Researchers have shown that the pursuit of doctoral studies is often related to the desire to become an academic, despite the constrained academic labour markets and changing (or deteriorating, as some have argued) academic working conditions (AWC) worldwide. In this study, we assessed the extent to which Chinese PhD students were aware of the changes taking place in the academic profession and, if so, whether this awareness influenced their career choices. We conducted a narrative inquiry involving 29 mainland Chinese PhD students and graduates in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to elicit their perceptions of AWC in their main academic labour market in mainland China and how these perceptions may have informed their career intentions. We found that perceptions of unfavourable AWC tended to dissuade the PhD students from pursuing a career in academia, but not always in the same way. This finding led us to conceptually identify four decision-making types based on the PhD students' motivations for achievement and desire for autonomy: the materialist, academic striver, undecided and comfort seeker. We found that all of the PhD students were primarily concerned about the ruthless tenure-track system and excessive competition, especially the comfort seekers (i.e. with high and low motivations for autonomy and achievement, respectively). Most of the PhD students also perceived "guanxi," hierarchical academic communities, the segmented academic labour market and low remuneration as major drawbacks for seeking an academic career, particularly the materialists (i.e. with high and low motivations for achievement and autonomy, respectively).