Making your doctorate work in an academic career

This chapter should be of relevance to two groups of doctoral graduates, in particular: those applying for academic positions (including postdoc research positions) and those recently appointed to an academic position. Whichever situation you are in, the first issue you will face is that you are starting an academic career in a context in which there are more people with doctorates interested in academic positions than there are academic positions available internationally as well as within Australia. The shift towards knowledge-based economies has led developed nations to emphasise the importance of training an increasing number of researchers, with the aim of providing a national resource of 'knowledge workers', not necessarily for careers in academia. The stereotypical view of a PhD as preparation for academia is being broken, both in terms of PhD graduates' desires and expectations (only about 70 per cent of PhD graduates and postdocs would like an academic career) and of what is possible (only about 70 per cent of those who would like an academic career about 50 per cent of the total are successful in achieving one)