The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has released its final report on the PhD Career Pathways project, a nationwide initiative involving 75 universities. The report, Understanding and Supporting PhD Careers, outlines strategies institutions are using to better prepare doctoral students for a wide range of career options.
In 2017, CGS selected the UW–Madison Graduate School to take part in the $2 million multi-institutional Career Pathways grant, aimed at studying PhD careers. The school received $80,000 to bolster data collection on doctoral alumni and current students to be used for program improvement.
Participation in Career Pathways marked a shift from anecdotal understanding of PhD careers to a sustained, data-informed strategy for professional development and program design, says William J. Karpus, Graduate School Dean and Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs.
“By participating in the Career Pathways project, the Graduate School sought to better inform our campus about the job environment that UW–Madison PhD graduates face,” Karpus says. “These insights didn’t just inspire program improvements and enhance career support – they changed how the Graduate School operates.”
The school has introduced several major initiatives aimed at broadening students’ career preparation.
Data Infrastructure for Alumni Outcomes
Informed by Career Pathways data, the Graduate School has expanded its resources for tracking alumni outcomes. Academic Analytics offers graduate programs and campus leaders access to UW–Madison alumni employment data compiled from public sources. The tool provides information on job titles, employers, locations, and estimated salaries. At the graduate program level, these tools support evidence‑based planning and program development, informing mentoring, curriculum discussions, and program reviews.
The Graduate School has continued to analyze local data on student experiences. A recently published brief examines the types of career advising master’s students report receiving, drawing on multiple years of exit survey responses and looking at differences by program funding model and student citizenship. It is part of a series intended to inform discussions about career readiness; the first brief in the series examined master’s students’ career interests.
Individual Career Advising and Industry Engagement
Master’s and doctoral students can meet individually with an advisor in the Graduate School to explore career directions, refine goals, and prepare application materials; more than 180 students used the service in its first year. The Graduate School Industry Internship Program places students in paid, hands‑on roles at 18 sites, with opportunities expanding beyond the biological and physical sciences. And a pilot mentorship program with the local life sciences business MilliporeSigma pairs students and postdocs with industry professionals for career guidance.
Grant Writing Skills
To support development of broader professional skills, the Graduate School launched a four‑day Humanities Grant Writing Camp facilitated by the UW–Madison Writing Center. The program introduces participants to proposal writing for humanities and social science funding, including support for research travel, dissertation work, and public humanities projects. Grant writing is a key skill within the school’s DiscoverPD professional development framework.
Flexible Job Search Tools
The school has invested in access for all graduate students to online career development platforms. Doctoral students can use Beyond the Professoriate to explore career options and job‑search strategies, and master’s students can access similar modules through Beyond Graduate School. Students and recent alumni with active NetIDs retain access after graduation.
Worldwide Impact
“Our graduates excel into a wide range of roles across sectors and have profound impact worldwide,” Dean Karpus notes. “Understanding their diverse career pathways and preparing students for them is essential to ensuring that UW–Madison doctoral training remains responsive to the realities of today’s research landscape.”
These initiatives come as UW–Madison continues to graduate one of the largest cohorts of research doctorates in the country. The university awarded 831 research doctorates in 2024, the second-highest total of any U.S. institution that year, according to the national Survey of Earned Doctorates.
Outcomes for graduates reflect the broad career preparation emphasized in the Career Pathways work: in the Graduate School’s doctoral exit survey, 80% of PhD graduates reported securing employment at the time of degree completion. Half entered positions in academic settings, while a quarter moved into industry roles; 7% reported government positions, and 4% joined nonprofit organizations.
“Our graduates excel into a wide range of roles across sectors and have profound impact worldwide,” Dean Karpus notes. “Understanding their diverse career pathways and preparing students for them is essential to ensuring that UW–Madison doctoral training remains responsive to the realities of today’s research landscape.”
Building on this foundation, the Graduate School continues to expand how career outcomes data inform professional development, mentoring, and graduate program design across campus, Karpus added.
Learn more about data resources and career and professional development for graduate students on the Graduate School’s website.