Amid heightened positional competition in the graduate labor market, doctoral graduates' progression into non-academic employment has become an emerging focus of concern. Drawing on the concept of possible selves, this exploratory study examines how doctoral graduates envisage and plan for their post-graduation careers outside academia in the context of China. The study presents the narratives of two PhD holders from the field of Social Sciences that graduated from universities of varying reputational statuses, both of whom had made the decision to enter non-academic employment during their doctoral journeys. The analysis demonstrates marked differences in the scope of graduates' envisioned future careers and their perceived abilities to realize them along the lines of privilege and disadvantage associated with institutional hierarchy, which in turn shaped their strategies of responding to the intensified job competition. In doing so, the paper sheds light on both the material and affective dimensions involved in graduates' construction and negotiation of envisioned future careers, and provide insights into how this is shaped by institutional hierarchy that enables or constrains the ways post-PhD career possibilities can be imagined. With that, this paper seeks to contribute to the broader discourse on doctoral employment and offers implications relating to post-PhD career planning.

Authors:
Sangge Qi, University of Turku, Finland

About the Presenter(s)
Sangge Qi is a doctoral researcher at University of Turku. She works around topics relating to graduate employability and post-PhD careers. Her current research project explores the early career trajectories of Chinese doctoral graduates outside academia, with a particular focus on those from the fields of Social Science and Humanities.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangge-qi-a9a5a8266

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