• PhD Student Tales Post-PhD Outcomes & Salary Survey

    What happens after the PhD, and what does it pay? PhD Student Tales (@PhDStudentTales on X, Hopeful Ph.D Student on Substack) is building a free, crowdsourced database of post-PhD careers and salaries. It goes alongside our stipend database so current and future PhD students can see where a PhD leads.

    Takes about 3–4 minutes.

    Your privacy:
    - This survey is anonymous. We do not collect names, email addresses, employer names, or sign-ins.
    - Salary and location questions use broad ranges, so no single answer pins down a person or job.
    - We only publish aggregate results (ranges, medians, charts). We never publish individual responses.
    - We only report a group (for example, field + sector + region) once it has at least 5 responses. Smaller groups get merged into broader categories or left out.
    - Please don't put identifying details (names, employers, labs, advisors) in free-text answers. If you do, we'll remove them before analysis.
    - Limitations: this is a self-selected, self-reported sample, not a random one. Results show what respondents told us and may not represent every field or country.

  • Your PhD

  • Your current role

  • Current sector*
  • Seniority*
  • Work arrangement*

  • Pay

  • Annual base salary before taxes (USD equivalent)*
  • Annual bonus and/or equity

  • Getting there

  • How long after finishing your PhD did you start your first job?*
  • Was a PhD required for your current role?*
  • Knowing what you know now, would you do the PhD again?*
  • Should be Empty: