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ability to research, analyse, think critically, and then write is applicable to jobs beyond universities! My own experience stands in contrast to yours, and I want to encourage you to not give up on the value of your PhD when applying for non-academic jobs. Every non-academic job I have ever pursued I have found that having a PhD has been a benefit. It’s something of a cliché, but we are living in a knowledge economy. There are many jobs today that require a minimum of an undergraduate degree, whereas 25 years ago you didn’t need a degree. I believe the same to true of postgraduate degrees, and there is research to show that over the coming decades the number of jobs requiring a postgraduate degree will increase markedly. Having a postgraduate degree, and especially a PhD does help to differentiate yourself from other candidates. For those interested in the changing nature of the PhD there is a good discussion paper by the Australian university peak body ‘Group of Eight’, and this is available at: http://www.go8.edu.au/__documents/go8-policy-analysis/2013/the-changing-phd_final.pdf Andrew - don’t give up on the value of your PhD in terms of your career. I think over the long-term you’ll find that it will bring career benefits to you. Best of luck. Regards, Peter