A Dialogic Synthesis of the Career Development

Abstract

With an increase in precarity globally, there is a need to emphasize proactive self-management of the PhD process for international doctoral students. They may better manage their PhD training journeys if approached as a quest for life career construction. This chapter contributes to research that situates PhD training experience in self-construction of career. The author highlights the self-work that international doctoral students undertake as they construct life careers through a PhD process. She concludes that international doctoral students begin to design their careers from the PhD application process and continue throughout the space and span of the training. She recommends that the counseling field explore different ways to use self and career design approaches to develop self-management orientation resources for international doctoral students.