Crossing disciplinary boundaries: Interdisciplinary doctorates, field-of-study mismatch, and job satisfaction

This study bridges research on interdisciplinary research and field-of-study mismatch to examine how interdisciplinary doctoral training is associated with early-career job satisfaction, and whether this association varies by field-of-study mismatch. Using linked data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, I analyze U.S.-employed science and engineering doctorate recipients who earned their first doctoral degree from U.S. institutions between 2010 and 2017. Doctorate recipients with interdisciplinary dissertations (hereafter, interdisciplinary doctorates) report lower overall job satisfaction than mono-disciplinary peers and are more likely to work in occupations outside their primary doctoral field (field-of-study mismatch). Field-of-study mismatch moderates the association between interdisciplinary doctorates and job satisfaction: the job-satisfaction gap between interdisciplinary doctorates and mono-disciplinary peers is smaller among those in mismatched jobs than among those in matched jobs. Working outside one's primary doctoral field is not uniformly associated with worse outcomes and may be linked to higher job satisfaction among some doctorate recipients, particularly interdisciplinary doctorates. These findings suggest that universities and institutions promoting interdisciplinarity should also strengthen interdisciplinary career advising, and that doctorate recipients with interdisciplinary dissertation research may benefit from exploring a wider set of career opportunities beyond their primary field.