Employment opportunities and career plan

The PhD, the highest degree awarded in France and internationally, opens the door to a wide variety of employment opportunities and provides great potential for career development.

The key sectors for PhD holders are:

Large corporations, midcaps and SMEs
(especially R&D departments)

Start-ups
(Whether already existing or founded by recent PhD graduates in association with other young entrepreneurs)

Academic research and higher education

International positions
most often in one of the above areas

 

In addition, the recognition of PhD graduates’ extensive expertise and potential may lead them, more or less quickly, to positions that capitalize on their « inside » knowledge of the research and innovation sector such as:

  • Consulting and advisory firms
  • Patent offices
  • Executive positions in large companies, scientific and technical management

Preparing a career plan

It is essential for PhD students to consider what they will do after obtaining their PhD before they begin their study, and to consolidate their career plans as they get closer to their thesis defense.

Télécom Paris seeks not only to produce high-level research drawing on major contributions from young researchers, but also to ensure that their future lives up to the ambitions associated with their choice to complete a PhD. Students are prepared for their professional careers through cross-disciplinary training that the school has developed over a number of years. This training aims to:

  • Provide students with knowledge they may lack such as corporate culture or a project-based approach.
  • Strengthen interpersonal skills by having students identify their own strengths and areas for improvement, determine ways to build skills they lack and work on soft skills, which are increasingly seen as important across all levels of the professional sphere
  • Develop an appropriate professional network which can act as a major catalyst in seeking a job that meets students’ desired criteria

Contacts

  • Marianna BazizDoctoral professional integration officerTélécom Parisemailemail
  • François RoueffDirector of doctoral educationTélécom Parisemailemail