Pathways Post-PhD: Career Decision-Making for Scientists from Diverse Backgrounds

While conversations about increasing diversity in graduate education, postdoctoral training, and the professoriate often focus on ability and efficacy, this presentation uses data from a nation-wide project to reframe this discourse, attending to additional factors which influence career decision making for scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.  Specifically, using Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2001) and the Social Influence Model (Estrada, Woodcock, Hernandez, & Schultz, 2011) as guiding frameworks, we examine how performance measures, learning experiences, relationships with faculty, and individual values relate to interest in faculty careers amongst URM scientists. Data from a mixed methods study, integrating quantitative data collected from a diverse sample of 1900 biosciences Ph.D.s and interview data collected from a subset of these scientists, are presented to illustrate patterns in career decision-making.