Navigating the hidden academic job market: a descriptive phenomenology of racial and ethnic minority STEM scholars in a structured train-and-retain postdoctoral program

Wendy Y. Carter‐Veale, Fadel E. Ugarte Paguaga, Jennifer Aumiller, Blessing Enekwe

Introduction This descriptive phenomenological study examines how racialized ethnic minority (REM) scholars experienced the academic job search while pursuing tenure-track faculty careers in the biomedical sciences. Previous research has documented disparities in faculty representation, relational hiring practices, and the increasing centrality of postdoctoral training within academic career pathways. However, less attention has focused on how scholars navigate structured programs towards faculty diversification. Within an ecosystem framing, the National Science Foundation AGEP PROMISE Academy Alliance (APAA) is understood as the broader faculty diversification ecosystem within a state university system, while the PROMISE Academy fellowship is the embedded train-and-retain (T-RT) postdoctoral-to-faculty pathway through which REM scholars discovered and evaluated a pathway into faculty careers. Methods Drawing on interviews with 11 PROMISE Academy biomedical postdoctoral scholars, this study explores how participants navigated faculty job searches and interpreted T-RT opportunities within informal academic hiring systems. Participants entered the T-RT program from multiple career stages across the five participating institutions. Results Participants described faculty pathway discovery as a network-dependent process shaped by mentoring relationships, sponsorship, professional networks, institutional conditions, and family considerations. Faculty pathways emerged through informal channels rather than through centralized-transparent hiring systems. Differences in guidance influenced how participants understood opportunities and assessed institutional fit. Cohorts entering between 2019 and 2023 navigated job searches at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating uncertainty about faculty hiring, geographic mobility, and long-term career stability. Discussion Rather than approaching postdoctoral appointments as a sequential career stage, participants described evaluating opportunities in relation to long-term faculty aspirations, institutional support, geographic stability, and family responsibilities. Perceptions of mentorship quality, institutional climate, and the likelihood of transitioning into faculty roles influenced their decisions to enroll in the APAA program. By centering participants' descriptions, this study contributes insight into REM scholars' experiences of faculty pathway discovery within a T-RT pathway.