So, having spent years and years on the PhD where now are the jobs, at least for those of us who did a PhD in the humanities or social sciences?

Like, 'PhD in the humanities is essential' (or its variants) is not exactly a requirement I've ever come across in a job advert. True, they appear in specific lecturing posts, but in the real world outside academia?

Personally, I'd love to spend the rest of my life as a researcher developing expertise in a wide range of social, cultural, educational etc issues and, for the first time in my life, get paid for it.

But where are such jobs?

I wish I knew. As my office mate regularly says (they are a postdoc): Me (frequent moan muttered into the office air...) "I need a job" They: "There are no jobs". I've seen precious little on the usual search websites or round-robin emails. There isn't much out there and it is frankly a scary and dispiriting time to be writing up my PhD near to completion.

(robin) (meant to represent a round-robin email, I couldn't resist).

Hi. There was a big discussion about this a while ago - see this thread started by Wj_Gibson - http://www.postgraduateforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=12934. It's fairly depressing....

My experiences

Its been a few months since I was 'ejected' from my last post doc and I am still searching for work. True the recession hasn't helped much for anyone, but thats quite minor for me.

In my experience most employers seem to think people with PhDs are overqualified and/or too specialist. Others struggle to see the transferable skills, even though I can evidence everything. I think the phrase PhD on your application form is a too high psychological hurdle for those who are in "the real world" (or so they call it).

The problems is your PhD is really a training for future work within academia, but if thats not where you are heading, then its fairly pointless. Its almost like doing pilot training course then applying for a job in an engineering firm -its understandable that they are not going to see the relevance.

I think some places are more PhD friendly. I was told Blackwell's bookstore regularly hires PhDs to work in their stores due to their specialist knowledge, but there is something really disheartening to think I will end up working as a glorified shop clerk. and the pay is lousy. Think tanks, medical writing firms and research centres either need additional training or high level contacts. Most of my similar age peers I met at conferences who work at such places don't really have enough clout to get me a paid (or even unpaid) post.

I've often thought that. Something I'm considering once I've completed, albeit in summer 2013, is heading abroad to work in the Middle East/Asia/Egypt for a few years and maybe a couple of years in Australia. I seem to have this deluded idea that six years spent over there will allow me to save a fair bit.... Could anyone advise whether or not the jobs are there?

Cheers

No ideas about Middle East. Australia is not experiencing aftershocks from GFC on the same scale as Britain, and seems to be out of recession at present. We are also going through the baby boomer retirement thingo...however, the problems you have with Australia are:

one- we would have many local highly talented Phd students applying for the positions here as well, most likely in similar proportions to other countries, though I'm no statistian- just going on what seems to be out there from observation. So the competition will still be high.

two- we no longer suffer from the old cultural cringe that beset us earlier, that once had us employing people from outside Australia almost assuming that they would be of higher quality than our own graduates. So nowadays the same sorts of employer preferences come into play as have been mentioned on those (somewhat depressing) threads discussing job prospects-re: contacts, work experiences other than post grad study and seminar supervision, etc. And no doubt local supervisors will 'root' (pretty crass term really- I mean support!) for their own students anyway.

three- cities like Sydney and Perth are almost becoming unaffordable regarding housing-though the other major cities are not too bad-generally Australia seems notorious for very high housing costs. Sydney is just a really expensive city to live in period-( but a beautiful one-I'm not bagging it ppls!)

So Australia is always something you want to check out very carefully-personally being Australian, I love it and would not want to live permanently anywhere else-but it isn't always just an easy land of opportunity by any means. (And I'm really lucky in that I have no plans to seek academia as a permanent main employer-I like my present work and just want to extend knowledge and level of expertise-possibly look at some consultancy later on.

Cheers- or not (now I must really get back to serious work before all leave/holidays are over and the thesis has to compete with full-on paid work as well)-good luck though(mince)

This is very interesting. I have completed a postdoc in molecular biology here in the UK and cant find a job. Its interesting to note that recruiters prefer to employ fresh grads rather than someone with a PhD. Being Asian doesn't help either.

Not just social scientists... it's not great for the life sciences either. It seems there are jobs that require totally different skills to the ones I actually have. In fact it seems pointless even applying, because I write myself off the moment I read the job ad! I'd love to get a research job and add to the skills I already have, but that would require someone wanting my skills in the first place ;-)

Outside of academia (i.e. in my case the pharmaceutical industry) it's all about industry experience, of which I have none. :$

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there are two separate issues here.

1) there are no jobs

2) getting through the sift.

so for me....

1) - yes there are NO jobs in my field. Only 2 jobs have come up in the last 6 months that I feel I am appropriate for. There have been psychology lectureships starting at £40k - but I really don't think that I'm qualified for those. So it is only 2 posts (tbh, there have only been about 2 lectureships come up as well!)

2) I have got interviews to both the jobs I applied for - I think my CV is good (if I don't say so myself) I didn't get the 1st job, because they also interviewed 3 people who were 4 years out of their PhDs - which either means my CV was amazing, or they got me to go all the way there for giggles.
2nd interview for the other job is tomorrow eeeeek!

ETA: on my CV i have a brief overview of my thesis in laymens speak (even for the academic version of my cv as don't want to alienate people) and then I have...

Skills and Experience:
? Presentation Skills: Conference presentations and invited talks
? Written communication: Both academic writing and organisational reports
? Consultancy Skills: Working with stakeholders, managing expectations
? Knowledge Transfer: Ensuring the research impacts organisational policy
? Research Skills: Critical analysis, problem solving
? Project Management: Organising, planning and time management
? Computing Skills: Microsoft Office, SPSS

Well, by 2013 you'll have been a student for 7 years so maybe a job at a bar/offie/brewery? Or you could always turn tricks under the name "Dr. Love."

How about trying the Civil Service Faststream? Difficult to get on to (though there is a similar one for local government) but you could end up with a slightly more hands-on version of what you want.

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/news/100906.htm

There is light at the end of the tunnel apparently...thought not necessarily in academia...

not sure the CS fast stream is going to be particularly easy to get onto this year. hubs works as a civil servant (after doing a PhD) and he said they are going to run the various fast streams but they will be more competitive that ever this year because other recruitment is frozen. :-(

The civil service (non-fast stream) was kind of my back up plan - stupid budget cuts :-(

I am leaking like a untoliet trained puppy at the prospect of trying to find work in the Spring. Nothing is coming up and I have zero possibility of transfering to private sector or industry.

In Aus there is a massive demand for PhD graduates, or at least there will be when they (a) ramp up investment in higher education and (b) the older generation retires:

"The problem of an aging academic workforce was highlighted again this year, when a study by Melbourne University found that a quarter of Australia's senior academics would be retiring within the next five years, and 5,000 would have retired within a decade."

http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201008192781/higer-education/australia-s-real-deficit-higher-education-finance-expert

I would just LOVE to move to Australia! Just been messaging my dear old friend who now lives in Sydney - I have loads of Aus friends. But I think I may be a bit too old, isn't there an aged 44 cut off point, I'd hvae to go in the next three years. And with that thought, I'll get going on the wrting I have to do...