Leaving academia: Insights from evolutionary biologists on their career transitions and job satisfaction

Many who have obtained PhDs in evolutionary biology will ultimately pursue
careers that fall outside a narrow definition of an academic career. At
the same time, PhD students and supervisors of PhD students are often
ill-informed about career options outside of academia. Here, we report on
a survey of evolutionary biologists who have pursued non-academic careers
to understand what careers they pursue, how they transitioned into those
careers, how well prepared they were, and how satisfied they are with
their current work. Overall, the message from this survey is positive–
evolutionary biologists are readily employable outside of academia,
generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of
satisfaction in their non-academic careers. We also highlight areas where
preparation for non-academic careers could be improved, which might be
addressed by individual mentors or PhD training programmes.