TRaCE McGill is a university-wide project that tracks the career outcomes and pathways of McGill PhD alumni who graduated between 2008 and 2018.
Stages
Stage 1: Survey of PhD Graduates, Summer 2019
PhDs who graduated between 2008 and 2018 were invited to complete a survey that focused on where they are now and what they are doing in their careers. All responses to the survey are kept confidential and are reported only in anonymized, aggregate form.
Stage 2: Data-gathering from the Web, Fall 2019
TRaCE McGill student researchers worked to complete the statistical picture of PhD career outcomes by searching publicly accessible websites. Access our findings for Stages 1 and 2.
Stage 3: Interviewing the Grads and Sharing their Stories, February 2020-April 2021
Student researchers reached out to grads from their Faculties to invite them to share their stories with the McGill community. With the consent of the interviewee, interviews were recorded. Selections from the interviews were transcribed, edited for length, approved by the grad for publication, and posted on the TRaCE McGill website. Browse our archive of narratives to hear grads reflect on graduate school, their career paths, and their advice to current students.
Stage 4: Bringing the Grads back to McGill, October 2020-ongoing
TRaCE McGill has brought back PhD grads from across faculties and career paths as speakers and mentors. TRaCE McGill’s Career Pathways for PhDs event series partnered with graduate student associations and PGSS to offer events which showcase for in-program graduate students the multiple career pathways available to PhDs after graduation.
In 2023-2024, the TRaCE Talks, organized by Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, invited McGill PhD alumni working in non-academic careers to share their experiences with the McGill community in a series of 8 career panels.
Background
TRaCE McGill built on two McGill-led national projects—the TRaCE pilot (2015-2016) and TRaCE 2.0 (2017-2019). The first focused on humanities graduates; the second tracked PhDs (and DMus and MFA grads) in the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts. The pilot tracked 2,800 humanities PhD grads from across Canada and interviewed 300 graduates. TRaCE 2.0 tracked 1,400 grads from across the country and conducted interviews with 150. The interviews have provided the basis for a large archive of stories about PhD grads’ educational and professional careers. The two preliminary projects have been featured in national publications and have enabled the TRaCE team to develop and fine-tune its methodology.