Professional agency is a versatile, useful tactic undertaken by PhD graduates as they navigate a changing economy and its various challenges. Professional agency is an empowering tool; yet, the urgent need to engage with it signals a dire reality for PhD graduates in Canada, as well as for the Canadian workforce itself. For PhD graduates, engagement in professional agency means regularly traversing challenging and dynamic circumstances that require novel responses and tactics. For Canada and all of its residents, PhD graduates’ engagement in professional agency points to a systemic underutilization and neglect of highly-skilled workers on a nation-wide level.

What is professional agency? 

"Agency" is a much debated concept in the social sciences, philosophy, and educational studies. The extent to which one can exercise agency has been heavily debated for a long time, with much attention being paid to individuals’ structures and habiti (a term popularized by Pierre Bourdieu to signify learned systems of dispositions and structures by which any person orients themselves in the social world) having an inescapable influence on the individuals’ actions. While existing in and bound by these structures, it was argued, individual agency was restricted to a point that was often considered negligible. In recent years, however, scholars have increasingly directed their attention to individuals asserting change over the structures in which they exist. By exercising influence over their environments, individuals are seen by some scholars as navigating the structures they are bound by to a degree that can be considered agential. 

In the context of post-academic spaces, "professional agency" refers to the degree to which PhD graduates are able to exercise influence over environments. It encompasses a variety of actions, from individual-level and almost imperceptible activities to collective endeavours. Manifestations of professional agency can include taking critical stances on various issues, creative solutions to difficult circumstances, and renegotiations of positions to better suit one’s needs, when possible. By being able to work agentially toward their intentions, PhD graduates and early career scholars are able to navigate their environments in a way that yields the most benefit, despite the various structural obstacles they are faced with.

Why does it matter? 

To PhD graduates: For PhD graduates, professional agency has emerged as an increasingly urgent and relevant concept. PhD graduates graduate their programs into the daunting reality of not having enough postdoctoral fellowship positions for each candidate. The employment prospects for PhD graduates are exceptionally bleak, and, as a result, many remain unable to secure postdoctoral positions for years following the completion of their PhDs. Furthermore, PhD programs do not satisfactorily prepare PhD students for non-academic careers, which results in challenges with finding employment outside of the academy as well. In cases where PhD graduates are able to find a job, they often report underutilizing the skills they learned during their PhDs, because they are not taught to optimally transition them to non-academic positions. PhD graduates therefore emerge from their programs with low preparedness for non-academic employment and with severely limited prospects for employment within the academy.

Those in positions of supporting PhD graduates face similarly difficult tasks as the graduates themselves. Non-academic employers may find that the PhD graduates they employ underutilize their skills, as they are not explicitly taught to transition them into the non-academic sphere following the completion of their programs. This in turn may lead to a nation-wide underutilization of PhD graduates’ skills, as they increasingly lack opportunities to secure fulfilling positions or alternatively find themselves in positions where their skills are not put to best use.

3 Key Takeaways

On the individual level, PhD students can utilize professional agency to navigate their post-graduate difficulties and gain more control of their circumstances. Through small-scale, individual actions such as self-advocacy, finding creative solutions to problems, and even choosing to leave positions, PhD graduates can use professional agency to mitigate some of the difficulties they face following the completion of their programs. Engagement in communities within and outside of the academy can be instrumental in increasing graduates’ agency and empower individuals to make confident professional decisions.

On the group level, professional agency can be undertaken through coordinated actions by PhD graduates and people supporting them. PhD graduates can band together to increase the reach of their advocacy efforts, demonstrate the scope and frequency of some of the issues they encounter, and collectively influence outcomes. For people supporting graduate students, an understanding of professional agency and how PhD graduates come to employ it can result in meaningful support during their programs, which can look like increased professional development opportunities and preparedness for work outside of the academy. These efforts can help ensure that PhD students thrive in their programs and postdoctoral positions. Outside of the academy, a group understanding of professional agency can help ensure meaningful matches between PhD graduates and employers. Employers that are aware of how PhD graduates navigate their post-graduation environments can match them with meaningful positions that utilize their skills in meaningful ways that are simultaneously optimal for the employer and satisfying for the PhD graduate.

On the systemic level, professional agency alone may not meaningfully fix the harsh reality PhD graduates find themselves in, such as low postdoctoral fellowship opportunities, economic difficulties, and a nation-wide underutilization of skills from some of the nation’s most highly-skilled workers. Rather, what may be needed is more meaningful systemic support for PhD graduates at various steps of their academic and early career journeys. For instance, nation-widel efforts can be undertaken to help PhD programs prepare their graduates for searching for postdoctoral fellowships, applying for jobs outside of the academy, and implement training for students to learn to transition their skills to other positions in a way that does not diminish their skills. In addition to PhD programs improving their support of PhD students, the students require more support following the completion of their programs. Systemically-constructed initiatives that seek to maximize the use of PhD graduates’ skills and that match them to positions in which they can thrive would be incredibly beneficial for the graduates themselves, as well as for ensuring that the skills they have acquired are used in the best way possible. 

Conclusion 

Professional agency is a useful tool that can be undertaken at the individual and group levels to navigate the variously challenging circumstances that PhD graduates find themselves in after graduating from their programs. At the same time, professional agency alone does not resolve these issues, which can still negatively influence PhD graduates’ job satisfaction and even lead to a nation-wide underutilization of PhD graduates’ skills. More meaningful support for PhD graduates at various steps of their academic and early career journeys is necessary to ensure that they are able to find fulfilling positions following the completion of their programs.

Bibliography

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McAlpine, Lynn, and Cheryl Amundsen. 2018. Identity-Trajectories of Early Career Researchers: Unpacking the Post-PhD Experience. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hayter, Christopher S., and Marla A. Parker. 2019. “Factors That Influence the Transition of University Postdocs to Non-Academic Scientific Careers: An Exploratory Study.” Research Policy 48 (3): 556–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.09.009.

Galimberti, Andrea. 2023. “PhD Graduates’ Professional Transitions and Academic Habitus. The Role of Tacit Knowledge.” Studies in Higher Education, August, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2252845.

Pretorius, Lynette, and Luke Macaulay. 2021. “Notions of Human Capital and Academic Identity in the PhD: Narratives of the Disempowered.” The Journal of Higher Education 92 (4): 623–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2020.1854605.

Eteläpelto, Anneli, Katja Vähäsantanen, Päivi Hökkä, and Susanna Paloniemi. 2013. “What Is Agency? Conceptualizing Professional Agency at Work.” Educational Research Review 10 (December): 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2013.05.001.

About the Author

Asya Savelyeva is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at The University of British Columbia (UBC). She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UBC in Sociology and English Literature. Her MA Thesis research focuses on transnationalism and belonging experiences of Ukrainian newcomers in Vancouver displaced by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.