TRAMES, 2018, 22(72/67), 2, 105–123 CAREER PATTERNS OF DOCTORAL GRADUATES: EVIDENCE FROM ESTONIA Eneli Kindsiko and Maaja Vadi University of Tartu Abstract. Considering the resources that countries invest in training people at doctorate level we can easily claim that PhDs are among the most invested ‘brains’ in each country. Yet what is missing from the discussion is what happens with their career after they gain their PhD. Based on two studies we reveal the job-related movements (career) of PhDs from Estonia. The results signpost a great share of heterogeneity across research fields – a diversity that has considerable effect on how universities can manage their academic workforce and their career, but also, factors that shape movements between the academic and non-academic labour market. Keywords: career, PhD, university, academic, career tracking, academia, labour market DOI: https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2018.2.01 1. Introduction The number of studies that have looked at the career of PhDs in post-Soviet countries is limited. This article seeks to fill that gap. There is a large share of non- English countries, like those that regained their independence after the fall of the Soviet Union around the beginning of the 1990s. These countries had to rebuild and restructure, and even open many new academic fields. Therefore, how individuals that were connected to universities around that time literally established the basis for new faculties and research fields in general is a common experience for many in those countries. Today, these people are close to retirement. As noted by Enders and Musselin, “a greying of the academic profession” is happening to many countries around the world (2008:130). Within the next decade or so, the academic systems in the abovementioned countries will go through a remarkable transformation that greatly highlights the issue of whether there are enough academic offspring. Furthermore, non-English countries face another challenge – the obligation to provide higher education (at least to some degree) in their native language. This