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Aarresaari, a career services network of Finnish universities, examined how people who had graduated with doctorates from Finnish universities in 2015 had gained employment and how their present job corresponded with the degree they had completed.

Every doctoral graduate, who responded to the School of Electrical Engineering survey, was employed at the time of the survey. Approximately half of respondents worked primarily in the area of research at the time of the survey. In addition to this, their work tasks were related in great part to planning and development (46 %) as well as managerial and supervisory duties (25 %).

86% of respondents were satisfied with their degree in terms of their own careers. More than four fifths of the respondents were able to take advantage of the knowledge and skills they learned in their doctoral studies in their current employment, and nearly 80% felt that their work corresponded well with their doctoral degree. Additionally, up to 89% of respondents felt that their professional careers correspond to their goals partly or completely.

‘I'm very pleased with the results of the survey. These demonstrate that our doctoral graduates are satisfied with their career choices and have been successful in their working lives. We are proud of our doctoral graduates!” states Jyri Hämäläinen, Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering.  

Respondents were also asked what skills and expertise they would recommend that doctoral candidates acquire for working life. In their responses doctoral graduates emphasised, in particular, the importance of networking and collaboration with companies, but also recommended common working life skills.

Current doctoral candidates were encouraged to develop, in particular, their communication and public speaking skills as well as their language proficiency during their doctoral studies. Graduates also recommended that in addition to their own area of expertise, doctoral candidates should also acquire competence in areas such as business administration, marketing and project management.

The career monitoring survey is a research model developed by the career services network of Finnish universities. The survey is used for the monitoring the careers of people with a doctorate three years after graduation or a master's degree five years after graduation.

Integration into working life is evaluated on the basis of the respondents’ employment situation, the quality of their employment and the match between jobs and qualifications.

A total of 861 people responded to the survey, including 126 graduates from Aalto University. Out of the respondents, 28 were doctoral graduates from the School of Electrical Engineering. The response rate at the School of Electrical Engineering was 59.6 %.

The next career monitoring survey will be conducted in autumn 2019. Aalto University will be sending the survey by e-mail, SMS or regular mail to alumni graduated with a master's degree in 2014 and doctoral graduates of 2016.

Enquiries:

Manager, Career Services
Kaisa Paasivirta
kaisa.paasivirta@aalto.fi