Early Career Opportunities and Strategies in Academia:and how Universities create career-supportive systems that match a larger context than academia

Abstract

Purpose: While universities as research organizations have adapted to the competitive environment for external funding and the global market of people having academic career dreams, the career system within academia has yet to adapt to these circumstances. Postdocs with no tenure track, e.g., are vulnerable in these dynamics since universities produce an increased overload of postdocs strategizing for an academic career. Therefore, rethinking the academic career system to become a career-supportive system that opens the inflow and the outflow of talented people to the broader knowledge and innovation ecosystem is paramount. We present findings from a career intervention at xx University, where 33 early career academics focused on their career strategies and opportunities within a larger career framework than academia. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines a theoretical discussion with a case study using mixed methods of observations, notes, questionnaires, and written feedback.Findings: We demonstrate that moving young researchers from a state of frustration and inaction to a state of agency and motivation is not only doable; it is also achievable with relatively few changes to the opportunity structure, indicating the path to a more permanent and culturally embedded change of the career system.Research limitations/implications: Both the theoretical discussion and the empirical case take a point of departure in a Western European context. Originality/value: Introducing a productive, organizationally based framework for career thinking and showing how to implement change in the academic career system practically.Keywords: early career strategies, career thinking, motivation, knowledge production.Purpose: While universities as research organizations have adapted to the competitive environment for external funding and the global market of people having academic career dreams, the career system within academia has yet to adapt to these circumstances. Postdocs with no tenure track, e.g., are vulnerable in these dynamics since universities produce an increased overload of postdocs strategizing for an academic career. Therefore, rethinking the academic career system to become a career-supportive system that opens the inflow and the outflow of talented people to the broader knowledge and innovation ecosystem is paramount. We present findings from a career intervention at xx University, where 33 early career academics focused on their career strategies and opportunities within a larger career framework than academia. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines a theoretical discussion with a case study using mixed methods of observations, notes, questionnaires, and written feedback.Findings: We demonstrate that moving young researchers from a state of frustration and inaction to a state of agency and motivation is not only doable; it is also achievable with relatively few changes to the opportunity structure, indicating the path to a more permanent and culturally embedded change of the career system.Research limitations/implications: Both the theoretical discussion and the empirical case take a point of departure in a Western European context. Originality/value: Introducing a productive, organizationally based framework for career thinking and showing how to implement change in the academic career system practically.<br/