Doing a "postdoc" following a doctorate is becoming more and more common worldwide as the pre-tenure job market continues shrinking in relation to the number of PhD graduates. Yet, behind statistics and descriptions of collective experience, how individuals experience the postdoctoral period is largely unknown, especially how they use…

What are the motivations, needs and interests of academics entering mid-career? To answer this question, we drew on data from our longitudinal research program to examine the career trajectories of thirteen social scientists and scientists, five or more years post-PhD, in research-teaching positions. We used an identity framework to understand how…