Doctoral graduates of Aalto University in working life

***Below are results of the survey conducted in 2022 for doctoral alumni who graduated in 2012. The next survey will be conducted in the autumn 2023 and its results will be published in late spring 2024.***

Three out of four doctorates in expert positions

40 percent of the 2019 doctoral graduates of Aalto University were employed by a private companies and one third by universities. 19 percent worked for the public sector and four percent were entrepreneurs or freelancers.

As much as three out of four doctoral graduates worked as experts. Half worked in research, one fourth in development and planning duties. 10 percent worked primarily in management and supervision duties.

63 percent of the respondents felt that their work duties had more become demanding with their doctoral degree and 68 percent felt that their degree had given them more meaningful work.

Skills learned during doctoral education are valuable in working life

The respondents felt that they could utilize the skills they learned during their doctoral studies in their work and that the difficulty of their work matched their doctoral degree. They listed analytical and systematic thinking skills, problem-solving skills and ability to learn and adopt new information as the most important abilities in their current job position. The most important skills for work that developed during the doctoral studies were analytical and systematic thinking skills together with knowledge and skills related to the research area.

The most important factors impacting their employment after graduation were the ability to tell about their skills and competences, and the degrees they have completed.

To explore detailed results of doctoral career tracking, go to the Finnish education administration's reporting portal Vipunen https://vipunen.fi/fi-fi/yliopisto/Sivut/Uraseuranta.aspx (in Finnish). 

More information on doctoral career tracking

Tiina Kotti
[email protected]

Minna Söderqvist
[email protected]