The Phenomenon of Navigating the Academic Job Market

• In Event: All About the Benjamins: Labor Market Realities and Reflections

Abstract

This interpretative phenomenological study investigated how Ph.D. graduates experience the
academic job searching process given doctorate oversupply, little job search training, and nonexperience among doctorates. The study sample included 10 Ph.D. graduates having graduated
from U.S. universities and worked in the United States. Through Bourdieu’s lens, interview data
revealed that obtaining academic jobs is an exhausting process with four experiential meanings: 1) accumulating relevant capital, 2) demonstrating relevant capital, 3) dealing with uncertainties, and 4) making hard choices. The findings will build up an experiential knowledge base for future studies on Ph.D. employability and enhance higher doctoral education stakeholders’ insights into how Ph.D. graduates’ transition to academia as well as what can be done to churn out
employable academics.

Authors

• Elsa M. Gonzalez, National Science Foundation

• Binh Chi Bui, University of Houston