"Last year, Nature’s careers team spoke to five recent PhD students in North America, Israel and the United Kingdom to understand how disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, had affected their career plans. At the time, these students expressed anxiety about their prospects as they prepared to enter the job market — citing concerns around substantial cuts to US scientific funding, the war in Gaza and lingering delays to PhD projects caused by the pandemic — but also a strong desire to remain in science."