Off Track

Off Track

Why today's early-career researchers are looking beyond tenure
by Dara Chadwick

Once upon a time, graduating with a PhD in biomedical research meant pursuing a tenured position at an academic institution. Long considered the “gold standard” career for PhD graduates in STEM, postdoctoral fellows would spend years—often many years—working long hours in the lab, trying to secure funding, all in pursuit of the ultimate goal: Tenure.

“The beauty of the tenure system is that once you secure tenure, you have your job forever,” says Karla Haack, PhD, lecturer of anatomy and physiology at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga. But getting there involves not only an incredible amount of time and work, but also a “complicated” set of expectations, she says. 

This getting-to-tenure challenge is exacerbated by a dwindling number of available positions. “Universities are bloated with mid- to late-level tenured faculty who don’t always have consistent, if any, funding,” Haack says, meaning they have job security without the productivity that new hires are expected—and often required—to bring. “There’s a restructuring happening in academia, and departments are downsizing. It’s a multifactorial problem that is driving young people away from tenure-track positions.”

Terms like “broken pipeline” have been used to describe this shift away from the tenure track. But some say it’s less about broken pipelines and more about early-career physiologists tapping into their decision-making power.

“The ‘pipeline’ is a terrible metaphor for describing biomedical career trajectories,” says Kenneth Gibbs Jr., PhD, MPH, director of the Postdoctoral Research Training (PRAT) program at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in Bethesda, Md. “It reinforces the idea that career paths are linear, when they often are not. When choosing a career away from academia, a person doesn’t ‘leak’ but is expressing agency over their own career journey.”

HEAVY EXPECTATIONS

Gibbs says it’s a myth that most PhDs become tenure-track professors. “It’s just not true and hasn’t been for a long time,” he says. In fact, National Science Foundation research shows that in 2015, only 8.1 percent of biological and life science PhDs held tenure or tenure-track appointments three to five years after earning their doctorate. That number was 17.3 percent in 1993 and has steadily declined. 

While academic careers can be rewarding, “all careers where a scientist can use their skills and express their values are good careers,” Gibbs says. “Academia is just one of many.”

Still, a tenured position remains the primary goal for some young physiologists—at least at the start of their careers. “My intention was to be a true academic,” Haack says. “I enjoyed teaching and got a lot of experience teaching as a grad student.”

Haack started in science at 15, when she participated in a program for high school students. Her mentor was exceptional, she says. “I fell in love with bench research,” she says, noting it was extraordinary for a high school student to have the lab experience she did. “Unfortunately, that is not a stereotypical experience in science.” 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Louisiana’s Xavier University and then decided to go to medical school. But after a year at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, she left. “I wanted to do clinically relevant research,” she says.

She moved on to Georgia Tech, where she studied cell physiology and earned a PhD in applied biology. But as a postdoctoral fellow, she found the constant funding chase burdensome.

“The funding climate has been terrible, but this is not a new problem,” Haack says. “It’s an incredibly challenging numbers game.”

The near-constant grant writing— along with expectations that tenure- track postdoctoral researchers will generate data, publish and fulfill heavy teaching and service requirements— contributes to a deep sense of burnout. When coupled with fierce competition for fewer jobs, it’s no surprise that many PhDs with academic aspirations consider alternative paths.

Haack, who has two young children, says her willingness to be open to other things ultimately helped her step away from the pursuit of tenure. Her current role as lecturer involves 90 percent teaching and 10 percent service, which includes administrative work, mentoring and sitting on committees. She teaches two large lecture classes— no grants involved.

“My choice to pursue the lecturer position I have was about balance. Statistics show that a lot of women who have children don’t return to STEM careers,” says Haack, incoming chair of APS’ Porter Physiology Development and Minority Affairs Committee. “In underrepresented minorities, this is magnified even more.”

A MINDSET SHIFT

While not every biomedical PhD ends up in a tenured position, stepping away from this path can require a mindset shift.

“There’s been a culture in academic science where with mentors, there was no correct answer other than ‘I want to pursue a tenure-track position,’” Haack says. “But there simply aren’t enough jobs. You have to prepare to do something else.”

For Kathy Ryan, science and technology manager and department chief in the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, keeping an open mind—along with a bit of serendipity— has led to an amazing career.

Ryan oversees a department of 15, performing research that ultimately supports wounded soldiers on the battlefield, as well as projects that benefit civilians involved in trauma. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Trinity University in San Antonio and a PhD in physiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio before beginning a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

“I thought I wanted to be a pharmacist, so I enrolled in pre-med at Trinity University. But then I found out pharmacists actually count pills all day. And I didn’t want to be a doctor,” she says. “But I really loved physiology, and one of my professors took me under his wing, telling me, ‘Do you know they pay people to go to graduate school?’”

When Ryan’s college mentor got a research grant from the U.S. Air Force, he brought Ryan with him as a contract scientist following her postdoctoral fellowship. She spent a few years there, while also teaching night classes at Trinity and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. In 1999, she became a civilian scientist with the U.S. Army, a role that Ryan—who has never served in the military—says requires no military commitment. She worked as a research physiologist studying hemorrhage control and physiological monitoring, remaining at the lab bench until taking an administrative role in 2012.

Choosing not to pursue a tenured position required changing her mindset, Ryan says. “I had a huge inferiority complex,” she says. “A tenure-track position is considered the norm, and I felt like I was letting my professors down. I thought they were saying, ‘Look at that Ryan kid. She had potential, but look at her now.’”

A former member and chair of the Society’s Career Opportunities Committee, Ryan says she didn’t get involved in work on APS committees until she was in her mid-40s. “I never thought I was good enough because I’m not an academic,” she says. “But I came to the realization that if you work in industry or for the government, it’s just a different career, not a lesser career.”

EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES

That message is important, Gibbs says. His research into why people choose to get a science PhD shows that many simply really like science, but they don’t necessarily want to become professors.

“At NIGMS, we recognize there are a broad variety of careers in the biomedical research workforce and ensure our training programs provide trainees with the knowledge, skills and experiences that allow them to identify and transition into the career they choose,” he says. “It’s important that trainees find careers that leverage their skills and align with their values.”

Those values can include everything from advancing basic discovery, embracing work-life balance or promoting equity, Gibbs says. He starts by helping students understand their motivations to find a good fit. Maybe they are thinking: “I want to direct a research program” or “I want to live near my family.”

“There are a number of tools, for example, myIDP from AAAS, which can help scientists at any stage think about their values, skills and interests and ensure their career choices align with them,” Gibbs says.

In addition to his role with PRAT, Gibbs is program director of both the Division of Training, Workforce Development and Diversity and the Division of Genetics and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at NIGMS. He got his start in a lab at the University of North Carolina as part of a high school research program. Inspired by a teacher who told him that one of the best ways to deal with problems in the world is to create more knowledge, Gibbs saw research as a way to serve his community. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and earned a PhD in immunology from Stanford University in California.

Yet as his training progressed, Gibbs says he felt he was getting farther away from the reason he went into science. A postdoctoral fellowship with the National Cancer Institute “helped me blend the different pieces,” he says. “I’ve been very fortunate to work on issues I think are important.”

Among those issues? Helping to ensure biomedical research training aligns with the needs of trainees in an evolving scientific and career landscape so that PhDs know academia isn’t the only place to use their skills, and promoting diversity and equity within the scientific enterprise. “There are plenty of opportunities out there,” he says. “I encourage people to learn more about NIH programs, including those at NIGMS, that support early-career scientists, as well as our efforts to ensure our environments support students from all backgrounds.”

For Carrie Northcott, PhD, director and project lead within Digital Medicine and Translational Imaging for Pfizer in Cambridge, Mass., stepping off the tenure track was about knowing herself. “I really liked my research, but I couldn’t see myself in the same position for the rest of my life,” she says of her former tenure-track faculty position at Michigan State University, where she earned a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology. “Tenure is great and serves a purpose in academia, but it’s not the be all and end all.”

Moving to an industry job with Pfizer—first in preclinical cardiovascular safety and now in digital medicine—has allowed Northcott to work in a highly collaborative, team-based environment with team members who are at the top of their field, she says. “I work with top engineers and data scientists,” she says. “I tell them the physiological endpoints I want to measure, and they design a program. We’re all working toward a common goal of trying to make people’s lives better, and I get to see that goal achieved.”

If there’s a downside to working in industry, Northcott says it’s an absence of job security. “My position could change or be eliminated,” she says, adding that industry jobs can require significant collaboration and flexibility.

“You might have a research passion, but the needs of the company might change,” she says. “You have to be able to pivot.”

Ryan says the skills she’s developed as a physiologist are transferrable across a number of career paths, such as medical writing and editing, working as a medical liaison, science technology management, program management, regulatory work, clinical trial coordination, non-lab academic positions, pharmaceutical industry work and patent law (for those who attend law school).

“With a physiology PhD, you’ve learned to think critically and to write,” she says.

Haack urges early-career physiologists not to discount the value of their analytical skills. “As scientists, we are problem solvers. We can look at a data set, analyze it and propose a solution based in data,” she says. “In the technology sector, that skill is very much in demand.” 

For those who prefer to stay in academia, opportunities beyond the tenure track are emerging. Haack says universities are creating positions to accommodate the shift away from tenure, such as research-track faculty positions, in which an independent scientist is housed in somebody else’s lab, writing grants, doing research and fulfilling a service commitment that doesn’t include teaching. Teaching- only tenure-track positions are emerging as well, allowing academic institutions to retain bright trainees in teaching positions.

“We may see a division of folks who do research from folks who do teaching,” Haack says.

Exploring new career paths is about research, Northcott adds. “Network, network, network,” she says. “Reach out and ask questions. Get different perspectives. Find out what the day-to- day is like.” 

Gibbs says students are getting savvier. “While science can be viewed as a ‘calling,’ many of the students I talk to today are very clear that they need to be intentional about ensuring they ultimately end up in the career they want. They know it won’t just happen on its own.” 

This article was originally published in the September 2019 issue of The Physiologist Magazine.