10 tips to map out your career options

PhD candidates and postdocs spend years developing deep scientific expertise, critical thinking skills, and an independent work ethic. They write, present, supervise students, and manage projects. Yet career planning tends to get short shrift. Many early-career researchers put off thinking about their next step until the final months of their contract — precisely when stress levels are already through the roof. What’s more, the choice is often reduced to a simplistic academia versus industry dichotomy, leaving all manner of other interesting possibilities out of the picture.

Try instead to approach your career planning with the same curiosity, rigour, and realism that you bring to your research. Treat it as a project in its own right. These ten tips will help you get started.

1. Start early — earlier than you think

Don’t wait until the end of your contract is looming before you begin exploring your options; start your voyage of discovery well in advance. You can begin small. Update your CV and LinkedIn profile twice a year, for instance, and draw up a list of all the skills you’ve acquired or improved. Set aside an hour a week for ‘career maintenance’ — to read, reflect, or connect with people about their career paths.

2. Map out the possibilities

Look beyond the simple binary of ‘academia’ or ‘industry’ and you’ll find an entire landscape of options: policy, science communication, consultancy, education, entrepreneurship, government institutes, sales, or marketing. Find out where alumni from your field or research group have ended up. Patterns will emerge: regulatory affairs, data science, innovation management, R&D roles, or intellectual property. Once you start mapping all those possibilities, your options become considerably more concrete.

3. Understand what an academic career actually involves

If you’re considering staying ‘in science’, take the time to understand what that really means. Talk to academic staff about the day-to-day reality of applying for funding, sitting on committees, delivering lectures, and supervising students. Ask them how much time they actually spend on research. These conversations will help you identify where your motivation truly lies: in the research itself, or in the academic environment — and those are two very different things.

4. Don’t overlook alt-ac options

If you enjoy the academic environment but have no appetite for the relentless pressure to publish, consider alt-ac — alternative academic roles. Research project manager, lab coordinator, grants adviser, (junior) lecturer, or science communicator: these positions keep you close to the world of science whilst involving quite different tasks, such as coordinating, organising, communicating, or teaching.

5. Learn to decipher job titles

Job titles in industry often obscure more than they reveal. A ‘scientist’, ‘analytical scientist’, or ‘R&D specialist’ may in practice do essentially the same work, whilst ‘project manager’ can mean almost anything. So read carefully to understand what responsibilities actually lie behind the title. Compare multiple job adverts for the same position; you’ll begin to discover which organisations and sectors suit your background — and which don’t.

6. Translate your skills into professional language

Employers are rarely interested in the details of your thesis, but they do want to know how you work. So instead of saying ‘I published three papers’, say ‘I led a three-year research project across two different laboratories’. Replace ‘supervised students’ with ‘trained and mentored junior researchers’. Translate your experience into transferable skills: project management, mentorship, stakeholder communication, delivering results under pressure. Make sure you’re speaking the same language as recruiters and HR managers.

7. Use LinkedIn as a learning tool

Search LinkedIn for roles that interest you — for example, ‘R&D scientist at DSM-Firmenich’ or ‘Technology Transfer Officer at TU Delft’. Then look at people in those roles: their educational background, experience, additional training, and so on. LinkedIn can also help you identify which skills or qualifications frequently appear in roles you find appealing. And it’s, of course, an ideal platform for getting in touch with people whose jobs appeal to you (see also tip 9).

8. Use AI for clarification

Use AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as your free career coach. These large language models can help you to break down job descriptions, define your ideal role, ensure your CV uses the right terminology, or come up with questions for a job interview. If you’re still a little nervous about approaching people directly, AI can help you prepare for those conversations.

9. Networking: keep it small and focused

Build professional relationships with your peers. This can be done perfectly well online: send a short message — ‘I’m currently doing my doctoral research in bioanalytical chemistry and I’m exploring opportunities in industry. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions about your move into industry?’ Most people won’t respond, but some will. A few may even be willing to arrange a (virtual) coffee chat. Remember that these are just people, many of whom have no doubt benefited from similar support with their own career choices at some point. And at conferences, don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation with people from industry — they genuinely appreciate your interest. Ask them about their day-to-day work and what they wish they’d known earlier in their career.

10. Take ownership of your professional development

Don’t wait for your supervisor or promoter to raise the topic of your career — most won’t. Instead, ask yourself whether part of the training budget could be used for a course or a few sessions with a career coach. Find out whether your university or consortium organises career-related activities. Seize every opportunity to engage with this process. It can also help to clarify what you don’t want — and that’s at least as valuable as figuring out what does suit you.

Finally

Working out your next career step can feel rather overwhelming and daunting, particularly when you’ve spent years immersed in your research. But it doesn’t all have to happen at once. Start with small steps. Talk to people you know, look something up on LinkedIn, jot down a few ideas. Every action you take will give you greater insight and confidence.

Your doctoral research is not a straitjacket; it has taught you to think critically, solve complex problems, and learn quickly — skills that are valued everywhere. You’ve already achieved something extraordinarily difficult. Now you can bring that same curiosity and discipline to bear on charting a career that not only draws on what you’re capable of, but above all on what gives you energy.