About to finish PhD…feeling deflated about career prospects

[Holibobby]

I started my PhD 6 years ago and due to submit at the end of the year. Being a single parent to a young child I’ve worked my arse off - most evenings, Saturdays when DD is with her dad. My PhD is in Psychology specifically police interviewing. However, I’m not feeling very hopeful with the career prospects post-PhD. Academia appears to not have a prospective job market as it once did

I am thinking of maybe joining the civil service, or joining the accelerated fast track detective programme as this looks like an exciting career and is closely aligned to my PhD.

if you have a PhD what did you go on to do? I’m also trying to see where my PhD could fit into industry but as with all it is a niche area.

The end of the year is sometime away, you have time to act. If I was you I’d decide which route I want to take and then spend the rest of your PhD shaping yourself to suit: academic roles you need papers and a record of getting grants or at least working on proposals. Civil service, police, industry etc collect the things that you think will help you stand out. You are in a good position just need to focus and use the time wisely. Good luck

come over to the 'academic corner' board for advice that is specific to careers in academia if you want that track. my phd is psychology and I stayed in academia but I know others who've left for civil service / business / charities etc.

otherwise, think in terms of transferable skills. academics are interested in published papers, but everyone else in the world wants to know if you can gather together information, write a coherent report, present to a group, organise a project etc. and by the end of a PhD, you'll have all those skills so you just need to package them right for your CV

talk to your university careers service and they will have options.

Thank you @parietal and @tamade for the replies. I will have a look through the posts in the ‘academic corner’. I currently work at the university and have been there for over 3 years now in a professional services role though not academic. I think this year so far I’ve been focused on finishing the PhD and not thought further ahead. But now is the time to start thinking what type of role I could go into. I’m just trying to weigh up the possibilities between academia and industry.