career development topics for research paper

Career Research Paper Topics

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CAREERS

1. Career 2. Career construction theory 3. Circumscription and compromise 4. Cognitive information processing in career counseling 5. Erikson’s theory of development 6. History of career studies 7. Holland’s theory of vocational choice 8. Metaphors for careers 9. Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment 10. Occupational choice 11. Person-environment fit (P-E fit) 12. Positive organizational scholarship 13. Reinforcement theory 14. Social cognitive career theory 15. Social constructionism 16. Social learning theory of career development 17. Super’s career development theory 18. Vocational psychology

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19. Antisocial work behaviors 20. Boundaryless career 21. Churning of jobs 22. Contingent employment 23. Customized careers 24. Downsizing 25. Employability 26. Ethics and careers 27. Job security 28. Knowledge work 29. Outsourcing and offshoring 30. Protean career 31. Psychological contract 32. Spirituality and careers 33. Team-based work 34. Technology and careers 35. Workforce 2020

Cultural and International Perspectives

36. Culture and careers 37. Expatriate experience 38. Globalization and careers 39. International careers 40. Multinational organization 41. Virtual expatriates

Ethnicity, Gender, and Diversity

42. Affirmative action 43. Age discrimination 44. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) 45. Biculturalism 46. Civil Rights Act of 1964 47. Civil Rights Act of 1991 48. Comparable worth 49. Disability 50. Disabilities among college students 51. Diversity in organizations 52. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) 53. Equal Pay Act 54. Gender and careers 55. Glass ceiling 56. Inequality 57. Lockstep career progression 58. Multicultural organization 59. Racial discrimination 60. Religious discrimination 61. Reverse discrimination 62. Sex discrimination 63. Sexual harassment 64. Sexual orientation and careers 65. Stereotyping of workers 66. Tokenism 67. Unbiased hiring systems

The Organizational Environment

68. Industrial Revolution 69. Leadership Development 70. Learning organization 71. Nepotism 72. Organizational justice 73. Organizational politics 74. Procedural justice 75. Toxic leadership

Social Class and Background

76. Blue-collar workers 77. Family background and careers 78. Low-income workers and careers 79. Single parents and careers 80. Socioeconomic status 81. White-collar work

The Work-Life Interface

82. Burnout 83. Careers and health 84. Child care practices 85. Crossover effect 86. Elder care practices 87. Emotional labor 88. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 89. Family-responsive workplace practices 90. Flexible work arrangements 91. Job sharing 92. Part-time employment 93. Stress at work 94. Telecommuting 95. Two-career relationships 96. Unemployment 97. Wellness and fitness programs 98. Work-family balance 99. Work-family conflict 100. Work-family enrichment 101. Work/life litigation 102. Workaholism 103. Workplace romance

THE EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CAREERS

104. Anticipatory socialization 105. Assimilation and mutual acceptance 106. Bridge employment 107. Career change 108. Career indecision 109. Career interruptions 110. Career maturity 111. Career plateau 112. Career transition 113. College student career development 114. Continuing professional education 115. Crystallization of vocational self-concept 116. Derailment 117. Early career stage 118. Early retirement 119. Fast-track career 120. Identity 121. Job loss 122. Late career stage 123. Leadership development 124. Lifelong learning 125. Lockstep career progression 126. Mentoring 127. Middle career stage 128. Midlife crisis 129. Obsolescence of knowledge and skills 130. Organizational socialization 131. Phased retirement 132. Pygmalion effect 133. Retirement 134. Reverse mentoring 135. Role models 136. School-to-work transition 137. Self-concept 138. Underemployment 139. Unemployment 140. Welfare-to-work programs

DECISION MAKING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

141. Aspirations in career decisions 142. Career appraisal 143. Career decision-making styles 144. Career exploration 145. Career goal 146. Career indecision 147. Career investments 148. Career strategy 149. Environment awareness 150. Human capital 151. Impression management 152. Individual career management 153. Occupational choice 154. Occupational prestige 155. Occupational stereotypes 156. Organizational entry 157. Organizational image 158. Self-awareness 159. Self-efficacy 160. Self-esteem 161. Self-leadership 162. Self-monitoring 163. Social capital 164. Specialty choice 165. Turnover

VARIATIONS IN CAREER PATTERNS AND CAREER SUCCESS

166. Boundaryless career 167. Career anchors 168. Career as a calling 169. Career mobility 170. Career motivation 171. Career salience 172. Career satisfaction 173. Career success 174. Copreneurship 175. Entrepreneurship 176. Job involvement 177. Job satisfaction 178. Lockstep career progression 179. Morale 180. Motivation and career development 181. Needs 182. Occupational commitment 183. Occupational professionalism 184. Organizational citizenship behavior 185. Organizational commitment 186. Protean career 187. Work ethic 188. Work values 189. Workaholism

CAREER DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

190. Academic advising 191. Apprenticeships 192. Assessment centers 193. Career centers 194. Career coaching 195. Career counseling 196. Career counseling competencies 197. Career education 198. Career intervention outcomes 199. Career-planning workshops 200. Child care practices 201. Compensation 202. Computer-based career support systems 203. Continuing professional education 204. Cooperative education 205. Cross-training 206. Elder care practices 207. Employee assistance programs 208. Employee participation in organizational decision making 209. Empowerment 210. Executive coaching 211. Family-responsive workplace practices 212. Flexible work arrangements 213. Human resource information systems (HRIS) 214. Human resource planning 215. Human resource support systems 216. Internships 217. Job challenge 218. Job design 219. Job-posting programs 220. Job rotation 221. Job sharing 222. Leadership development 223. Mentoring 224. Merit-based pay 225. On-the-job training 226. Organizational career management 227. Orientation 228. Outplacement 229. Part-time employment 230. Pay compression 231. Pay-for-performance reward systems 232. Performance appraisal and feedback 233. Pygmalion effect 234. Quality of work life (QWL) 235. Redeployment 236. Retention programs 237. Retraining 238. Reverse mentoring 239. Sabbaticals 240. Strategic human resource management 241. Succession planning 242. Telecommuting 243. Three-hundred-sixty-degree (360°) evaluation 244. Training and development 245. Tuition reimbursement 246. Vocational education 247. Wellness and fitness programs

LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY MANDATES

248. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) 249. Civil Rights Act of 1964 250. Civil Rights Act of 1991 251. Collective bargaining 252. Domestic partner benefits 253. Employment contracts 254. Employment-at-will doctrine 255. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) 256. Equal Pay Act 257. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 258. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 259. Hostile working environment 260. National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) 261. Sweatshop labor 262. Work/life litigation 263. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1992 (WARN) 264. Wrongful dismissal

ASSESSMENT AREAS AND TECHNIQUES

265. Abilities 266. Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values 267. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) 268. Assessment centers 269. Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test 270. Big Five factors of personality 271. Business simulations 272. Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory (BPTI) 273. California Psychological Inventory 274. Campbell Interest and Skill Survey 275. Career anchors 276. Career decision-making styles 277. Career Decision Scale (CDS) 278. Career Development Inventory 279. Career maturity 280. Career Thoughts Inventory 281. Cognitive Differentiation Grid 282. Differential aptitude testing 283. Emotional intelligence 284. FIRO-B 285. General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) 286. Hall Occupational Orientation Inventory 287. Intelligence, schooling, and occupational success 288. Interests 289. Kuder Career Assessments 290. Learning styles 291. Leisure interests 292. Life Style Inventory 293. Life-Career Rainbow 294. Lifestyle preferences 295. Locus of control 296. Machiavellianism 297. Minnesota Clerical Test 298. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) 299. Multiple intelligences 300. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 301. Needs 302. Occupational card sorts 303. Occupational classification systems 304. Personal Globe Inventory 305. Personality and careers 306. Proactivity 307. Rokeach Values Survey 308. Self-Directed Search (SDS) 309. Sixteen Personality Questionnaire (16PF) 310. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 311. Strong Interest Inventory 312. Thematic apperception tests (TAT) 313. Tolerance for ambiguity 314. Type A behavior pattern 315. Values 316. Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) 317. Wechsler Intelligence Scales 318. Wonderlic Personnel Test 319. Work values 320. Work Values Inventory

JOB SEARCH AND ORGANIZATIONAL RECRUITING

321. Electronic employment screening 322. Employment advertising 323. Exit interview 324. Handwriting analysis in hiring 325. Informational interview 326. Integrity testing 327. Internal labor markets 328. Internet career assessment 329. Internet recruitment 330. Job fairs 331. Job interviews 332. Job search 333. Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) 334. Networking 335. Occupational Information Network (O*NET) 336. Occupational Outlook Handbook 337. Organizational entry 338. Organizational image 339. Organizational staffing 340. Personnel selection 341. Realistic recruitment 342. Recruitment 343. References for employment 344. Resume 345. Unbiased hiring systems

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

346. American Counseling Association 347. American Psychological Association 348. Center for Creative Leadership 349. National Career Development Association

Our goal was to make this collection the premier reference tool for students, scholars, practitioners, and others interested in gaining knowledge or conducting research on career-related research paper topics. We have kept the topical essays concise, easy to read, and jargon free, while ensuring that the content reflects the most current thinking and research on the particular topic. We have provided essays that are directly related to the field of career development and have expressly avoided tangential topics or biographical profiles that add pages but do not improve the content. Browse our career research site.

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113 Career Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Choosing a career path is a significant decision that can shape our lives. Whether you are a high school student exploring your options or a working professional considering a career change, writing a career essay can be a valuable exercise in self-reflection and goal-setting. To help you get started, here are 113 career essay topic ideas and examples that can inspire your writing:

Why I chose my current career path.

The influence of my family on my career choices.

Exploring unconventional career options.

The impact of technology on the job market.

The role of internships in career development.

How to navigate a successful career in a competitive industry.

Strategies for finding work-life balance in a demanding career.

The importance of professional networking for career growth.

Challenges faced by women in male-dominated industries.

The role of education in career success.

The pros and cons of freelance work.

How to turn a hobby into a career.

The future of remote work and its implications for careers.

The impact of automation on job opportunities.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector.

The role of mentors in career development.

The importance of continuous learning in a rapidly changing world.

Exploring careers in the healthcare industry.

The challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.

The impact of globalization on career opportunities.

The role of personal branding in career advancement.

The benefits of cross-cultural work experience.

The role of emotional intelligence in career success.

Exploring careers in the creative arts.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the military.

The impact of social media on career opportunities.

The importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

The benefits of pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM).

The challenges and rewards of a career in education.

The role of leadership skills in career advancement.

The impact of climate change on future career opportunities.

Exploring careers in the hospitality industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the environmental sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in law enforcement.

The role of communication skills in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job displacement.

The importance of financial literacy in career planning.

Exploring careers in the fashion industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in public service.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the entertainment industry.

The role of resilience in overcoming career setbacks.

The impact of social entrepreneurship on career options.

The importance of work culture in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the sports industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the technology sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the aviation industry.

The role of adaptability in navigating a changing career landscape.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job creation.

The importance of work-life integration in career fulfillment.

Exploring careers in the tourism industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the financial sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in healthcare administration.

The role of organizational skills in career success.

The impact of online learning on career development.

The importance of workplace diversity for innovation.

Exploring careers in the film industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in engineering.

The challenges and rewards of a career in social work.

The role of negotiation skills in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on employee well-being.

The importance of emotional well-being in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the gaming industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in marketing.

The challenges and rewards of a career in nonprofit management.

The role of time management in career success.

The impact of social media on personal branding.

The importance of cultural intelligence in global careers.

Exploring careers in the culinary industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in journalism.

The challenges and rewards of a career in architecture.

The role of problem-solving skills in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on team collaboration.

The importance of work-life harmony in career fulfillment.

Exploring careers in the music industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in psychology.

The challenges and rewards of a career in event planning.

The role of decision-making skills in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job satisfaction.

The importance of mentorship in career development.

Exploring careers in the automotive industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in entrepreneurship.

The challenges and rewards of a career in graphic design.

The role of creativity in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on organizational culture.

The importance of work-life boundaries in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the publishing industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in human resources.

The challenges and rewards of a career in interior design.

The role of teamwork in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job security.

The importance of self-reflection in career planning.

Exploring careers in the education technology industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in healthcare research.

The challenges and rewards of a career in social media management.

The role of adaptability in overcoming career obstacles.

The impact of remote work on employee engagement.

The importance of work-life integration in career success.

Exploring careers in the renewable energy sector.

The benefits of pursuing a career in data analytics.

The challenges and rewards of a career in public relations.

The role of critical thinking skills in career advancement.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job recruitment.

The importance of lifelong learning in career growth.

Exploring careers in the e-commerce industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in healthcare policy.

The challenges and rewards of a career in software development.

The role of adaptability in navigating a changing job market.

The impact of remote work on work-life balance.

The importance of personal development in career success.

Exploring careers in the renewable energy industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in user experience design.

The challenges and rewards of a career in cybersecurity.

The role of emotional intelligence in career advancement.

These 113 career essay topic ideas and examples cover a wide range of industries, skills, and challenges. Whether you are passionate about a particular field or looking for inspiration, these topics can help you explore various aspects of careers and find your own unique path. Remember, writing a career essay is not only about showcasing your knowledge and skills but also about understanding yourself and the world of work. Good luck on your writing journey!

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the why, what and how of career research: a review and recommendations for future study.

Career Development International

ISSN : 1362-0436

Article publication date: 25 January 2022

Issue publication date: 18 February 2022

The field of careers studies is complex and fragmented. The aim of this paper is to detail why it is important to study careers, what we study and how we study key issues in this evolving field.

Design/methodology/approach

Key theories, concepts and models are briefly reviewed to lay the groundwork for offering an agenda for future research.

The authors recommend ten key directions for future research and offer specific questions for further study.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the development of the theoretical underpinning of career studies.

Practical implications

The authors hope that the proposed agenda for future research will help advance the field and encourage more research on understudied, but important, topics.

Originality/value

This paper presents a comprehensive view of research on contemporary careers.

• Career studies
• Contemporary careers
• Future research agenda

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers and Editor Jim Jawahar for their insightful comments.

Baruch, Y. and Sullivan, S.E. (2022), "The why, what and how of career research: a review and recommendations for future study", Career Development International , Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 135-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-10-2021-0251

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Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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84 Professional Development Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best professional development topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on professional development, 💡 most interesting professional development topics to write about.

• The Importance of Professional Development for Teachers Teachers should have the techniques to convince students to read, and also show the students where to read on top of other important issues required for the all-round development of students. The idea behind career […]
• Career Path Analysis and Professional Development In making this plan then one has to consider the current lifestyle and the current job so that in making the plan then you will be sure of what you are to change so that […]
• IDEA, IEPs, IFSPs,and 504 Plans: Professional Development The key principles of the IDEA are freedom of discrimination, safe environment creation, and an interdisciplinary team approach.
• Personal and Professional Development Plan The desire to accomplish personal and professional goals pushes people to invest their time and money in various issues like education, training, health and research.
• Multicultural Education: Action Plan for Professional Development of the School’s Staff Multicultural education has to be emphasized in the discussion to make it the core of a future action plan for the next academic year. It is a chance for teachers to recognize their roles in […]
• Personal and Professional Development of Mechanical Engineer The institute of mechanical engineers is licensed by the engineering council of UK to oversee the operations of the field of mechanical engineering.
• Design a professional development plan Tomlinson defined differentiated instruction as a teaching philosophy in which learners’ interests are best served when the facilitator, in this case the teacher, is aware of the variance in the learner’s levels of readiness, interest […]
• Employee Motivation for Professional Development The study of increasing the motivation of employees in the workplace to enhance productivity is an essential topic. The search for optimal initiatives to increase the motivation of workers can be considered in the context […]
• Employability and Professional Development According to Weinert, the development of worker’s employability is dependent on the development prospects of the organization and its environment and the needs of the workers for personal development.
• Professional Development and School Improvement The presentation provides a connection between curriculum, instruction and professional development in the context of an educational setting.
• Continuing Professional Development Concept in Organizations CPD is the process of maintenance, enhancement, and enriching skills, knowledge, and personal qualities needed for the performance of professional duties.
• A Nurse Practitioner’s Professional Development This paper outlines the role of a nurse practitioner, recorded trends in the job market, and core competencies such experts bring to the field of healthcare.
• Professional Development in the People Profession The current trends in the people practice profession show that today, the most demanded personal qualities in this field are the flexibility of thinking and the ability to behave in accordance with the situation.
• A Professional Development Plan for John Trevor at Prison X On the basis of team members’ description of John’s leadership style and the man’s individual perceptions, it is possible to assume that the warden executes absentee leadership.
• A Best Practice Strategy for Professional Development Reflecting on this case, I may say that my anger and irritation on the basis of my individual attitudes to the task have led to this conflict.
• Professional Development in the Music Industry Such a performer can be said to become a producer for their students, which also increases the artist’s chances of self-promotion.
• Professional Development in American Healthcare The decision to allow learning institutions to formulate their courses creates a sense of competition, thereby ensuring that most of the graduates possess the much-needed skills.
• Adult Basic Educators’ Multicultural Professional Development The research based on the grounded theory begins with the collection of qualitative data, which later forms the researcher’s understanding of the subject.
• Incentives in Professional Development & Student Achievement Any educational institution should be focused precisely on the professional and personal growth of the student and the staff. The professional growth of a student will be effective if the central role in the learning […]
• Nursing Leadership for Continuing Professional Development There are different types of models guiding nursing leadership, the Great man Theory states that leadership is dependent on the personality traits.
• Lifelong Learner Professional Development Plan Early childhood professional development promotes one’s involvement with the given field through the use of professional standards and ethical guidelines.
• Professional Development in Elementary Education The choice of the topic is justified by the significant scope of the problem and by the critical importance of PD in terms of modern schools and other educational establishments.
• Professional Development of Police Officers: Grant Proposal and Presentation Therefore, the department needs to train its officers to help them analyze what causes of violence in the area. Therefore, the department will train some of its officers to help them rehabilitate juvenile offenders in […]
• Nursing: Self-Awareness to Professional Development The first part of the paper will explain in detail my philosophy of nursing that reflects my life’s values. The second part of the paper includes a poem communicating the reasons behind my nursing career.
• Importance of Continuous Professional Development As a result, they will be able to form a relationship with various employees in the organization, thus enabling them to be able to spot a particular talent in an employee and hence develop it […]
• Continued Professional Development Increasing the number of nurses with baccalaureate and doctorate levels of education will transform the role of nurses in the health care system.
• Professional Development Plan: Developing Leadership In the event that a given piece of advice is not applicable, then it should be a vivid reminder to me that I ought to improve in that domain.
• Job Evaluation of the HR Manager: Performance, Safety, and Professional Development Experience is usually the primary criterion for selecting a candidate as it relieves the employer of educating the new employee. Ability is the fitness of the person to perform the job, meaning talent or a […]
• Special Education Professional Development Needs of Teachers in Saudi Arabia Assessment The research explores the ideas and beliefs of educators who work in the areas of special education and inclusive education, as well as the concerns and issues they face.
• The Principal’s Duty in Professional Development It is very important for teachers to learn from the duties that they undertake in the school community. To ensure that the teachers deliver the best to the students, their general well being should be […]
• Teacher Career: Professional Development Plan The short plan examines the current status and needs of the particular user, while at the same time looking at the different ways in which the needs can be met and recording the goals and […]
• Personal & Professional Development: Gaining Power & Influence According to Javitch, for one to gain power and influence on people, one should identify what to use to influence others.
• Personal & Professional Development: Managing Stress To sum up this discussion about stress and stress management, it is important to put in place the strategies that would reduce stress in our workplace, homes, institutions and the society as a whole.
• Information Literate and Professional Development in Teaching Information literacy is the process of identifying the kind of information that is needed, the best way to organize it, the best sources to get it in terms of authenticity, critically evaluating those sources, and […]
• Professional Development to Improve Reading Scores The introduction and development of the mentioned issues in the program of reading skills improvement will bring effectiveness in the plan realization.
• The Professional Development of the Educator This development of reflective approach has facilitated in the honing of the educator’s problem-solving skills and in determining the distinct needs of the students, which ultimately enable the educator in the conduction of research, crucial […]
• Professional Development Through Orthopedic Medicine Course The basic objectives of the Orthopaedic Medical Technology Programme are to develop understanding of the medical students about the advanced technologies of orthopaedic and application of the basic principles related with the development of orthopedic […]
• “Effects of a Professional Development Academy on Technology Skills” by Jonathan Brinkerhoff The reader is efficiently led to focus on the “meat” of the article, which was how the academy’s efforts at training teachers in a span of two academic years impact the teachers’ efficiency and attitude […]
• Human Resource Manager’s Continuing Professional Development The assessment of personal HR skills with the help of the CPD framework is crucial for an expert willing to master new skills and excel in one’s professional development.
• Business Professional Development Programme: Analysis and Reflection As the exposure to a realistic economic setting and the relevant factors has shown, the acquisition of leadership skills and especially communication-related abilities should be the focus of the personal development plan in the future.
• Lifelong Learning and Professional Development in Healthcare One of the most crucial skills in being able to engage in lifelong learning is the ability of self-reflection. One of the ways to engage in lifelong learning is finding a mentor.
• APN Professional Development Plan in Missouri I believe that the use of the most recent strategies and techniques in nurses’ daily activities can contribute to the development of nursing practice.
• Interpersonal Relationships Management and Professional Development Therefore, the correlation between the introduction of EI as the essential component of communication in the workplace and the levels of employee engagement is quite transparent, as seen in the example of Vivint Solar.
• Psychiatrist’s Professional Development Plan When it comes to theory, learning more about the key principles of risk assessment in psychotherapy, such as confidentiality and the absence of prejudiced attitudes, was the initial step taken to achieve the goal.
• The Low: Personal and Professional Development Ethics A certain code of conduct to govern the profession is required due to the intimate nature of the relationship between a counselor and the client.
• Work-Life Balance and Professional Development The assessment revealed that the factors that contributed to my work-life imbalanced come from different spheres of life such as family and personal relationships, social life, workplace communication and dynamics, personal habits, and the structure […]
• Continuing Professional Development: Past & Future The organization, in general, gained from my professional development as the increased job satisfaction, leading to the improved productivity of the overall performance of my company.
• Professional Development and Learning Team Assessment It is imperative to mention that the importance of professional development plan should not be disregarded, and it can be used to address some of the areas that are in need of improvement.
• Professional Development Requirements This would allow an individual to acquire the expertise needed. This can help an individual to improve his or her competences that are yet to be developed fully.
• Professional Development: Social Career After several lessons in this module, I have come to understand my weaknesses and how I should commit myself to get rid of them for sake of my future career.
• Recruitment Officer: Professional Development It is possible to distinguish the following communication methods that can be applied by an HR professional. It is possible to focus on the following areas.
• Kmart Store: Professional Development Plan This typically involves the break-down of the job duties and responsibilities as it relates to the policy and procedure and what is required to improve performance in efforts to gain better results.
• Action Research for Professional Development The idea is to enable the practitioners to follow certain actions and reflection procedures to enable them to improve upon the unsatisfactory situation. The prevalent methods or approaches to action research include the use of […]
• Professional Development Plan: Opportunities for Growth Therefore, I will need to coordinate the process of learning by building a knowledge system in which every element of nursing practice is linked to the rest of the components, and where collaboration and knowledge […]
• Professional Development Plan in Psychotherapy I would like to learn about theories, strategies, and instruments in the field of psychotherapy, focusing on assessment, planning, and implementing processes.
• Nursing Professional Development Plan Therefore, a personal development plan is needed to create the framework for the continuous improvement that I will have to accept as a part of my professional philosophy and ethics.
• Advanced Practice Nurse: Professional Development Plan To apply for a job in the field of AP nursing, one has to evaluate the regulations and guidelines of the state, in which the APN is planning to work.
• Professional Development: Culturally Responsive Teaching Furthermore, the reconsideration of the leadership strategy and the ethical values on which the decision-making in the context of the institution is made must be viewed as a necessity since it will allow for more […]
• Teaching Portfolio Role in the Professional Development In addition, the inclusion of rationale for each of the choices increases accessibility of the teaching plan it accompanies and improves understanding of the steps taken by the responsible parties.
• Professional Development Workshop The model is known to facilitate better engagement of participants and, by extension, a higher level of retention. The model promotes the fusion of existing knowledge, participants’ experience, and the content of the workshop in […]
• Professional Development: Critical and Creative Thinking The majority of them involve working with computers and different software, and to operate those, an employee has to be able to think critically.
• Purposes of Continuous Professional Development The questions were sent to the author in response to the application letter they had sent to the organisation. The workplace is meant to focus on the core objectives of an organisation.
• Professional Development in Human Services In order to make sure that my work is beneficial to different cultural and ethnical groups, I am going to undertake the following professional development steps.
• Professional Development Plan Membership In reference to Haselto and Ketelaar evolutionary psychology is a model that reveals the behavior of human beings as adaptive in nature.
• Professional Development for Strategic Managers: Up the Ladder to Complete Success The given paper will provide the means to combine personal development with the training of the business qualities and recommends the activities which help the author of the research use efficiently of the qualities at […]
• Professional Development and Teaching First is the degree to which race influences the process of constructing identity, second, the degree to which race and ethnicity influences the relationships the students create with the education system and other aspects of […]
• Development Plan: Leader and Learning Team In this assignment, I seek to develop a plan that will address the characteristics of the group and me as the leader of the learning team.
• Managerial and Professional Development: Crowe Horwath CPA limited In developing an understanding to the problem and its extension, the plan will consider undertaking a broad research and interviews questioning on the extent of the teamwork problem, major causes, and possible impacts to the […]
• Managerial and Professional Development: Deloitte & Touché Company Key features that depict the presence of L&D in Deloitte are: Presence of consultant professionals and practitioner Another significant feature in Deloitte that depicts its dedication towards practices and approaches to learning and development is […]
• Importance of continuing ones Education and Professional Development within the Medical/Health care Field Continuing education in the medical field also enables the learner to remain competitive in the field of health care. According to Bhatnagar and Kalpana, it is therefore important for the medical care practitioners to obtain […]
• Plan of Study and Professional Development It will also function as a tool for the student to evaluate the academic activities in order to tailor them to meet his academic success needs.
• Professional development and research Operations Professional development team will provide data to entire personnel participants regarding seminars and in-trainings that will aid in achieving the goals of the school itself and the school professional development team.
• Chad vale ICT Workforce Professional Development Plan The co-workers are able to get basic information of their employers. The overall effect of the mentoring program is to build a strong relationship among co-workers and employers.
• Evaluating Professional Development Training in School The standards of evaluating them should be developed by all the stakeholders of the school institution and their evaluation should be based on the extent to which they resolve professional issues proficiently.
• Professional Development and Contemporary Issues In general, globalization affects the world in various ways one of which is the industrialization of countries where the introduction of global markets that are able to foster worldwide production have been able to ensure […]
• Promoting Diversity through Professional Development and Education Moreover, the inability of her parents to attend the parent-teacher conference is an indication of the nature of care that Alana receives in the family.
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Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Mapping career patterns in research: A sequence analysis of career histories of ERC applicants

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Independent Expert, Affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Contributed equally to this work with: Sara Connolly, Stefan Fuchs, Channah Herschberg, Brigitte Schels

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Affiliation Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany

• Claartje J. Vinkenburg, 
• Sara Connolly, 
• Stefan Fuchs, 
• Channah Herschberg, 
• Brigitte Schels

• Published: July 29, 2020
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

22 Jun 2021: The PLOS ONE Staff (2021) Correction: Mapping career patterns in research: A sequence analysis of career histories of ERC applicants. PLOS ONE 16(6): e0253832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253832 View correction

Despite the need to map research careers, the empirical evidence on career patterns of researchers is limited. We also do not know whether career patterns of researchers can be considered conventional in terms of steady progress or international mobility, nor do we know if career patterns differ between men and women in research as is commonly assumed. We use sequence analysis to identify career patterns of researchers across positions and institutions, based on full career histories of applicants to the European Research Council frontier research grant schemes. We distinguish five career patterns for early and established men and women researchers. With multinomial logit analyses, we estimate the relative likelihood of researchers with certain characteristics in each pattern. We find grantees among all patterns, and limited evidence of gender differences. Our findings on career patterns in research inform further studies and policy making on career development, research funding, and gender equality.

Citation: Vinkenburg CJ, Connolly S, Fuchs S, Herschberg C, Schels B (2020) Mapping career patterns in research: A sequence analysis of career histories of ERC applicants. PLoS ONE 15(7): e0236252. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252

Editor: Ting Ren, Peking University, CHINA

Received: October 25, 2019; Accepted: July 2, 2020; Published: July 29, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Vinkenburg et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Unrestricted and uncontrolled access to the complete career history data (in terms of position, institution, contract type, location etc. of all spells since PhD) compromises the confidentiality and privacy of research participants, and violates the conditions on ethics approval obtained for this study from the Ethical Committee of the European Research Council. Simplified de-identified data sets that contain minimal but relevant personal (age, gender, children, etc) and career related variables, including a career pattern denominator, are available upon request. The data sets are available through the University of East Anglia: https://people.uea.ac.uk/en/datasets/mapping-career-patterns-in-research-a-sequence-analysis-of-career-histories-of-erc-applicants(a64c76cc-da8f-4ab1-b19f-7a3b3a814d7f).html . Please contact [email protected] to explain why you need the data and purposes for which they will be used. The data will be made available through one of the beneficiaries of our ERCAREER grant, Professor Sara Connolly.

Funding: This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC https://erc.europa.eu/ ) Coordination and Support Action (CSA) [ERC-CSA-2012-317442], project acronym ERCAREER, awarded to CJV SC SF. The funder was instrumental in data collection.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist

Data on the career paths of young researchers would help […] . There is a pressing need for greater transparency about the likelihood of PhD students and postdocs following an academic career to the higher levels . […] . vn [ 1 ].

Introduction

The need to map research careers is tied to policy efforts to stimulate career mobility and enhance career development for researchers [ 2 – 4 ], with the ultimate goal to strengthen innovation and the knowledge economy. However, despite some efforts to map research careers in the European context [ 5 – 9 ], exactly how research careers develop in terms of patterns or moves through positions and institutions remains largely uncharted territory [ 1 ]. Research careers are often described in terms of outcomes (i.e. publications) [ 10 ] or mobility events (i.e. international moves) [ 11 ]. Following Abbott, we view the career pattern itself as an outcome [ 12 ]. After obtaining a PhD, researchers move through job positions within and between institutions. From a holistic life course perspective, careers are not (only) marked by singular specific events but also a sequence of states that may differ in progression and timing [ 13 ]. However, details on differences in career trajectories of individual researchers are lacking [ 14 ]. Based on full career histories of European Research Council (ERC) Starting and Advanced grant applicants, we contribute to earlier studies of research careers by mapping the career patterns of men and women researchers from their PhD to more established careers. We do not start from theoretical or anecdotal assumptions about career patterns but use a relatively new analytical strategy developed to empirically capture the nature of career patterns over time and place, providing an overview of research careers in different disciplinary and national settings across Europe.

Career patterns can be interpreted as objectively observable paths of movement through occupational hierarchies [ 15 ]. However, despite the ubiquitous presence of the term “career patterns” in discourse and writings about careers in research, earlier efforts to track research careers yielded limited evidence on exactly how research careers develop over time. We often assume that researchers follow a very similar and traditional career path after obtaining their PhD degree [ 16 ]. The normative expectation of upward mobility has changed from a stylized career path [ 17 ] based on a very limited number of academic “rites of passage” (e.g. PhD defense, inaugural lecture) toward a new career model of cumulative promotions [ 18 ]. However, such expectations and assertions are rarely built on an evidence base of actual career patterns in research. Our analysis reveals how research careers develop over time, in terms of moving through positions and institutions, and whether career patterns beyond the “traditional” can be identified among researchers who apply to the ERC.

The ERC in looking for “excellence only” aims at selecting “groundbreaking” and “truly novel research” for funding [ 19 , 20 ]. By funding and thus organizing excellent science at the European level [ 21 – 23 ], the ERC extends national funding schemes with unique conditions: generous, long-term, flexible, and risk-tolerant [ 24 ]. The ERC’s prestigious individual research grants [ 20 , 25 ] are awarded based on a peer-reviewed evaluation of the quality of the principal investigator and the research proposal [ 19 ]. Similar to other grant schemes, ERC evaluators rank applications taking into account both the science and the scientist [ 26 , 27 ]. The career histories of applicants, thus, play an important role in the ERC peer review process. Previous studies have shown that funded applicants (grantees) and non-funded applicants in various research funding schemes do not differ (much) on objective quality criteria [ 28 , 29 ] and therefore we include both funded and non-funded applicants in our study. Applications to the ERC are made through a host institution, where the research will be undertaken, and there is typically an internal sorting within institutions resulting in support for only the highest quality applications [ 30 , 31 ]. We therefore argue that both the funded and non-funded applicants are among the most excellent researchers of their generation as their applications have been submitted to the most prestigious European research funding organization. Using an exploratory, empirical approach we study how the careers of these researchers develop and whether they develop in a similar manner–in accordance with the assumed traditional career path in research and matching normative expectations of upward mobility.

In addition, we study another commonly held assumption, namely that the careers of men and women in research tend to develop differently. In their initial report on research careers in Europe, ESF [ 2 ] states that “almost all obstacles and bottlenecks identified during a research career affect the careers of women scientists more severely than those of men”, with the main underlying cause of this difference being care responsibilities, which fall disproportionally to women. This assumption is found extensively in the literature and also resonates in the call for proposals sent out by the ERC gender balance thematic working group in 2011 to map “the paths and patterns, differences and similarities in the career paths of women and men ERC grantees”. Our proposal was selected by the ERC to explore gender aspects in career structures and career paths of applicants.

However, despite women’s relative underrepresentation at the highest levels in most research fields [ 32 ], and given that women ERC grantees have lower publication rates than men [ 33 ], we do not know whether women researchers’ career develop at a different speed or in a different way than men’s, nor do we know the actual impact of care responsibilities on career patterns. We therefore empirically test the likelihood of men and women following different career patterns, as well as the extent to which certain personal and institutional characteristics affected this likelihood differentially for men and women.

To map career patterns in research across disciplines around Europe, we use a specific kind of sequence analysis called Optimal Matching Analysis (OMA). OMA incorporates timing alongside transition between occupational states, offering an appropriate analytical tool for the study of careers [ 34 , 35 ]. Abbott [ 36 , 37 ] proposed using OMA, as an appropriate method for measuring life courses “as they are”, calling this descriptive approach a paradigm shift from causes to events. OMA is used to identify order in sequences by analyzing the similarity of sequences to one another and sorting them into groups of similar sequences [ 13 ]. Using data on career histories of ERC grant applicants, OMA provides insights into career patterns among early and established researchers, highlighting differences and similarities. For each grant scheme we identify patterns reflecting combinations of positional and institutional sequences, different progression logics, and movements–including leave or spells of unemployment. In distinguishing five career patterns for early and five for established researchers across Europe, we explore whether certain patterns are more common or “conventional” than others, whether some patterns are associated with greater likelihood of application success, and how gender and other personal, disciplinary, and PhD-related factors affect the likelihood and appearance of career patterns. This mapping of research career patterns should inform research policy, in terms of promoting career development, mobility, and gender equality in funding.

Career patterns in research

The origins of the construct of career patterns can be found in industrial sociology where “it was viewed, objectively, as the number, duration, and sequence of jobs in the work history of individuals” [ 38 , 39 ]. Career conventions, or general agreements on descriptions of common career patterns, are likely to be normative, in the sense that they provide prescriptions of what careers in research should look like. The notion of an ideal career in research likely translates into career conventions in terms of linearity or steady progress [ 40 ], early successes [ 41 ], institutional prestige [ 42 ], and (inter) national mobility [ 43 , 44 ].

These conventions have been surprisingly stable despite the increasing demographic diversity of those who do research and the challenges to the conventional view of research careers associated with this diversity, most notably perhaps with respect to the representation of women [ 32 , 45 , 46 ]. It is evident that career conventions matter in selection decisions (including funding). Decision makers use signals such as linearity and mobility (upward and across borders), sometimes even as a proxy for excellence [ 44 , 47 ]. Careers as represented by CVs play an important part when funding decisions are made [ 26 , 27 , 48 , 49 ] and are viewed through lenses that are affected by the context, culture, and gender of the candidate and the evaluator. Knowledge of career progress in terms of moving between positions within and across different types of institutions (e.g., universities, research institutes) is important for the evaluation of researchers’ standing and independence [ 25 ].

Despite more than a decade of efforts to track research careers across disciplinary and national contexts, conclusive answers on career patterns of researchers are missing. To gain insight into the existing empirical evidence on career patterns in research, we performed an extensive literature review (see S1 File for search strategy and detailed findings; and [ 14 ] for an earlier version of the review). From the final set of 40 peer reviewed sources, we conclude that the number of existing empirical studies that shed light on what career patterns in research “objectively” look like is very small. While many sources refer to the existence of “career patterns”, there are actually only three studies that empirically distinguish unique patterns in research based on temporal combinations of positions and institutions. Two of these use CVs to identify distinct career patterns for senior administrators in U.S. universities [ 34 , 50 ]. The third is a recent paper [ 51 ], which differentiates five early career patterns based on narratives from young academics crossing disciplinary, institutional, and national borders.

The majority of the sources reviewed in fact do not distinguish patterns, but rather characteristics of careers, predictors of career advancement, or mobility events. What authors call “patterns” are typically counts of mobility events collected from CVs or surveys. Most sources by virtue of their data are limited to one location or one discipline. The dominant theme is gaining an understanding of how (international) mobility, early success (e.g. grants), publications and/or citations contribute to promotion, prestige, and income. A second dominant theme is gender [ 52 , 53 ]. The common assumption that women’s careers in research are less likely than men’s to resemble an uninterrupted linear pattern, due to women’s typically larger share in care responsibilities, is both a rationale for and a finding of studies looking at gender in research career. Gender differences in career advancement or representation are hypothesized to result from gender gaps in publication or mobility. Given that career indicators are used to evaluate grant applications, the finding that women receive lower evaluations on their “quality of researcher” assessment than men [ 26 , 27 ] may reflect both a greater actual diversity in career patterns amongst women than men and assumptions made about such diversity in career patterns.

In conclusion, our literature review (see S1 File ) reveals a profound disconnect between compelling notions of what a conventional career in research looks like, and the lack of insight into the appearance and frequency of “actual” career patterns in research across distinct institutional, disciplinary, and national contexts. Our study sheds light on the reality behind normative career expectations and conventions, and takes a holistic view across different contexts. Based on the limited empirical evidence on research careers, we test the likelihood of following a particular career pattern depending on the context (in- or outside academia, institutional prestige) and personal characteristics (gender, children, cohort).

Data and methods

Research context.

The European Research Council (ERC) established its grant schemes in 2007 in order to “support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence” [ 54 ]. The Starting Grant scheme (StG) was intended for researchers up to 12 years after their PhD, with subcategories for “starters” (within 7 years of the PhD) and “consolidators” (8–12 years after the PhD). Since 2013, the Starting Grant scheme has been divided into the separate Starting and Consolidator grants, but at the time we collected our data, this was a single scheme. The Advanced Grant scheme (AdG) is aimed at established researchers with a strong research record who are considered to be leaders in their field. Funding entails a long-term, individual grant in order to conduct groundbreaking, curiosity-driven, high-risk high-gain research–from 1.5 to 2.5 million Euros. Applications are accepted across disciplines and reviewed by expert sub-panels within the umbrella of three domains: LS–life sciences; PE–physical sciences and engineering; SH–social sciences and humanities (details in S3 File ).

Participants and procedure

We used data on individual career histories that we collected in a survey of ERC applicants. The advantage of the survey is that respondents were directly asked whether they experienced career interruptions such as unemployment, parental leave. These career breaks may be underreported in their CVs. Due to data protection regulations, the ERC gave us permission to survey those who had applied for the StG in 2012 –as applicants from previous years were surveyed as part of an earlier ERC funded project [ 55 ]–and all AdG applicants between 2007 and 2012. Therefore, our potential sample comprised applicants who gave consent for the use of their data at the time of application to the ERC (33% of StG and 39% of AdG applicants). Our data collection and protection procedures were described in the declaration on ethics considerations of ERC-CSA-2012-317442 ERCAREER, approved by the ERC Executive Agency, in compliance with the terms of Regulation EC 45/2001, and included written consent of survey participants.

The surveys were constructed to collect data on the paths that researchers take from PhD to their current position. The survey design for StG and AdG applicants was slightly different, to reflect the relative length and complexity of the career. For both surveys, we included questions on job positions and institutional affiliations of all spells of employment after completing the PhD, as well as other states, such as unemployment and different types of leave. To account for differences in career length and complexity, the survey for the AdG applicants started with the first job position, for StG applicants directly after the PhD. The surveys also included questions on reasons for mobility or changes in position, family situation, parental leave and other career breaks, perceived institutional support, and career aspirations (StG only). For replication purposes, a pdf version of the online surveys is provided (see S2 File ). The information collected via the surveys was matched with information provided by the applicant on their application form (contact information, host institution, gender, nationality, year of PhD) and some administrative information (sub-domain, application outcome) provided by the ERC.

A personalized email invitation with a link to an online survey was sent in October and November 2013 via email to 1,588 StG 2012 applicants (460 women, 29%) and to 4,088 AdG applicants (632 women, 15.46%) from the cohorts 2008 to 2012. Respondents who did not finish the survey were excluded from the analysis. For our analysis of career patterns, we used 322 completed responses from StG applicants (20% response rate, 126 from women, 39%) and 737 completed responses from AdG applicants (18% response rate, 145 from women, 20%). The StG 2012 and AdG applicant samples are representative of their respective populations in terms of discipline composition (see S1 File ). However, funded grantees and women are over-represented in the sample, possibly because grantees may have felt an obligation to the ERC, and women may have been more motivated by the topic of the survey and thus more likely to respond to the invitation. We calculated probability weights relating the sample population with the ERC applicants’ population based on gender, discipline and grantees, which we apply in our bivariate descriptive analysis. Weighting changes the share of women and grantees in each cluster; however, the findings are robust when comparing the results from unweighted or weighted data.

Identifying research career patterns

In the first step of our analysis, we used Optimal Matching Analysis (OMA) with cluster analysis in order to identify and compare groups of typical research careers. Following this approach, we conceptualize the unfolding of careers as outcomes [ 56 ] reflecting researchers’ trajectories through different positions and institutions. OMA is an exploratory method to identify patterns, in terms of sequences of states (position and succession) in longitudinal data [ 37 ], and, thus, a recommended analytical method in careers research [ 57 ] (see [ 13 ] for a critical overview of applications of OMA).

To model research careers, we defined ten positional and seven institutional states that capture the variance we are interested in. We include five different job positions that reflect differences in status, hierarchy and tasks: (1) Postdoc; (2) Lecturer; (3) Senior Lecturer; (4) Professor; and (5) Other job. Each of the categories also includes comparable job descriptions from different national and discipline-specific contexts. The categorization was based on a coding scheme that we developed from a preliminary analysis of 180 CVs of ERC applicants. It was cross-checked with existing European frameworks for research careers [ 4 , 58 ], (details in S1 File ). While the position labels used in the analysis reflect common denominations in university settings (e.g. senior lecturer), the survey provided examples of equivalent labels used in non-university settings (e.g. senior researcher). The five other positional states were: (6) Unemployed; (7) Research leave; (8) Parental leave; (9) Other status (e.g., illness or military service); and (10) Gap, if no information is provided. We defined the following seven institutional states: (1) Universities and other institutions of higher education; (2) Non-profit research institutions; (3) Commercial research institutes; (4) Hospitals or clinics; (5) Government; (6) Private organizations; and (7) Other.

In the analysis, we identified the positional state and the institutional state for each person in each month from PhD to application for ERC grant. An example for three researchers A, B and C is given in Table 1 . Each combination of numbers (e.g. 8–7) reflects a combination of position and institution. A and B have been in a postdoc position at a university (1–1) in the first month after PhD; after 36 months, A is a lecturer at a university (2–1) while B is on parental leave (8–7); after 72 months, A is a senior lecturer at another university (3–1) while B is a government policy officer (5–5). In contrast, C started in a job in a commercial research institute (5–2) after PhD and stayed in this job for several years, before they are, 72 months after PhD, in an executive position in the same institute (3–2). While the careers of A and B start in the same way, they develop differently. In contrast, the career of C runs through different positions from the beginning. OMA is an explorative method that allows to investigate whether there are comparable structures and differences within individual research careers that are aggregated to typical patterns.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.t001

OMA compares each sequence in a sample with any other sequence and calculates distances between the sequences. To do so, OMA calculates the costs of transferring one sequence into another by deleting, inserting, or substituting the states of a sequence. Costs are assigned to each of these transformations. The OMA calculates the distance between any two sequences as the minimum possible costs of transformation and generates a matrix of distances for all sequence combinations. In other words, the distance between the sequences of two individuals is lower when fewer steps are needed to make them equal (as can be illustrated using the example in Table 1 ). For this analysis, we used the information on the sequence of job positions and institutional affiliations for each month after finishing the PhD until the date of application for the ERC grant, so that the length of the sequences varies between individuals. Due to the structure of the survey, the period of observation for the AdG applicants started with the first job position, for StG applicants directly after the PhD. Robustness test show that restricting the StG observation to the first job position would not change our results. The appearance of the career patterns is not driven by differences in career length (details in S3 File ).

For our analysis, the sequences of job positions and institutional affiliations for each person were treated as two channels: in a first step of the analysis, the costs are specified separately for each channel: second, the substitution costs for each time point are aggregated in order to calculate a combined substitution cost matrix [ 59 ]. The costs for insertion and deletion (“indel costs”) were set at 1 and substitution costs were set at 2. In our setting, substitution operations are as expensive as one insertion and one deletion operation so that they can be interchangeable in their use [ 57 ]. The calculated distances measures were normalized to account for differences in sequence lengths. We applied the OMA for each sample, StG and AdG separately, using the statistical software R and “TraMineR”.

In order to identify the main typical career patterns after OMA, hierarchical Ward cluster analysis was used to group sequences according to their similarity based on the matrix of distances generated. Sequences bundled within a particular group are close to one another and distant to other sequences. From the cluster dendrograms (see S3 File ), the space of meaningful distinctions and then the possible number of groupings were derived [ 60 ]. Furthermore, the grouping of sequences was chosen that offered the best explanatory power for the overall research questions [ 61 ]. For each sample, StG and AdG applicants, we identified five distinct clusters representing unique career patterns, described in the results section.

Analyzing characteristics of researchers in the career patterns

In the second step of the analysis, we estimated which characteristics influence the likelihood of researchers belonging to one pattern using multivariate multinomial logistic regressions, estimated separately for StG and AdG samples. Results of the multinomial logistic regressions are presented in the results section. The five distinct career patterns were used as the dependent variable. We applied a robustness test with a two-step selection model to take account of possible response bias to the survey; this did not change our conclusions. Further details on this test are available upon request from the authors.

We were interested whether the likelihood of following a specific career pattern is associated with the research discipline, PhD-related characteristics, and personal characteristics. Descriptive statistics for relevant characteristics can be found in the S3 File ). We included the broad disciplinary areas of the research captured by the ERC categorization between Life Sciences (LS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE), and Social Sciences and Humanities (SH). Regarding PhD-related factors, the research prestige of the PhD granting institution for all respondents was measured by assigning the 2014 “Leiden score” (the proportion of the publications of each research institution or university belonging to the top 10% of their field [ 62 ]). A dummy variable was used to control for the cases for which we have no information on the Leiden score of their PhD institution. To control for career-specific factors preceding the period of observation, we controlled for work experience before the PhD and age at the time of the PhD. We considered care responsibilities by parenthood status and age of the youngest child (under the age of three or older). We strictly used information before obtaining a PhD to ensure clear interpretation of which researchers enter which pattern and not to mix up conclusions with outcomes of career processes, for example, parenthood during the period of observation. Personal characteristics include gender and birth cohort. Nationality of the applicants is an additional control variable.

Identified career patterns

Each of the five distinct Starting Grant (StG) and Advanced Grant (AdG) career patterns represents a unique and temporal combination of positions and institutions. The cluster figures provided in Figs 1 and 2 illustrate the order and timing of job positions and institutional affiliations. The upper graphs plot the individual sequences of positions and affiliations for each observation in the cluster and, thus, illustrate the career complexity among researchers. The bottom graphs plot the monthly breakdown of the different status in each cluster. These figures provide an aggregate picture of the share of researchers in each job position and institutional affiliations and the change of these shares over the career progress. Tables 2 and 3 provide additional information on cluster characteristics.

Sequence index plots and status proportion plots for positions and institutions.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.g001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.g002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.t002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.t003

Starting grant career patterns.

In the first StG pattern ( Fig 1 ), the postdoc position is concentrated at the beginning and lectureships at the end. The careers are predominantly located in universities. These movements reflect a career model of upward mobility and we label this pattern as steady progress at universities . In contrast, the second StG pattern shows a relative dense sequence of postdoc, lecturer, senior lecturer, and professor positions. Although this cluster has the longest average duration, the figures indicate that researchers move relatively rapidly from one position to the next up the hierarchy. Again, we find a relative stable institutional university affiliation–we label this pattern quick advances in universities . In the third StG pattern, the postdoc is the dominant position and this is relative stable over time. At the end of the observation period, relatively few researchers have moved to lecturer or senior lecturer positions. Again, the careers are predominantly located at universities and we label this pattern delayed advances in universities . In the StG fourth pattern, the postdoc position is concentrated at the beginning and lecturer at the end. The job position progression is very similar to those in our first cluster–steady progress in universities–but careers are predominantly located in research institutes. We identify this fourth distinct pattern as steady progress in research institutions . The final StG pattern consists of several job positions that are concentrated within relative short careers. Although postdoc positions are the most frequent status, the careers in this cluster also consist of higher shares of unemployment and other jobs compared to the other clusters. Researchers also moved across different institution types. Thus, the final pattern is labeled complicated moves across institutions .

Of the five StG career patterns, three account for more than 20% of the sample and 74% in total: steady progress in universities (27%), complicated moves across institutions (24%), and delayed advances in universities (23%).

Regarding the composition of the patterns (see descriptives in Table 2 ), we can see there are relatively more women in the steady progress in research institutions and complicated moves across institutions clusters than in the quick advances in universities pattern. The grant success rate varies between the different career patterns from 10 per cent in the complicated moves across institution pattern to 19 per cent in the quick advances in universities pattern. However, none of these differences are statistically significant. Excellence, it could be said, can be found in all career patterns.

Advanced grant career patterns.

In the first AdG career pattern ( Fig 2 ), the postdoc position is concentrated at the beginning followed by lecturer, senior lecturer, and professor. The careers are predominantly located at universities; we label this pattern (as we do in for the StG) steady progress at universities . The second AdG career pattern is similar to the first, but reflects longer careers at universities and especially in professorial positions. We label this pattern mature progress in universities , as it reflects steady progress that has reached maturity or even a ceiling. The sequence of job positions in the third cluster is similar to the first cluster but is predominantly located in research institutes. We label this pattern steady progress at research institutes . The fourth AdG pattern reflects steady progress from one position to the next, including a higher share of ‘other’ job positions, within government institutions. We label this pattern steady progress in government institutes . Finally, in the fifth AdG pattern, we again find complicated moves across various institutional settings. Many individuals in this cluster start with postdoc positions, moves to other jobs, and this cluster consists of significantly more states, including unemployment, than others. Thus, the final pattern is labeled complicated moves across institutions .

In comparison to the composition of the StG sample, there is greater coherence amongst the AdG applicants, with over half belonging to a single pattern– steady progress at universities (57%). The two university based career patterns ( steady and mature progress ) account for over three-quarters of the entire sample (see descriptives in Table 3 ). Across different clusters, there are significant differences in career length. Furthermore, women account for about 15% of the sample and are significantly underrepresented in the mature progress at universities pattern. The grant success ranges from 9 per cent in the steady progress in government pattern to 16 per cent in the mature progress at universities pattern. Again, the differences are not statistically significant.

Who follows which pattern?

We examined what factors influence whether a researcher follows one career pattern or another. For each pattern identified, we estimated average marginal effects (AME) from multinomial logistic regressions ( Table 2 for StG and Table 3 for AdG). For categorical variables, the AME indicated by how many percentage points the probability of being in a certain pattern is on average higher or lower for a researcher with certain personal and PhD characteristics compared to the reference category. For example: In the StG sample ( Table 2 ), female researchers have an 8 percentage point higher probability of being in the steady progress in research institutes pattern and a 10 percentage point lower probability of being in quick advances in universities than male researchers. For continuous variables, such as age and Leiden score, the AME indicated by how many percentage points the probability of being in a certain cluster increases (decreases) if the variable increases (decreases) by one unit. For example: In the StG sample, being older by one year when receiving the PhD is associated with a 2 percentage point increase in the probability of being in the complicated moves across institutions pattern.

Starting grant applicants.

Given the role of institutions in deriving career paths, it is unsurprising that there are some discipline-based differences: researchers from the Life Sciences (LS) have a significantly higher probability of making steady progress in research institutes when compared to researchers from Social Sciences and Humanities (SH).

Those who were older when receiving their PhD are more likely to make complicated moves across institutions , and less likely to be in the quick advances at universities pattern. Moreover, researchers who had other work experience before commencing their PhD are less likely to make quick advances at universities . These findings indicate that there are path dependencies between fast progression towards the PhD and quick advances in the career after PhD. Presence in the complicated moves across institutions pattern is negatively correlated with the prestige of the institution from which researchers received their PhD. Whether researchers have already been internationally mobile during their PhD or not does not make a significant difference in terms of career pattern. Finally, compared with those who were not parents at the time of completing their PhD, those with older children (over three years) at the time of receiving the PhD have a lower probability of being in steady progress at universities and a higher likelihood, only significant at the 10 percent level to be in the delayed advances at universities pattern.

Regarding personal characteristics, scientists from the later birth cohorts, born after 1970, are less likely to be making quick advances in universities , and more likely to be in the delayed advances in universities , the steady progress in research institutes , as well as in the complicated moves pattern. Women are less likely than men to make quick advances in universities . Furthermore, women are more likely to be in the steady progress in research institutes pattern than men (only significant at a 10 percent level). This difference is not only linked to the high proportion of Life Sciences (LS) in research institutes, where women are proportionally overrepresented, but also to a generally higher likelihood of women to be employed in research institutes than men.

We also examine whether the careers of male and female scientists tend to develop differently by estimating the multinomial logistic regressions with interaction terms between gender and PhD-related characteristics (results presented in S3 File ). The results indicate whether PhD-related characteristics make differences in the probability of being in a certain pattern for a male and female researcher. There are few gender differences. Research prestige of the PhD institution based on the Leiden score is a significant factor for men only, in particular for their likelihood to be making complicated moves across institutions . Those who were parents at by the time that they completed their PhD are generally less likely to be in the steady progress at universities pattern. However, having care responsibilities for children over the age of three when receiving the PhD is a stronger factor for women. It is associated with a lower likelihood of women of making complicated moves cluster as well as increasing the likelihood of making delayed advances at universities compared to the women in the sample who are not mothers.

Advanced grant applicants

There is a significant difference between patterns regarding research discipline. Given the predominance of LS research undertaken in research institutes, it is unsurprising that we again observe a higher likelihood of life scientists making steady progress at research institutes . SH is more dominant at universities so that social scientists or humanities scholars have a higher probability than those in LS of being in the steady or mature progress at universities pattern and a lower probability of being in all other patterns.

Those who were older when starting their first job after their PhD are more likely to make complicated moves across institutions , as reported for the StG sample. Furthermore, there are differences in the likelihood of being in mature or steady progress at universities observed by age of completing PhD, given otherwise equal age as controlling for birth cohort. Those in the mature progress in universities pattern in general were younger when starting their scientific career in contrast to those making steady progress in universities . Birth cohort, not surprisingly, is an additional differentiating factor between those having made mature progress at universities and those who have not. Moreover, steady progress in government is negatively correlated with the prestige of the institution from which researchers received their PhD (significant at 10 percent level). Neither international mobility during the PhD, work experience before receiving the PhD nor having children at the start of the career after PhD are significant factors in the likelihood of being in a particular career pattern. There is some significance for parenthood at the time of PhD. Finally, we find some gender differences as women, ceteris paribus , are less likely to be making matured progress at universities .

There are hardly any gender-specific relationships between relative early parenthood and career patterns (results presented in S3 File ). Women researchers who had older children when starting their first job after the PhD are less likely to be making steady progress in government when compared to researchers who are not parents.

Discussion and conclusion

Using sequence analysis of self-reported career histories of ERC applicants, we have identified multiple and distinct career patterns that represent combinations of positional and institutional sequences, different progression logics, and movements. Our contribution responds to the gap in the empirical literature, and the need expressed by policy makers and the broader scientific community [ 1 ], by mapping research careers and providing evidence-based insight into not only the variety in research careers but also into the breadth of institutional environments in which research is undertaken–thereby challenging conventional wisdom on research careers in the European context. Our results confirm that cumulative upward mobility is (still) the norm for research careers. In our study this is reflected in the predominant steady progress career patterns. However, the ‘road to excellence’ cannot be characterized only by this traditional pattern–as conventions would have it. We found divergent career patterns including complicated moves that do not follow conventions of smooth progress. In particular among early career researchers in the Starting Grant sample (StG), differences in career patterns reflect differences in timing as illustrated by quick versus delayed advances . This variety in research careers is visible in our sample of applicants to the most prestigious individual research grant scheme in Europe. While the proportion of funded versus non-funded applicants is not the same across patterns, grantees are found in each; therefore one of our key results is that excellence in terms of ERC grant success is found across all career patterns. Both the variety of patterns and the presence of grantees across all patterns add to the validity of our findings. Even if based on a narrow population (because only an elite group of potentially excellent researchers applies for this kind of competitive funding), we have a broad sample that is representative of the ERC applicant population covering applicants from all disciplines, from EU and non-EU countries, and including both early and later career stages. A different sample may be distributed differently across patterns but would only produce limited additional patterns.

Across both samples of early and established researchers, we have identified two conventional and common career patterns of steady progress in universities or research institutes and a third, less conventional pattern, of complicated moves across institutions. In addition we find three career patterns that are uniquely related to the career stage: quick and delayed advances for researchers applying to the Starting Grant (StG) and mature progress for the Advanced Grant (AdG)–all within universities. The pattern of steady progress in government appears only for the AdG, but forms part of the complicated moves across institutions pattern for the StG. Steady progress is thus more common for AdG than StG, reflecting not only the more exclusive nature of this sample of established researchers but also career length–enough time has passed to detect steady progress. Although we observe cohort effects, delayed progress in universities or steady progress in research institutes are more common than the 5 other patterns amongst those born after 1970 and steady progress in universities is more common that mature progress . Our robustness analysis of the pooled samples (see S3 File ) suggests that the differences in the appearance and the frequency of patterns between the StG and the AdG are to a large extent an age or tenure effect, meaning that those in the StG patterns will develop towards the equivalent AdG patterns over time.

Positions (and moves between positions) are more important in differentiating between patterns than institutions. Our parallel analysis of job positions and institutional affiliation shows that career progression primarily means changing positions, while movements across institutions are less common. One exception is the pattern of complicated moves across both positions and institutions. Institutions thus host research careers, and where careers develop (inside which kind of institution) is often a matter of discipline. We also see that different institutions host similar career patterns of steady progress –universities, research institutes and government—a finding that extends our understanding of research careers beyond those in universities.

In contrast to the prominent assumption that women’s careers in research develop differently from men’s, gender in itself makes little difference in terms of which career patterns men and women follow. Women among the StG applicants are less likely to be in the quick advances cluster; the small numbers of women among the AdG applicants are less likely to have achieved mature progress in universities. There are some indications that having children at the time of PhD affects men and women’s career differently and that differences are more pronounced in the StG sample. One possible explanation for this finding is that the AdG sample is more selective as a consequence of low(er) representation of women in the older cohorts. The intersection of career mobility, children’s ages, and timing of funding [ 63 ] is something that deserves further exploration. With more detailed information on family formation and partners’ careers available, sequence analysis could be applied to a joint analysis of work and family trajectories (e.g.; [ 56 ]), to explore the interlocked nature of family patterns and research career patterns. The fact that we find only very limited gender differences in career patterns, undermines the common assumption held by policy makers and contradicts the (limited) empirical evidence that careers of men and women in research develop differently. However, this could be an effect of the exclusive nature of our sample of ERC applicants. If career patterns do not differ between men and women applicants, but success rates in research funding do, we must reconsider the importance of CVs and gendered assumptions in selection decisions.

Our analysis also shows that discipline matters for career patterns. When looking at the researchers in each pattern, it is clear that those following careers in research institutes are typically from the Life Sciences. Path dependence makes a difference in terms of following particular career patterns. Prior work experience, age when receiving their PhD, PhD obtained from different prestigious institutions, and having children at the time of PhD are differentiating factors in the StG sample. However, we were not able to explore disciplinary differences within patterns, nor could we take underlying social and economic factors related to host country, country of origin, or international mobility (other than moving to do the PhD) into account. Evaluators looking for “excellence only” use career signals from applicants’ CVs including mobility as proxies–a pattern of moves across institutions may be viewed positively when it includes various prestigious institutions across national borders. A route for future research would be to examine career patterns as an individual predictor of grant application success, alongside other personal and prestige indicators. Another would be to examine the stability of patterns both within and between patterns by extending the analysis to further cohorts of grant applicants and by following the StG applicants over time to see whether they continue the same trajectory in the future. The further funding and careers of those who applied but were rejected could also be examined. This would also shed light on the complex interactions of grant funding on the national and European level [ 21 ], as well as career consequences of reaching the quality threshold but not getting funded [ 24 , 29 ]. From a policy perspective, it would also be interesting to study the level of institutional support and the degree to which institutions discourage or even deny researchers the opportunity to apply for an ERC grant, something that may have affected the selectivity of our sample. In Spain, for example, universities’ commitment to ERC “values of excellence” varies from evident to neglected [ 21 ].

Methodologically, our study has limitations but also opens possibilities. Using a survey to capture full career histories may affect response rates and thus limit coverage of an already selective sample in terms of career patterns identified. Sophisticated methods to extract information from CVs as submitted alongside applications have since been developed and tested, which could be used for further research [ 64 ]. A more structured CV format used in the application materials would certainly help in terms of consistency and comparability of career data. Sample size affecting statistical power, sample selection bias, and the analysis of only a single applicant cohort for the StG suggests caution in terms of generalizing our career pattern findings. However, the multichannel sequence analysis method we have used [ 59 ], could be used to identify career patterns among other samples of researchers or scientists, as well as other professions in which a common career start (e.g. initial professional qualification) and/ or ceiling (e.g. making partner) can be established.

This is the first application of sequence analysis to map contemporary European research careers across disciplinary, institutional, and national borders. We have shed light on career patterns in research and we provide a firm basis to explore implications of (un) conventional career patterns for grant application success of men and women in research. We hope our findings on the occurrences and nuances of career patterns in research will inform policymaking, career development, mobility, and gender equality in the European Research Area.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.s001

S2 File. Survey questions.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.s002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236252.s003

Acknowledgments

We thank the School of Business & Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for hosting the ERCAREER project. We appreciate the insightful and supportive comments from our reviewers, and we thank Dr. Christian Brzinsky-Fay (WZB) for his expertise in developing the patterns visualization,

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220 Career Topics for Essays & Research Papers

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• J Clin Transl Sci
• v.1(2); 2017 Apr

Creating effective career development programs

Doris mcgartland rubio.

1 Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

2 Institute for Clinical Research Education, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

3 Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Georgeanna F. W. B. Robinson

4 Qualitative Research, Analytic Support and Institutional Research, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, USA

Janice Gabrilove

5 Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

6 ConduITS, The Institutes for Translational Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

7 Clinical Research Education Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

Emma A. Meagher

8 Perelman School of Medicine, The Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

This paper is the fourth in a 5-part series that focuses on educating and training the clinical and translational science workforce. The goal of this paper is to delineate components of effective career development programs that go beyond didactic training. All academic health centers with a Clinical and Translational Science Award have a KL2 career development award for junior faculty, and many also have a TL1 training program for predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows. The training across these programs varies, however junior investigators across the United States experience similar challenges. Junior investigators can get overwhelmed with the demands of building their own research program, particularly in academia. 1Often, they are sidetracked by competing demands that can derail their progress. In these situations, junior investigators experience frustration and may search for alternative career paths. By providing them with additional professional skills in the 5 domains of: (1) self-awareness; (2) selecting the right topic and securing funding; (3) getting adequate support; (4) working with others; and (5) managing yourself, your career, and your demands. We will give junior investigators additional tools to manage these demands and facilitate their own career success.

Introduction

This paper is the fourth in a 5-part series on the clinical and translational science educational pipeline [ 1 ]. The overall goal of this series is to describe how institutions can develop an effective educational pipeline along the entire academic and career development continuum. Here, we focus on individual skills that career programs can provide to trainees to accelerate their career success.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Research on Careers (ROC) workgroup developed a model of career success [ 2 ]. In this model, career success has 2 dimensions—extrinsic (eg, grants) and intrinsic (eg, career satisfaction)—and 2 main contributing factors—personal and organizational. Within these components are several modifiable elements, which can increase trainees’ success, such as training, leadership, and mentoring.

A workgroup from the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) education and training arm conducted a qualitative study on the basis of ROC’s model to examine factors that contribute to successful transition to independence [ 3 ]. Forty former KL2 or K12 scholars (20 independently funded and 20 not independently funded) from multiple institutions were interviewed. The results of the study support ROC’s theoretical model and found additional factors that could be added. The personal factors identified by the participants included networking, resilience, initiative in career development, autonomy over work, and ability to balance work and personal demands. The organizational factors that impacted career success, as noted by the scholars, included mentoring, protected time for research, and resources. This work further clarified and underscored the need for training that goes beyond the traditional academic, discipline-based curriculum for junior investigators.

Many of the personal factors and academic life skills that influence career success are trainable. Skills such as resilience and initiative can be taught, as can leadership and time management. Our previous work has shown that these factors are needed for career success; however, these critically important components are typically not included in the context of didactic clinical translational science degree programs. Many of these programs generally provide research skill training that is limited to methodology and statistics, which falls short of skills required for career success. In addition, mentors usually do not focus on helping their mentees develop the necessary personal factors for success, which can leave trainees alone to figure out work-life integration or how to negotiate for resources needed for their research. Many early-stage trainees are not successful in managing this critical aspect of their careers and consequently leave academic research for alternative career paths. Effective career development programs that include a focus on professional skill development could greatly assist these trainees in ensuring successful research career outcomes.

Components of Career Development Programs

Table 1 outlines critical components of a career development program that are beneficial for junior investigators as they develop their career in clinical and translational research. These needs fall into 5 broad categories: (1) self-awareness; (2) selecting the right topic and securing funding; (3) getting adequate support; (4) working with others; and (5) managing yourself, your career, and your demands. Individual components of these specific educational domains have been included in various training initiatives; however, career development programs in translational science rarely offer all of these essential constituents as an integrated effort designed to best assure the success of junior investigators.

Critical components of career development programs

Self-Awareness

Many disciplines outside science and medicine have had considerable success embracing the use of validated tools to identify candidates who are a good match for a particular position in a specific work environment [ 4 ]. More recently, determination of surgical training applicants’ personal talents and behavioral styles has been undertaken with considerable success using the TriMetrix Personal Talent Report (Target Training International Ltd, Scottsdale, AZ, USA), with the goal of selecting more appropriate candidates for a specific surgical training program [ 5 ]. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has also been shown to delineate individual characteristics associated with choice of medical subspecialty and has been used in specific faculty development and leadership programs in an effort to enhance self-awareness/evaluation, thereby enabling individuals to identify preferences and optimally apply their respective talents more successfully [ 6 , 7 ]. These same types of programs have also begun to incorporate resilience training. Similarly, 360° feedback has provided useful and impactful outcomes in the workplace and in medical training programs for a considerable period of time [ 8 ]. However, these tools have not been universally adapted for emerging clinical translational investigators to provide objective and constructive feedback needed for their development.

Selecting the Right Topic and Securing Funding

We anticipate that junior investigators have broadly identified their area of research interest but are often challenged with moving these interests into a research program. Many junior investigators are never trained to critically review the relevant literature. Without this grounding in their field, it is difficult to arrive at novel and creative questions that are both answerable and fundable. An additional challenge is “finding the data” (eg, literature, publically available databases, local and national clinical data repositories, digital and internet resources). While some clinical and translational science degree programs have incorporated “finding the data” in their didactic courses, investigators who are not formally trained rarely get exposed to this in career development programs.

Intensive grant writing courses or workshops can also assist junior investigators in this particular domain for career success. Such courses work best when instructors are faculty members particularly skilled in facilitating idea development and reviewing grants. Meeting weekly, these courses can progress through each part of a typical grant, including specific aims, background, innovation, approach, limitations, and qualifications of investigative team. At the University of Pittsburgh, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and University of Pennsylvania, trainees work in small groups (no larger than 6–8 trainees and 1 instructor), organized broadly by type of research. For example, groups could be organized by T1 translational research, health services research, clinical trials, and so forth. Following some didactic training on each part of the grant, trainees work intensively between group sessions to write the relevant part of their own grant before submitting it to the group for peer feedback. Following feedback, trainees rewrite the section and resubmit. This iterative process gives them a chance to think critically about their proposed project and justify their approach. Trainees refine their questions until they are appropriately articulated and focused, and they hone their grantsmanship as well as their written communication skills.

For many junior investigators, instruction on medical writing can be beneficial. Trainees need to learn: how to find their own effective writing process; how to write in appropriate styles and adapt to one’s audience; the components of typical research reports; appropriate responses to reviewers; and expectations for peer reviewing. Practicing writing and receiving intensive, specific, and formative feedback about their own writing allows junior investigators to establish early effective writing habits, which ought to translate into productivity later in their careers.

Getting Adequate Support

Junior investigators need a broad range of support to develop their research interests into funded research projects and ultimately published manuscripts. Once a junior investigator has begun to outline a research project, mentors with relevant expertise can be instrumental in helping the investigator answer his or her research questions. However, an effective mentoring team requires more than a collection of relevant content experts. Career development program leaders can facilitate the creation of mentoring teams by providing knowledge of both local and national colleagues who have a history of effective mentoring. Program leaders can make introductions where necessary, provide oversight to ensure that the full mentoring team meets regularly, and intervene to assist with challenges or conflicts that occur.

Mentee training can also be helpful for junior investigators who may not realize the extent to which they ought to steer and manage their team of mentors. Mentees need to learn to: develop agendas, follow up with individuals after meetings, keep track of questions and progress between meetings, keep their career and research goals at the center of the team’s efforts, and manage their mentors’ different mentoring styles. They may also need assistance in accepting contradictory feedback from multiple mentors and deciding on their own approach toward mentors who cannot agree on the best course of action.

Mentors, particularly faculty with many years of experience, may have established their mentoring techniques and styles and be reticent to develop mentoring skills further or experiment with new techniques. However, given the multiple challenges to effective mentoring, senior mentors can benefit from mentor training. A mentor training program, such as the one found to be effective by investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison [ 9 ], can introduce mentors to alternative ways to approach common mentoring problems, provide new perspectives and concepts for consideration, offer alternative opinions and courses of actions suggested by peers, and serve as a safe and confidential space to discuss current mentoring challenges. Being mindful of mentoring skills allows mentors to be intentional about specific aspects of mentoring that have been shown to help but that may have been given less attention by mentors previously, such as opening a mentor’s network to the mentee, adapting mentoring style to each mentee, respecting each mentee’s individual career goals, and providing resources, where possible, to support mentees.

Junior investigators need support from their department in concert with their mentors. Too often, junior faculty members are asked to serve on time-demanding committees or to pick up additional clinical time, such as urgent care. Department chairs need to protect junior investigators from these commitments; it can be difficult for someone who is junior to deny the request of a more senior person. If the department chair does not ensure that the junior investigator’s research time is protected, and that undue demands are not imposed, then it will be impossible for that junior faculty member to be an investigator. One cannot build a research career on nights and weekends.

Working with Others

Junior investigators need to be able to function as part of multidisciplinary teams, as well as to be able to lead teams in pursuit of their own research agenda. Overcoming multiple disciplinary differences is critical, which may include the customs and expectations of working together, the language of research, epistemologies, and methodologies. Career development programs can train investigators to work patiently through problems until they arrive at a mutual understanding, and to present issues in a clear manner that is free of disciplinary jargon.

Many of the skills that are instrumental for highly functioning multidisciplinary teams are also helpful when leading and managing one’s own research team. Business schools have long taught leadership and management skills, but this expertise does not consistently parlay into other parts of universities where clinical and translational investigators may be working. A formal, didactic program can be followed to ensure a thorough tutelage in the key aspects of leadership and management. If time and/or tuition costs present a barrier to this approach, however, workshops can also provide some useful training to investigators. Topics that are particularly relevant include strategic planning of one’s research agenda, motivating others, effective listening, communication skills, managing conflict, personnel management, and budgeting. In workshops or courses, investigators may find it helpful to discuss cases in small groups, complete an assignment that applies something to their own research group, and then report back to the group or class; this process results in an iterative approach to trying out and refining skills.

The acquisition of networking skills is critical to the process of working with others in an optimal way, and also serves to expand further opportunities for mentorship in complementary areas of relevance to one’s ongoing research. KL2 alumni highlighted networking as a critically important skill associated with, or impeding, successful transition to independence [ 3 ]. Formal curricular components and/or workshops focusing on the development of this informative ability are sorely needed as a key component of career development programs.

Managing Yourself, Your Career, and Your Demands

Junior investigators commonly experience overwhelming demands on their time, both personally and professionally. It is critical that they learn early in a career to manage their time and discover how they work most efficiently and effectively. Career development programs can offer workshops with productivity tips, suggestions to aid efficiency, and ideas to prompt junior investigators to develop habits that will allow them to manage their time better. However, it may be more helpful if mentors make suggestions and intentionally role model their time management techniques. Mentors can shield mentees from burdensome service duties at this point in their careers and help mentees prioritize work appropriately.

Particularly helpful is the 2×2 table that distinguishes urgent from important work ( Fig. 1 ). Junior investigators often find that they spend significant amounts of time on tasks that contribute little toward their main career goal. As part of a department or campus community, there are tasks that must be completed to make an individual faculty member a “good citizen” on their campus. However, those who complete such tasks well and without complaint, frequently find themselves unduly burdened by more such work, preventing them from focusing on their research. These tasks fall into the high-urgency/low-importance (to one’s career) category because they frequently have deadlines but contribute little to career progress. Other tasks, such as requests from a department chair or a funding agency need to be completed immediately. These are highly urgent and highly important to one’s career and must be prioritized. Unfortunately, there are frequently few deadlines in research, making one’s own work low on the urgency scale but undeniably high on the importance scale. Junior investigators need permission and encouragement from mentors, program directors, and administrators to put their own needs first and manage their time successfully.

Prioritization of important work over urgent work.

The second part training investigators to manage themselves is to help them learn their own working style. Training programs could use standardized tests that offer some insight into personal styles such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These tests can also provide trainees with networks of similar scholars so they can develop relatedness with colleagues. By understanding their own strengths and weaknesses, tendencies, areas of difficulty, and effective habits that are practiced without thought, trainees can more effectively manage themselves. For example, if a trainee understands that he or she is more productive around 5 am , then it is important to organize the day to allow for an early awakening and some work before the hectic matters of the day evolve. Also, once investigators understand how they communicate, they can better facilitate effective communication and go some way to maintaining collegial relations.

Finally, developing effective time management skills can significantly benefit an investigator throughout his or her career. There are several effective books that teach time management skills, such as Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity [ 10 ]. For example, although a common practice, time management experts agree you should not start your day with e-mail [ 11 ]. Instead, do the hardest work of the day, such as writing a section of your grant. Doing the hardest work before the brain becomes cluttered with urgent and unimportant issues facilitates superior work and leads to better productivity. Junior investigators need to learn to block time to write and to keep that time sacred, create internal deadlines and share these with mentors so that they cannot easily be dropped, and delegate tasks when appropriate.

CTSA Career Development Programs: Lessons Learned

The CTSA program has been in existence since 2006. As part of the CTSA infrastructure, each CTSA institution has a career development award for junior faculty, funded under the KL2 mechanism. The overall goal of the KL2 is to develop independent investigators, but there are variabilities across institutions. The number of scholars supported by the KL2 mechanism varies; some programs are small with 2 scholars, while others may support 20 scholars. Scholars are supported for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 5 years. Robinson et al . [ 3 ] reported that scholars supported for only 2 years felt that this was insufficient time in which to secure their own funding—either another K award or an R01. Scholars supported for a longer length of time felt that they were better positioned to be productive and launch their independent careers. Some KL2 programs encourage scholars to earn an MS or certificate degree, whereas others have less structure to their training. The most important factor is that scholars can secure the training that they need to pursue their research agenda successfully. Although the training varies between programs, 1 commonality is that most program directors meet regularly with their scholars to ensure that scholars’ research is progressing as planned.

Another component of the CTSA program is the predoctoral and postdoctoral training grant, funded under a TL1 mechanism. Like the KL2 programs, the training that comprises different TL1 programs varies in size, intensity, and expectations. Some programs focus more on methods and scientific content; others also provide a range of professional skills, experiences, and training opportunities. TL1 fellows are expected to attend national meetings and present on their research as part of their academic socialization and to enhance their networks.

Beyond these formal training awards that provide financial support, most, if not all, CTSAs have other career development programs. These programs provide specific training for a range of trainees and on a range of topics (eg, training in mentoring; K to R programs; programs for investigators from groups under-represented in research; programs for medical students, residents, and basic researchers moving into more translational and clinical research). The range, breadth, and depth fluctuate across CTSAs. Some programs may have competitive admission and a year-long attendance requirement. Others may involve short modules, 1-hour workshop, or online videos for self-study.

There appear to be a limited number of programs that offer some of the personal factors that have been found to facilitate success, such as those discussed above. Curricular integration of these identified key elements into an innovative and unified platform would impact the success of future emerging clinical translational scientists in meaningful ways.

Future Needs to Develop the Workforce

With the average age of research independence steadily increasing [ 12 ], the United States is in need of effective training programs that provide new investigators with critical skills needed to be successful in research. We need to help trainees with resilience and persistence so that they do not choose alternate career paths, but rather stay engaged in research. By including training on professional skills such as those described above, we can help these trainees successfully navigate their research careers and ultimately build a successful research program. As we develop best practices in training and career development, it is critical that we evaluate our efforts so that we can widely disseminate novel approaches.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants UL1 TR001857 (University of Pittsburgh), UL1 TR001363 (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), UL1 TR001878 (University of Pennsylvania). The authors have no other conflicts of interest to disclose.

• DOI: 10.5861/ijrsll.2024.022
• Corpus ID: 270340931

A study of life skills, learning abilities, and career planning of Chinese college students

• Published in International Journal of… 15 June 2024
• Education, Linguistics

4 References

The correlation of metacognitive ability, self‐directed learning ability and critical thinking in nursing students: a cross‐sectional study, a qualitative research study on the importance of life skills on undergraduate students’ personal and social competencies, development of higher education students’ creative abilities in learning and research activity., developing career vision roadmap for student career planning, related papers.

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Scientific breakthroughs: 2024 emerging trends to watch

December 28, 2023

Across disciplines and industries, scientific discoveries happen every day, so how can you stay ahead of emerging trends in a thriving landscape? At CAS, we have a unique view of recent scientific breakthroughs, the historical discoveries they were built upon, and the expertise to navigate the opportunities ahead. In 2023, we identified the top scientific breakthroughs , and 2024 has even more to offer. New trends to watch include the accelerated expansion of green chemistry, the clinical validation of CRISPR, the rise of biomaterials, and the renewed progress in treating the undruggable, from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases. To hear what the experts from Lawrence Liverpool National Lab and Oak Ridge National Lab are saying on this topic, join us for a free webinar on January 25 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. EDT for a panel discussion on the trends to watch in 2024.

The ascension of AI in R&D

While the future of AI has always been forward-looking, the AI revolution in chemistry and drug discovery has yet to be fully realized. While there have been some high-profile set-backs , several breakthroughs should be watched closely as the field continues to evolve. Generative AI is making an impact in drug discovery , machine learning is being used more in environmental research , and large language models like ChatGPT are being tested in healthcare applications and clinical settings.

Many scientists are keeping an eye on AlphaFold, DeepMind’s protein structure prediction software that revolutionized how proteins are understood. DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs have recently announced how their latest model shows improved accuracy, can generate predictions for almost all molecules in the Protein Data Bank, and expand coverage to ligands, nucleic acids, and posttranslational modifications . Therapeutic antibody discovery driven by AI is also gaining popularity , and platforms such as the RubrYc Therapeutics antibody discovery engine will help advance research in this area.

Though many look at AI development with excitement, concerns over accurate and accessible training data , fairness and bias , lack of regulatory oversight , impact on academia, scholarly research and publishing , hallucinations in large language models , and even concerns over infodemic threats to public health are being discussed. However, continuous improvement is inevitable with AI, so expect to see many new developments and innovations throughout 2024.

‘Greener’ green chemistry

Green chemistry is a rapidly evolving field that is constantly seeking innovative ways to minimize the environmental impact of chemical processes. Here are several emerging trends that are seeing significant breakthroughs:

• Improving green chemistry predictions/outcomes : One of the biggest challenges in green chemistry is predicting the environmental impact of new chemicals and processes. Researchers are developing new computational tools and models that can help predict these impacts with greater accuracy. This will allow chemists to design safer and more environmentally friendly chemicals.
• Reducing plastics: More than 350 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year. Across the landscape of manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, reducing the use of single-use plastics and microplastics is critical. New value-driven approaches by innovators like MiTerro that reuse industrial by-products and biomass waste for eco-friendly and cheaper plastic replacements will soon be industry expectations. Lowering costs and plastic footprints will be important throughout the entire supply chain.    
• Alternative battery chemistry: In the battery and energy storage space, finding alternatives to scarce " endangered elements" like lithium and cobalt will be critical. While essential components of many batteries, they are becoming scarce and expensive. New investments in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries that do not use nickel and cobalt have expanded , with 45% of the EV market share being projected for LFP in 2029. Continued research is projected for more development in alternative materials like sodium, iron, and magnesium, which are more abundant, less expensive, and more sustainable.
• More sustainable catalysts : Catalysts speed up a chemical reaction or decrease the energy required without getting consumed. Noble metals are excellent catalysts; however, they are expensive and their mining causes environmental damage. Even non-noble metal catalysts can also be toxic due to contamination and challenges with their disposal. Sustainable catalysts are made of earth-abundant elements that are also non-toxic in nature. In recent years, there has been a growing focus on developing sustainable catalysts that are more environmentally friendly and less reliant on precious metals. New developments with catalysts, their roles, and environmental impact will drive meaningful progress in reducing carbon footprints.  
• Recycling lithium-ion batteries: Lithium-ion recycling has seen increased investments with more than 800 patents already published in 2023. The use of solid electrolytes or liquid nonflammable electrolytes may improve the safety and durability of LIBs and reduce their material use. Finally, a method to manufacture electrodes without solvent s could reduce the use of deprecated solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidinone, which require recycling and careful handling to prevent emissions.

Rise of biomaterials

New materials for biomedical applications could revolutionize many healthcare segments in 2024. One example is bioelectronic materials, which form interfaces between electronic devices and the human body, such as the brain-computer interface system being developed by Neuralink. This system, which uses a network of biocompatible electrodes implanted directly in the brain, was given FDA approval to begin human trials in 2023.

• Bioelectronic materials: are often hybrids or composites, incorporating nanoscale materials, highly engineered conductive polymers, and bioresorbable substances. Recently developed devices can be implanted, used temporarily, and then safely reabsorbed by the body without the need for removal. This has been demonstrated by a fully bioresorbable, combined sensor-wireless power receiver made from zinc and the biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic acid).
• Natural biomaterials: that are biocompatible and naturally derived (such as chitosan, cellulose nanomaterials, and silk) are used to make advanced multifunctional biomaterials in 2023. For example, they designed an injectable hydrogel brain implant for treating Parkinson’s disease, which is based on reversible crosslinks formed between chitosan, tannic acid, and gold nanoparticles.
• Bioinks : are used for 3D printing of organs and transplant development which could revolutionize patient care. Currently, these models are used for studying organ architecture like 3D-printed heart models for cardiac disorders and 3D-printed lung models to test the efficacy of drugs. Specialized bioinks enhance the quality, efficacy, and versatility of 3D-printed organs, structures, and outcomes. Finally, new approaches like volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) of pristine silk- based bioinks are unlocking new frontiers of innovation for 3D printing.

To the moon and beyond

The global Artemis program is a NASA-led international space exploration program that aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon by 2025 as part of the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Additionally, the NASA mission called Europa Clipper, scheduled for a 2024 launch, will orbit around Jupiter and fly by Europa , one of Jupiter’s moons, to study the presence of water and its habitability. China’s mission, Chang’e 6 , plans to bring samples from the moon back to Earth for further studies. The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission by Japan’s JAXA plans to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the Mars moons. Boeing is also expected to do a test flight of its reusable space capsule Starliner , which can take people to low-earth orbit.

The R&D impact of Artemis extends to more fields than just aerospace engineering, though:

• Robotics: Robots will play a critical role in the Artemis program, performing many tasks, such as collecting samples, building infrastructure, and conducting scientific research. This will drive the development of new robotic technologies, including autonomous systems and dexterous manipulators.
• Space medicine: The Artemis program will require the development of new technologies to protect astronauts from the hazards of space travel, such as radiation exposure and microgravity. This will include scientific discoveries in medical diagnostics, therapeutics, and countermeasures.
• Earth science: The Artemis program will provide a unique opportunity to study the Moon and its environment. This will lead to new insights into the Earth's history, geology, and climate.
• Materials science: The extreme space environment will require new materials that are lightweight, durable, and radiation resistant. This will have applications in many industries, including aerospace, construction, and energy.
• Information technology: The Artemis program will generate a massive amount of data, which will need to be processed, analyzed, and shared in real time. This will drive the development of new IT technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

The CRISPR pay-off

After years of research, setbacks, and minimal progress, the first formal evidence of CRISPR as a therapeutic platform technology in the clinic was realized. Intellia Therapeutics received FDA clearance to initiate a pivotal phase 3 trial of a new drug for the treatment of hATTR, and using the same Cas9 mRNA, got a new medicine treating a different disease, angioedema. This was achieved by only changing 20 nucleotides of the guide RNA, suggesting that CRISPR can be used as a therapeutic platform technology in the clinic.

The second great moment for CRISPR drug development technology came when Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics announced the authorization of the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy, CASGEVY™, by the United Kingdom MHRA, for the treatment of sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. This was the first approval of a CRISPR-based therapy for human use and is a landmark moment in realizing the potential of CRISPR to improve human health.

In addition to its remarkable genome editing capability, the CRISPR-Cas system has proven to be effective in many applications, including early cancer diagnosis . CRISPR-based genome and transcriptome engineering and CRISPR-Cas12a and CRISPR-Cas13a appear to have the necessary characteristics to be robust detection tools for cancer therapy and diagnostics. CRISPR-Cas-based biosensing system gives rise to a new era for precise diagnoses of early-stage cancers.

MIT engineers have also designed a new nanoparticle DNA-encoded nanosensor for urinary biomarkers that could enable early cancer diagnoses with a simple urine test. The sensors, which can detect cancerous proteins, could also distinguish the type of tumor or how it responds to treatment.

Ending cancer

The immuno-oncology field has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. Approved products such as cytokines, vaccines, tumor-directed monoclonal antibodies, and immune checkpoint blockers continue to grow in market size. Novel therapies like TAC01-HER2 are currently undergoing clinical trials. This unique therapy uses autologous T cells, which have been genetically engineered to incorporate T cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) receptors that recognize human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) presence on tumor cells to remove them. This could be a promising therapy for metastatic, HER2-positive solid tumors.

Another promising strategy aims to use the CAR-T cells against solid tumors in conjunction with a vaccine that boosts immune response. Immune boosting helps the body create more host T cells that can target other tumor antigens that CAR-T cells cannot kill.

Another notable trend is the development of improved and effective personalized therapies. For instance, a recently developed personalized RNA neoantigen vaccine, based on uridine mRNA–lipoplex nanoparticles, was found effective against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Major challenges in immuno-oncology are therapy resistance, lack of predictable biomarkers, and tumor heterogenicity. As a result, devising novel treatment strategies could be a future research focus.

Decarbonizing energy

Multiple well-funded efforts are underway to decarbonize energy production by replacing fossil fuel-based energy sources with sources that generate no (or much less) CO2 in 2024.

One of these efforts is to incorporate large-scale energy storage devices into the existing power grid. These are an important part of enabling the use of renewable sources since they provide additional supply and demand for electricity to complement renewable sources. Several types of grid-scale storage that vary in the amount of energy they can store and how quickly they can discharge it into the grid are under development. Some are physical (flywheels, pumped hydro, and compressed air) and some are chemical (traditional batteries, flow batteries , supercapacitors, and hydrogen ), but all are the subject of active chemistry and materials development research. The U.S. government is encouraging development in this area through tax credits as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and a $7 billion program to establish regional hydrogen hubs.

Meanwhile, nuclear power will continue to be an active R&D area in 2024. In nuclear fission, multiple companies are developing small modular reactors (SMRs) for use in electricity production and chemical manufacturing, including hydrogen. The development of nuclear fusion reactors involves fundamental research in physics and materials science. One major challenge is finding a material that can be used for the wall of the reactor facing the fusion plasma; so far, candidate materials have included high-entropy alloys and even molten metals .

Neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are a major public health concern, being a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. While there is currently no cure for any neurodegenerative disease, new scientific discoveries and understandings of these pathways may be the key to helping patient outcomes.

• Alzheimer’s disease: Two immunotherapeutics have received FDA approval to reduce both cognitive and functional decline in individuals living with early Alzheimer's disease. Aducannumab (Aduhelm®) received accelerated approval in 2021 and is the first new treatment approved for Alzheimer’s since 2003 and the first therapy targeting the disease pathophysiology, reducing beta-amyloid plaques in the brains of early Alzheimer’s disease patients. Lecanemab (Leqembi®) received traditional approval in 2023 and is the first drug targeting Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology to show clinical benefits, reducing the rate of disease progression and slowing cognitive and functional decline in adults with early stages of the disease.
• Parkinson’s disease: New treatment modalities outside of pharmaceuticals and deep brain stimulation are being researched and approved by the FDA for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The non-invasive medical device, Exablate Neuro (approved by the FDA in 2021), uses focused ultrasound on one side of the brain to provide relief from severe symptoms such as tremors, limb rigidity, and dyskinesia. 2023 brought major news for Parkinson’s disease research with the validation of the biomarker alpha-synuclein. Researchers have developed a tool called the α-synuclein seeding amplification assay which detects the biomarker in the spinal fluid of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and individuals who have not shown clinical symptoms.
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Two pharmaceuticals have seen FDA approval in the past two years to slow disease progression in individuals with ALS. Relyvrio ® was approved in 2022 and acts by preventing or slowing more neuron cell death in patients with ALS. Tofersen (Qalsody®), an antisense oligonucleotide, was approved in 2023 under the accelerated approval pathway. Tofersen targets RNA produced from mutated superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) genes to eliminate toxic SOD1 protein production. Recently published genetic research on how mutations contribute to ALS is ongoing with researchers recently discovering how NEK1 gene mutations lead to ALS. This discovery suggests a possible rational therapeutic approach to stabilizing microtubules in ALS patients.

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