Doctoral education
Everything there is to know about doctoral education for doctoral students, supervising professors and thesis advisors.
Doctoral graduates of Aalto University in working life
Doctoral graduates of Aalto University are satisfied with their careers and degree. We follow our doctors' careers in a survey that is conducted three years after graduation.
Below are results of the survey conducted in late 2024 for doctoral alumni who graduated in 2021. The response rate at Aalto University was 43 %.
Majority of doctorates in expert positions
On average, respondents were satisfied with the career opportunities provided by obtaining a doctoral degree. This was also reflected by the fact that three-quarters of the respondents were not unemployed job seekers after earning their doctoral degree. Over half of the respondents were employed in a company, and a quarter were working at a university. About ten percent of the respondents worked in the public sector, and less than five percent were entrepreneurs.
Three out of four doctoral graduates worked in expert roles, while 28% worked in research work and a quarter in design and development. One-tenth of the respondents worked in management and supervisory positions.
Doctoral graduates are generally satisfied with the career opportunities
Nearly 70 percent of the respondents reported that their job responsibilities had become more demanding due to their degree, and 63 percent said that the doctoral degree had provided them with more meaningful work assignments. Half of the respondents felt that their doctoral training had given them a better status both at their workplace and in the labour market. On average, respondents assessed that they have been able to effectively utilise the knowledge gained from their doctoral education in their current work. Respondents identified the ability to learn and adopt new information, problem-solving skills, and analytical and systematic thinking skills as the most important attributes in their current roles. Respondents felt that the importance of thinking and knowledge-integration skills as well as social and self-regulation skills will increase over the next five years. In contrast, they felt that the significance of language and cultural skills would remain relatively unchanged.
To explore detailed results of doctoral career monitoring, go to the Finnish education administration's reporting portal (in Finnish).
More information on doctoral career tracking
Kitta Peura
kitta.peura@aalto.fi
Minna Söderqvist
minna.soderqvist@aalto.fi
See also
Doctoral programmes
Our six doctoral programmes offer high quality doctoral education within a multidisciplinary international research community. They prepare doctoral students for demanding academic careers and experts positions, and for working as entrepreneurs or independent artists.
Doctoral page index
Index of all aalto.fi pages about doctoral education