Early-career Opportunities in Academia: Creating Supportive Systems for Academic and Non-Academic Paths

Universities are adapting to the competitive need for external funding and the global academic market, but career systems lag. Supporting postdocs without a tenure track is vital, as they are vulnerable in a system overloaded with aspiring academics. Transforming academia into a career-supportive system will not only facilitate a flow of talent into the broader knowledge ecosystem but also revolutionize how we think about academic careers. This study presents results from a career intervention at Aalborg University, where 33 early-career academics explored career strategies and opportunities in academia and beyond. It introduces a transformative, organization-based framework for career thinking, clarifying the career diversity already present today. The study practically demonstrates how to implement change in the academic career system. It shows that empowering early-career academics can lead to profound changes in their mindset and abilities, paving the way for rethinking an academic career-supportive system for knowledge production with minimal adjustments.