Career prospects of engineering and architecture doctorate holders in Catalonia

Abstract

The decision to pursue a doctorate is not an easy one. While the duration and intensity of the effort required to achieve it can be reasonably conceived, the professional benefits that may be achieved are difficult to determine beforehand, as they depend on the employment opportunities of the future doctoral degree holders. This paper seeks to illustrate current job prospects in Catalonia for doctorate holders in the areas of industrial technologies, ICTs, architecture, construction, and civil engineering. Based on the surveys on access to the labour market for doctors carried out by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU Catalunya), for each of the three areas we delve into the workplace of doctoral degree holders, the reasons why a doctorate is needed to access it and to perform the associated tasks, the degree of satisfaction of doctorate holders with their studies and position, and the evaluation of their decision to take a doctorate. The information presented here may be useful for graduates who consider taking a doctorate in the above- mentioned areas. It may also be of interest to doctoral program managers, allowing them to prioritize the orientation of research in their programs and to better define the contents of the associated training.

Keywords: doctorate, career prospects, industrial engineering, ICTs, architecture and civil engineering.