As DiveIn CDT prepares to welcome its second cohort, we caught up with Dr Stuart Grey, founder of Student Voice, to discuss career trends beyond the PhD, the skills that matter most in today’s landscape, and the value that industry partners can bring to doctoral research.

What are the biggest trends you’re seeing in where people go after their PhDs?

Stuart believes the traditional view of a PhD leading directly into a single long-term career is becoming less common.

“Historically, PhD researchers often moved into long, stable careers in academia or industrial research. Now, I think the expectation is that people will have much more variety throughout their careers.”

Rather than focusing solely on deep specialisation, Stuart encourages doctoral researchers to use their PhD as an opportunity to develop transferable skills that can open multiple career paths.

“Have that technical depth, but also build the wider skills that allow you to do lots of different things.”

He points to DiveIn CDT’s multidisciplinary structure as a key advantage, giving students experience of working across disciplines, communicating with different stakeholders, and bridging academic and industry perspectives. These are capabilities that are increasingly valuable across sectors.

What skills should PhD students be developing now?

Alongside the familiar skills of communication and organisation, Stuart highlights what he calls a “bias for action.”

“You can spend your life doing literature reviews and finding interesting problems. At some point, you’ve got to start doing something.”

His advice is to begin building, testing and experimenting as early as possible.

“You learn ten times more doing something in your domain than you do reading about it.”

He also emphasises the growing importance of understanding AI, not just how to use it, but how to evaluate it critically.

“For PhD graduates, it’s not just about using AI. It’s knowing when to trust it, when not to trust it, and having the expertise to recognise when it’s giving you the wrong answer.”

According to Stuart, deep subject knowledge remains essential because it is what allows researchers to evaluate AI outputs rigorously and responsibly.

What advice would you give students thinking beyond academia?

For students exploring careers beyond a traditional academic pathway, Stuart’s advice is simple:

“Optimise for learning rather than anything else.”

He encourages researchers to be open to opportunities that may not fit neatly into a predefined career plan.

“You don’t need a coherent story of your career. Mine’s been all over the place, but you learn skills everywhere and can apply them in different contexts.”

Having moved from engineering consultancy, to a PhD in orbital mechanics, and now into educational technology and natural language processing, Stuart is a strong advocate for following interesting opportunities rather than rigid career plans.

His most important message for doctoral researchers is not to feel constrained by their thesis topic.

“If there was one thing I could stamp on every PhD student’s desk, it’d be this: you don’t have to have a career in what your PhD is on.”

The analytical, problem-solving and project-management skills developed during a doctorate can translate into a wide range of industries and disciplines.

What can Student Voice’s sector-wide perspective tell us?

Having analysed millions of student comments from universities across the UK, Student Voice has a unique view of the higher education landscape.

Interestingly, Stuart says that while large-scale trends are valuable, some of the richest insights still come from individual student experiences.

“The really rich stuff is diving back into the raw material and reading the actual comments.”

One recurring theme across postgraduate researchers is the importance of communication, community and research culture.

“Good communication with supervisors, raising issues early, and feeling part of a research community come up again and again.”

For DiveIn CDT students specifically, Stuart sees the cohort model as one of the programme’s greatest strengths.

“Students aren’t in competition with each other. Making the most of that community, learning from each other and drawing on different perspectives helps everyone.”

How does Student Voice add value to the DiveIn CDT community?

As an industry partner, Student Voice offers a perspective that complements academic supervision.

“What I can bring is the real industrial experience. Not just what’s in the literature, but what people actually do to solve problems.”

Stuart believes students benefit from understanding how AI tools and research techniques are used in practice, including which approaches are effective, efficient and genuinely useful outside academia.

“You need that balance between academic rigour and actual utility. How do you solve the real problem?”

He also notes that industry partners can provide alternative viewpoints that help students think about both technical challenges and wider career opportunities.

Looking back on DiveIn CDT’s first year, Stuart says he’s been impressed by both the students and the programme itself.

“I can’t believe how far the students have come in such a short period of time. The first cohort has really shown how successful the model can be, and I’m looking forward to welcoming future cohorts.”

Student Voice is a DiveIn CDT industry partner specialising in AI-powered analysis of student feedback, helping universities better understand and respond to student experiences.