Doctoral graduates of the Social Sciences and Humanities career paths: the case of Portugal

Abstract

While it is said that the mobility of PhD graduates would be encouraged outside the academic environment, they continue to work mostly within higher education and research. This paper explores the professional life courses of 25 PhD Portuguese graduates in the Social Sciencesand Humanities in order to understand the process according to which they move or not from one sector to another. A first dataset results from an online survey of SSH doctoral graduates. A second dataset is made of the transcripts of 25 in-depth interviews with doctorate holders. The paper sheds light on their motivation and expectation, among other expectation emerging over the course of their doctoral research.