In recent years, there are about 20,000 new doctoral graduates in China than new university teachers, which means that about13 doctoral graduates have not obtained university teaching posts. In recent years, the number of doctoral graduates in China has been rising year after year: in 2004, there were 23,000 doctoral graduates, and the number of doctoral graduates in that year was counted as a separate category in the China Statistical Yearbook for the first time; In 20 18, the number of doctoral graduates exceeded 60,000, and nearly 654.38+10,000 doctoral students were admitted in the same year.
Image source: National Bureau of Statistics
Traditionally, doctors are the "guardians" of their own disciplines. If he gets a doctorate, he should pursue an academic career. People who choose non-academic careers are often regarded as "holes in the pipeline". However, this concept is increasingly challenged. The statistical yearbook shows that in recent years, there are about 20,000 new doctoral graduates in China than new university teachers, which means that about 1/3 doctoral graduates have not obtained university teaching posts. I got the highest degree in human society. What is a doctor outside the academic circle?
The winner of the education market and the "budding newborn" of the job market.
Before studying for a PhD, Meng Xi's idea was simple, even a little "stupefied". "At that time, when I was young, I always felt that I had to do at least one thing that ordinary people could not do in my life." Northeast girl said. In this way, she opened the way to a doctorate. As for what job to look for in the future and what the job market is like, she laughed at herself: "In my mental state at that time, it was impossible to think of these. During her Ph.D., what she communicated most with her tutor was the experimental situation. However, the work plan and the job market rarely enter the discussion between teachers and students. After more than three years of "eight to ten" laboratory life, a doctor reminded her: "Get ready for work quickly! 」
Meng Qian started the "job-hunting mode", but she actually couldn't spend much time in contact with work: writing and publishing papers and graduation thesis have occupied most of her energy. In order to revise her graduation thesis, she stayed up until two o'clock at night for more than a month, woke up in the morning, grabbed a dress and began to work. One day, she suddenly realized that she had worn this gray pullover for ten days.
Her tutor thinks that "it is natural to go to colleges and universities after graduation." Meng Xi's doctoral brothers and sisters have basically gone this way after graduation. Meng Xi originally thought that he would like to be a university teacher and take scientific research as his career. This spring, Meng Xi's thesis blind evaluation and graduation defense went smoothly, and two universities also sent her an offer. Seeing that she was going to get her degree certificate in the near future, she suddenly felt crushed and tears could not help coming out. The psychological counselor told her that this was caused by long-term stress during her doctoral studies.
A few days ago, she accepted the advice of her family and signed a contract with a college near her home. The performance appraisal in colleges and universities made her very worried: the school made it clear that it would not provide funds for the start of scientific research, and the specific assessment criteria would not be known until she joined the company, but she had heard several examples of schools breaking their promises before. Meng Qian has a friend who teaches in a university in Shandong. Only after he joined the job did he find that the school had improved the assessment standards. A friend complained to her: "the resettlement fee has not been implemented, and other (treatment) has not gone up, but the assessment standards have gone up." 」
However, Ma Jun, a professor at the School of Science of Lanzhou University of Technology, believes that the current employment situation of doctoral students is still relatively optimistic.
He told reporters: "In colleges and universities, in addition to the basic salary provided by the state, if there are many scientific research achievements, the annual scientific research performance is very impressive, even 10 times the normal salary, and there is no upper limit. The differences between disciplines can not be ignored. Ma Jun said that many doctors majoring in engineering can find horizontal projects outside the school, and their income is very considerable. 」
Compared with Meng Xi, Lin Fei's road of seeking advice is more tortuous. Last year, Lin Fei received a doctor's degree in liberal arts from a famous school. After graduation, he didn't find a satisfactory teaching position, so he accepted the invitation-a management position in a large enterprise with an annual salary of more than 200 thousand yuan. After working for two months, he suddenly received an employment notice from a university in other provinces. Although the company's salary meets expectations, Lin Fei feels that his work is not free enough. In contrast, he prefers the working environment in colleges and universities.
The tutor advised him to think carefully: "You are a green pepper, and there is no end in sight. His family supports him to go to college and thinks that being a college teacher is a decent job. Lin Fei told his family that the monthly income of teachers is only 1/3. On balance, Lin Fei made a decision. Lin Fei did not resign immediately. At that time, his diploma had been obtained, but his degree certificate would not be obtained until the end of the year. He hopes that before going through the immigration formalities, the two documents are complete.
The staff of this university were reasonable at first. They said they could arrange a dormitory for Lin Fei and apply for a campus card first, and then go through the admission formalities after he got his degree certificate. But the next call was stale. A teacher asked Lin Fei to come to school at once on the grounds that all young teachers should work in the first year. Despite some problems at home, Lin Fei hurried through the resignation formalities and rushed to school.
At the end of the year, Lin Fei got a degree certificate. The next day, he went to the physical examination according to the requirements of the incoming school and prepared to report for the next day. At this time, he received another phone call. The other party told him that he didn't have to go through the immigration formalities. Lin Fei was shocked and rushed to the school by high-speed train, but was told that it was not compiled: the college said that because the school did not compile, the school personnel department said that the college did not apply.
Lin Fei called the hospital leader and was told that there was no place now. Hospital leaders admitted that after Lin Fei, they interviewed others. Lin Fei realized that if there was a more suitable candidate, the school would take the initiative to break the contract. "The school only lost 5,000 yuan in liquidated damages, but it had a great impact on our graduates." For more than half a year after his resignation, he had almost no income.
As the first batch of doctoral students graduated by the tutor, Lin Fei's job search situation is also very concerned by his younger brothers and sisters. Lin Fei's graduation went smoothly. Even so, when he participated in the doctoral graduation defense, he was penniless-the doctor was postponed this year and the school no longer gave subsidies. He supports himself by doing something outside school. Now, Lin Fei is still looking for a teacher position. This year's twists and turns made him have a new reflection: "After reading so many books, let your brain come alive. Survivability is the first step. 」
The trend of employment diversification is emerging.
After graduation, Dr. Ren Qi went to work in a state-owned enterprise. As a doctor of engineering, Ren Qi doesn't have to worry about deviating from reality when doing scientific research in enterprises. The scientific research in state-owned enterprises is directly oriented to production and can provide first-line data for reference. These data are usually not released to the public. Moreover, state-owned enterprises have abundant funds, so Ren Qi doesn't have to rack his brains to apply for research funds like his classmates who work in colleges and universities-enterprises can provide him with millions of research funds.
But Ren Qi soon realized her shortcoming-age. After graduating from undergraduate course, Ren Qi was recommended as a doctoral student directly under our school because of his excellent grades. Compared with the students who finished their master's degree in three years and then went to study for a doctorate, Ren Qi, who got her doctorate at the age of 27, has a great age advantage. Despite this, after Ren Qi entered the state-owned enterprise, he was embarrassed to find himself an "older newcomer". Ren Qi calmly analyzed his own situation: "If you are developing in an enterprise, the doctor is only suitable for taking the technical route. If you take the administrative route, it may be too late. 」
However, Ren Qi also realized that in the state-owned enterprises that imitate the operation of the civil service system, almost all resources are concentrated on administrative power. This means that if he can't reach a certain administrative position, it will be unfavorable for doing scientific research. In contrast, more dynamic private enterprises have become a new choice for some doctoral graduates. On the list of key employers in Tsinghua University, Huawei has "harvested" the most Dr. Tsinghua for three consecutive years. In May of this year, Huawei Hisilicon released a global recruitment announcement, with as many as 3 1 doctoral candidates. Recently, the news that Huawei has offered millions of annual salary to recent doctoral graduates has attracted many people's attention.
Image source: news map
In the past two years, Tencent, Alibaba and other "emerging forces" have also appeared in the above-mentioned list of key employers. The doctoral students recruited by the above-mentioned enterprises are generally limited to computer, applied mathematics, artificial intelligence, automation control and other hot fields in recent years. In online forums, there are more consultation posts weighing the work between companies and universities. Obviously, not everyone buys the account of private enterprises. Some people bluntly say that Huawei is "just a little more money" compared with the assistant professors in 985 universities.
In addition, many doctoral graduates choose to work in party and government organs-last year, the Organization Department of Fujian Provincial Party Committee recruited 30 doctoral graduates from Tsinghua in one fell swoop, second only to Huawei's 3 1. It is not difficult to find the trend of diversification of doctoral employment from the employment quality report of domestic college graduates. In the past five years, among the doctoral graduates from Tsinghua University and Peking University who signed tripartite employment contracts, the proportion of those who worked in universities and research institutes decreased, while the proportion of those who worked in state-owned enterprises and private enterprises increased significantly.
Behind this is the severe employment situation in the academic circle: the number of doctoral caps is increasing year by year, but the number of academic posts is relatively stable. As early as a few years ago, the problem of doctoral employment has attracted attention in developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany. The survey of doctoral employment in these countries shows that the proportion of doctoral employment in traditional academic departments is declining, and the decline of humanities and social sciences in Kobe, science and technology is more obvious.
Shen, an associate professor at Peking University Institute of Education, told reporters that in the United States, for example, the proportion of doctoral graduates in mathematics and computer science who were employed in academia dropped from 80% in the early 1970s to 47% in the late 1990s. Although doctoral graduates in humanities and social sciences are still mainly employed in academia, the proportion has declined-humanities decreased by 10.7% and social sciences decreased by 65448%.
In the situation of oversupply, "non-academic career" has become an active or passive choice for doctoral graduates. Ma Zhen, a professor of environmental science and engineering at Fudan University, knows doctoral students, some of whom are teachers in universities, some in enterprises and some in middle schools. Ma Zhen took these situations for granted: "This is the case. There are not so many jobs in colleges and universities, and the' green peppers' in colleges and universities are bitter. If you especially like doing academics, you can stay in colleges and universities; If you want to make money, you can enter the enterprise. 」
Ma Zhen believes that there are great differences between different universities and different disciplines, and it is too general to talk about the employment of doctoral students in general. He said: "In some colleges and universities, the number of doctoral students is expanding, there are more people, and the scientific research foundation is not very good, so (doctoral graduates) may be somewhat unpopular. By observing the job hunting situation of master students and doctoral students, Ma Zhen found that master students often spend a lot of time on internships, while doctoral students find it easier to find jobs, just submitting resumes and spending a little time on interviews.
In the eyes of some recruiters, the doctorate itself has enough weight. When a doctoral student in Ma Zhen was looking for a job, the other party showed great trust in the student: "Those who can get a doctorate are at least not stupid and have professional ability. Ma Zhen thinks: "Opportunities always belong to the strong. 」
What is a doctor outside the academic circle?
As early as 20 1 1, Nature has published three articles in succession, pointing to the phenomenon of overproduction of doctors. One of the articles holds that the rapid expansion of doctoral degree is driven by the demand of scientific research projects, and the capacity of academic labor market is not fully considered. In recent years, the scale of doctoral enrollment in China has expanded year after year. Last year, 95,500 doctoral students were enrolled, and the number reached a new high. There are many hats for doctors, and even some jobs that do not point to academic production clearly require doctoral degrees. In recent years, some colleges and universities require candidates to have a doctorate when recruiting counselors. Previously, this position was mainly for undergraduate or master graduates.
1979, American scholar Randall? Collins described the phenomenon of "diploma inflation" in his book Diploma Society. He believes: "As more and more people get higher degrees, the demand for education level in jobs is also rising. When more and more people get some kind of education diploma or degree, its value will decrease. " But at the same time, there is a contradiction in China.
Qing, an associate professor at the School of Social Development of East China Normal University, mentioned several figures: Enterprises are the departments with the largest R&D expenditure in China. In 20 17, the R&D expenditure of various enterprises accounted for 77.6% of the national total, but the R&D of enterprises (R&; D) Less than 65,438+0% of employees have doctoral degrees. In addition, in addition to research universities, the proportion of full-time teachers with doctoral degrees in Chinese universities is actually not high. In 20 17, only 24.4% of the full-time teachers in colleges and universities have doctoral degrees.
As far as the traditional goal of doctoral "production"-training academic successors is concerned, the number of doctoral students may be too large, but there is still a large demand space in China universities; If we look at it from another angle, the era of knowledge economy needs high-level talents, and a large number of talents are needed to promote the scientific and technological and industrial revolution. "The more high-level talents, the better." He believes that if the needs of enterprises are taken into account, the current doctoral talents are still insufficient.
In the United States, where higher education is more developed, the outline of the future begins to appear: in March this year, the National Natural Science Foundation (NSF) released a report that the proportion of doctoral graduates employed by the private sector (42%) was close to that of educational institutions (43%) for the first time. This is regarded as a major turning point of historical significance. Before studying for a PhD, Zhang Tian went to the industry. Faced with several admission notices, she chose this state university located on the east coast of the United States without hesitation. After working under the "big cow" in the industry for three years, Zhang Tian began to contact the industry through lectures organized by schools and colleges.
Most of Zhang Tian's doctoral brothers and sisters go to work in industry, and some go to the United States to do business-related research. This summer, Zhang Tian applied for an internship in a company in Boston. She thinks that the research and development work in the company is relatively simple, and the knowledge learned during the doctoral period may not be needed. But when she started working, she found that the company was developing many new products, and she faced many unknowns.
Compared with the projects that Zhang Tian did when he was studying PhD, the projects in the company are not difficult, but there are also some challenges. Here, her research can see the answer in a short time, "positive feedback comes quickly", which makes her feel that "her work has not been in vain". In contrast, reading a blog is like walking alone in the vast desert. I don't know how long it will take to see the oasis, and I don't know if there is an oasis ahead.
"Doing experiments at school requires constant trial and error. Zhang Wei said. While doing research in the company, the fault tolerance rate is relatively low. When Qing was doing research, some business owners complained to him: some doctoral graduates continued the idea of academic research after they came to work in the enterprise, but the enterprise paid more attention to the efficiency and timeliness of research.
Qing Songshi believes that to work in an enterprise, doctoral students need to understand the corporate culture and business environment, such as paying more attention to economic benefits; However, in the process of doctoral training, academic ability should still be the core, and in addition, we can pay attention to the cultivation of general ability, such as communication ability and interdisciplinary cooperation ability. In Britain, there is a phenomenon that doctors are trained by combining Industry-University-Research: if an enterprise needs talents in a certain field, it will jointly train them with universities that are good at this field. Therefore, enterprises are involved in the doctoral training stage, and doctoral students take research topics to study PhD.
As an individual in a big structure, what a doctoral student can do may be to plan the future early. As a tutor, Ma Zhen once invited a well-known enterprise HR to teach students professional norms, professional ethics, job hunting, interview skills and so on.
He believes: "Tutors play an important role in students' job hunting. When students need it, Ma Zhen will introduce them to job opportunities, write letters of recommendation in person and so on. Usually, Ma Zhen often "guides students according to the situation", for example, reminding them to learn to think from the perspective of leaders. The short working experience in the enterprise made Lin Fei re-examine what he had learned. When working in an enterprise, Lin Fei always feels uneasy: "Does society recognize my major?" 」
He decided that even if he went to work in colleges and universities in the future, he could not just write papers. "Otherwise, what he learned is useless to society." He asked himself, "think about it. What contribution can we make to society? What do you want? Lin Fei's conclusion is: "Only when research is grounded can academics have vitality. (At the request of the respondents, Meng Xi, Lin Fei, Ren Qi and Zhang Tian are pseudonyms.)
Article source: Freezing Point Weekly Cover Source: Station Cool Luohai Plus
Topics: doctoral program, doctoral employment, older people, mathematics, liberal arts, physics, American Natural Science Foundation, nature, Huawei, computer science, Alibaba, Tencent.