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Opportunity by Association –Career strategies for international graduates

(Potential post-doctoral support clusters) David E. Forbes

Presentation to Enterprise Unit 4 Postgraduate Researchers Curtin University School of Information Systems

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Background, Sequence & Limitations

• Employment Scenario

• Innovative Teaming Strategies

• Discussion

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Loners v Team Players

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

African Proverb

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Employer Perspectives

Effective communication skills were reported by the largest proportion of employers in each sector* as being within ‘the five most important attributes/skills for recent PhD graduates employed in their organisation’ *(Private = 73%, Public = 51%, University = 56%).

RACHAEL PITT Australian Employers’ Expectations and Perceptions of PhD Graduates in the Workplace La Trobe University Australia April 2012 http://qpr.edu.au/2012/expectations_and_perceptions_of_phd_graduates_in_the_workplace.pdf

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Employers - continued

• Employers also reported that they do not want to hire PhD graduates whose focus is overly specialised, or who are lacking industry focus, teamwork, or communication skills.

RACHAEL PITT Australian Employers’ Expectations and Perceptions of PhD Graduates in the Workplace La Trobe University Australia

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Migration and Productivity 2009 Study Report findings

• World class physicists, born in 32 different countries • Studied for their first degree in 30 different countries • Did PhDs in 22 countries • Are presently located in only 16 countries • The data show a kind of ‘funnelling’ effect of approximately

50% from birth: people from 32 nations now reside in half that number • The percentage of physicists present in each country shows a gradual

funnelling effect towards the US

R. S. Hunter, A. J. Oswald, and B. G. Charlton, "The Elite Brain Drain*," The Economic Journal, vol. 119, pp. F231-F251, 2009. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02274.x/pdf

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US job prospects for young science PhDs. Graph taken from The PhD Bust: America's Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts’ Jordan Weissmann Feb 20 2013

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/

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US Doctoral Salarieshttp://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/digest/2011/theme5.cfm

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Mobility• Data collected from 17,182 respondents using a web-based survey of

corresponding authors in 16 countries in four fields during 2011 • Switzerland has the largest percent of immigrant scientists working in country

(56.7); Canada, and Australia trail by nine or more percent; the U.S. and Sweden by approximately eighteen percent. India has the lowest (0.8), followed closely by Italy and Japan

• Currently, approximately 48 percent of all PhDs awarded in the United States go

to those who are either temporary or permanent residents. Almost 60 percent of all postdocs working in the United States are on a temporary visa

C. Franzoni, G. Scellato, P. StephanFOREIGN BORN SCIENTISTS: MOBILITY PATTERNS FOR SIXTEEN COUNTRIES Working Paper 18067 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 May 2012 http://www.nber.org/papers/w18067

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The Changing PhD March 2013

Executive Summary - extractOne measure of the global success of the PhD is the number of research doctorates produced each year: US universities awarded 49,010 in 2011, Australian universities 6,780. Many countries have targets to increase the production of PhDs. India aims to graduate 20,000 a year by 2020.

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The Changing PhD March 2013

Executive Summary – extract (2)A major theme running through all recent reforms in all countries is the need to focus on student outcomes, not just on the research that they produce. Among other things, this has involved recognising the diversity of employment trajectories that a PhD can follow and the need to prepare students for these in ways that will enable them to exploit their full potential.

The Changing PhD, Group of Eight, Level 2, 101 Northbourne Ave, Turner, 2612 PO Box 6229, O'Connor, 2602 ACT Australia

www.go8.edu.au/__documents/go8-policy.../the-changing-phd_final.pdf

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The Changing PhD March 2013

Attachment 1Potential attributes of PhD graduates

• Disciplinary knowledge• Research skills• Technical skills and knowledge• Contribution to knowledge• Generic skills

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Global employment trends 2013 Global employment trends 2013: Recovering from a second jobs dip / International Labour

Office. Geneva: ILO, 2013 (172 pages)

Unemployment is on the rise again, as job creation slows across most regionsThe rise in estimated global unemployment by 4.2 million in 2012 is one of the largest increases since the early 2000s, excluding the immediate crisis years (see Figure 7). Reaching 197.3 million jobseekers in 2012, the number of unemployed is expected to rise further by about 5.1 million in 2013 and by 2.9 million in 2014

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Global employment trends 2013

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Global employment trends 2013

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Global employment trends 2013

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Global employment trends 2013

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Implications of the Chaney Report for the Labour Market Outcomes for International Students*

The Australian labour market is softening with the end of the mineral industries investment boom. This report shows that most overseas student graduates from Non-English-Speaking-Backgrounds are already struggling to find professional level employment. *Report calls for remedial actions.

http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/cpur/files/2013/06/Chaney-report-recommendation.pdf

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The Dirty Secrets of Agency Recruitment

Agencies involved in publishing fake job advertisements include:

• Otherwise ‘legitimate’ well known recruiters and

• the broader scamming (criminal fraud) industry – especially online ‘agents’

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Dirty Secrets …just a few examples

• Better Business Bureau – Fake Employment Agency Fools Job Hunters with Scam Calls • April 5, 2013 • See more at:

http://www.bbb.org/blog/2013/04/fake-employment-agency-fools-job-hunters-with-scam-calls/#sthash.TZP6YmyR.dpufv

• • Former recruitment agent spills details on what really goes on in the industry• November 14, 2013• http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/former-recruitment-agent-spills-details-on-what-really-goes

-on-in-the-industry/story-e6frfm9r-1226759720120

• • Are ‘Phishing’ Scammers Shifting En Masse To Recruiting: How Deep? How Widespread?• Matt Charney on November 8, 2013 • Featured Guest Post by Gerry Crispin http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/online-job-scams • • Bechtel warns of cash for job scam • 15 November, 2013 Vicky Validakis

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/bechtel-warns-of-cash-for-job-scam

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Dirty Secrets …more warnings

• I fell for a Craigslist job scam Mar 1, 2012 • I wish I'd seen the red flags, but unemployment made me desperate enough to

take a risk I now regret• http://www.salon.com/2012/03/01/i_fell_for_a_craigslist_job_scam/print • • How To Identify and Avoid FAKE Employment Agencies and Adverts -

Jobs/Vacancies - Nairaland• http://www.nairaland.com/969314/how-identify-avoid-fake-employment• • Career Advice – How To Recognize Fake Job Ads• by Phil Rosenberg

http://www.recareered.com/blog/2011/01/28/career-advice-how-to-recognize-fake-job-ads/

Note: These are a tiny sample - the tip of a very large iceberg of deceit

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More Positively –What can we do?

A Starting Point

From: ‘The Start-up of You’ by Reid Hoffman (co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn) and Ben Casnocha. Silicon Valley entrepreneur and blogger:

• “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re

playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” • “If you want to build a strong network that will help you move

ahead in your career, it’s vital to first take stock of the connections you already have.”

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Opportunity drivers from postgraduate peer support clusters

Synergy Empathy Teaming Lag time (data shelf-life) mitigation Active (not passive) networking Purposeful

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Patterns of Contact andCommunication in Scientific Collaboration

Kraut, R. E., Egido, C., Galegher, J. (1988).. In: Proceedings of theConference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW’88), pp.1-12. (Cited in: Informal

Communication and Awareness in Virtual Teams - Why We Need Smart Technologies to Support Distributed Teamwork

Carsten Röcker Human Technology Centre (HumTec), RWTH Aachen UniversityTheaterplatz 14, 52056 Aachen, Germany)

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Effective Human Communications

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The Three Forms of Networking

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Acculturation

The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of contact with a different culture. (Free Dictionary)

Question – In the career search is it time for a new, richer, shared form of acculturation? How might we use human-machine communications systems to this end?

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Selected readings on Acculturation

• Not All International Students Are the Same• http://wenr.wes.org/2012/08/wenr-feature-2012-not-all-international-students-are-the-same/• • Real Jobs: Employment for Migrants and Refugees in Australia• http://eccv.org.au/library/doc/ECCVDiscussionPaper3-RealJobs.pdf• • SER Knowledge Café with international students• Foreign talent is encountering obstacles• http://www.ser.nl/en/publications/news/20130329-foreign-talent-is-encountering-obstacles.aspx• • An Investigation into the Acculturation Strategies Of Chinese Students in Germany• http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2011v20n2/15WeihuaYuShuWang.pdf• • Exploring the acculturation of Taiwanese students in an Australian University: English self confidence, wellbeing and ‐

friendships• http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/88122/11.-Alina-Sullivan---Acculturation-of-Taiwanese-students-in-an-Au

st-uni.pdf• • Smith, Rachel & Khawaja, Nigar (2011) A review of the acculturation experiences of international students. International Journal

of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), pp. 699-713.• http://eprints.qut.edu.au/46481/1/46481A.pdf • • Rethinking the Concept of Acculturation: Implications for Theory and Research• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3700543/pdf/nihms481011.pdf

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Intuition and the Scientist

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.

— Albert EinsteinCosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931)

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The EU4 Cluster Engine PotentialPeer group career opportunity by association map

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www.qoledge.com

Acculturation support service launch due in 2014

International connections

Service specifically designed for postgraduates

Interested in this ongoing development? Contact: David Forbes -few.edge@gmail.com