We are in a recession now, so basically it would seem planning the PhD and the career is in itself almost a thesis or computational strategy project.

Im interested in the stories here of the strategies employed by people who have made a good transition from PhD to the kind of work they specifically wanted to do, and not those who just did the PhD without such planning and just did well anyway.

Just how in depth did you go to scope out the future territory, and did you base your PhD plan to a large degree on where you thought the work action was going to be after you completed ? basically you have to try and make up to 5 year prediction of whats going to happen in the world the time you finish right ?

I presume this involved making realistic assessments of yourself, the kind of things you know you cannot do, and cannot do well, and the situations ?

Networking well in advance to predict the future etc ? Or What other lengths did you go to ? Perhaps making flowcharts and maps of all kinds of outcomes, with variables that could be altered with market conditions, Plan A,B,C,D etc ?

I think perhaps you are over analysing/complicating the problem. Yes you should plan ahead - I knew I enjoyed my subject and although a PhD would equip me with the tools to succeed, it wasn't the be all and end all for getting a job that I enjoyed. I chose a PhD with industrial experience because outside of the academic setting experience in a business goes a long way. Apart from that I think you shouldn't plan too much because the world is constantly changing - maybe your dream job will not be there or that market saturated by the time you apply.

of course networking etc will help you immensely but I believe no amount of flowcharts, mathematical equations will help (just my opinion).

I think if you want certainty, the best advice is not to do a PhD! The research process is not so forecastable that you can plan for things to happen as you wanted....And unfortunately whatever looks like the hot thing now almost certainly won't be in four years time.

I am what you would describe as a success story but one of the ones from whom you don't want to hear. PhD finished in just over three years, straight into a 2 year postdoc and then into a permanent lectureship. Frankly, the only lesson I can offer is never to underestimate good luck. I had colleagues during the PhD who did everything right, just like I did, they networked, presented, published, did secondments etc and are unemployed. Am I better than them - no I really can't say I am. If anything I was less organised but I was lucky. The only thing that I can think of that I had as an extra skill, which might have helped with my postdoc grant application was five years previous employment as a fast stream civil servant, which taught me how to write persuasively.

More seriously, educate yourself about the realities of the job market in your field, keep your mind open on what careers you would like to go into (note careers - in this day and age a sole focus on academia is a recipe for disappointment in my opinion) and try to keep as many options open as you can. Make use of the training offered by the university and if you can go on a GRADschool session, do (look at vitae.ac.uk for details).