Career aspirations and trajectories of geographies of health and health care graduates: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Despite the diverse academic training of health geographers and their capacity to think spatially and temporally when focusing on complexities of people's health in changing environments, career‐related concerns have been raised due to the dearth of academic jobs in the sub‐discipline. Given these concerns, an understanding of the career aspirations and trajectories of health geography graduates, as well as their experiences within and outside academia, has the potential to inform the progression and evolution of the sub‐discipline. This cross‐sectional study of members of the Geography of Health and Health Care Specialty Group of the Canadian Association of Geographers (n = 56) found that acquiring academic work remains the desired career goal for many geography graduates. While a majority of participants aspired to work in academia, some participants reported insecurity in obtaining academic jobs, and precarity in this trajectory. Although belonging to the specialty group has contributed positively to the experiences of graduates in providing network opportunities and job positions, there were calls for critical engagement of the group in mentorship, networking, and increasing exposure to careers outside of academia to help inform the future direction and the inter‐relationship of academics within the sub‐discipline of health geography.