Research institutions should provide broader career guidance to their PhD students, and students should proactively assess their skills and options, according to a report by the Royal Society, an influential group of scientists based in London. “Students must not be regarded as mere 'bench monkeys', but nor should they themselves be passive in seeking out what they need,” wrote Athene Donald, who chaired the group that put together the report, in an accompanying opinion piece.

The Royal Society is certainly not the first science organization to highlight the grim chances of newly minted graduates and postdocs finding faculty positions in scientific research and to call for universities to provide better career preparation (see Nature 516, 7–8; 2014). A report from the US National Academies in Washington DC, for example, says that postdoctoral positions, often seen as the default step after a PhD programme, do not always help researchers to advance their careers, and that research institutions should inform PhD students that other types of work experience may be more beneficial (see go.nature.com/cxli6t).

Donald, a theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge, says that the report, entitled Doctoral Students' Career Expectations: Principles and Responsibilities, aims to raise awareness of viable career options among students and their supervisors, and to bolster efforts by university career-guidance offices. Improving career awareness may require students and schools to arrange mentorships beyond a trainee's lab, department or institution. And PhD advisers should not imply that a future in academia is the only desirable career path (see go.nature.com/h9872d).

Lack of information is a serious issue, but merely highlighting careers beyond academia may not do much to help people to find optimal positions, says Sally Hancock, a higher-education researcher at the University of York, UK, who studied science PhD students at Imperial College London. Those who had been exposed only to academic research were likely to be purists who saw their programme as “a zero-sum game in which the objective is to achieve an academic position”. Those who had already worked outside academia were more likely to view non-academic options favourably, be proactive about exploring other choices and feel less stigma about pursuing them. PhD programmes might serve students best by incorporating work outside the university, she says: “Experience is imperative.”