Q&A: Going into scientific publishing after the PhD

Q&A time! Some time ago, I received the following question from a reader (edited for Anonimity):

Dear Eva,

I really like your blog. As a PhD student who doesn't want to stay in Academia, some of your articles are really helpful for me.

I'm currently finishing up my PhD, I have about 3-4 months left and for the last couple of years I've been considering into going scientific editing and/or publishing after my PhD. People always ask me to check their papers and thesis, I have an eye for detail and good at getting the message across, but I also actually really enjoy it.

Since I was born and raised in City X, I always considered going back and working for Publisher Y. However, I've started to realise that to become an editor, I have to stay in academia, and on the other hand as a publisher I'm not sure if I'll like the managing part of it. I'm also worried about career development and pay. I'm not sure if people in this field earn good money.

My other option is to go into R&D in industry. I'm still thinking about both options.

Do you have any advice or information about this for me? I would really appreciate it. I'm a little at lost here as you can imagine, about life after the PhD.

I hope to hear from you.

Best Regards

Here's my answer:

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reaching out to me through my blog and sending me your question.

I must say that I don't have experience with scientific editing and publishing. I volunteer as an academic editor for a journal, but I don't really know what work looks like "on the other side" - the professional part of publishing. If you are interested in this option though, I would recommend you to look in your network for somebody who can introduce you to an editor/publisher. You can also ask your advisor for help with this. You can also look on Twitter for the #altac hashtag and chat for people who've taken this career path.

With regard to industry and R&D, that certainly is a valid option after the PhD, and quite a popular choice.

If you find it hard to make a choice, you can ask for help in the career center of your university. Through an appointment with a career counselor you can get insight in your strengths, and how your different possible career options are more or less suited to your personality and strengths.

For what it's worth, I also recommed you to do a search on the "after the PhD" tag on PhD Talk, to read the posts from guest authors and myself about their careers after the PhD.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Eva

Career paths post-PhD

I recently ran a poll on Twitter to learn more about the most common career paths after the PhD. While three of the options that I listed are perhaps the textbook options (postdoc, assistant prof - directly assistant prof - postdoc, industry), I learned that there are a variety of options out there. As a result, 1/3rd of all correspondents selected the "other" option. Some clicked on other because they just wanted to see the results, but the majority explained the different career path they followed. I also learned that in the humanities, postdocs are much less common.

Here you can find the wake of this poll:

The post-PhD blues

I've mentioned it before, but after defending my PhD, I felt sad and experienced some "withdrawal" symptoms after being very focused on my PhD. The first paper I wrote after defending came together very slowly. I defended in June, still had until September on my PhD contract (but no project defined yet at that point), didn't know if I'd be able to remain working for TU Delft (and fretted about it, a lot), and would only start my new job in November in Ecuador (and could pretty much do any research I wanted there, which was scary as well).

I wanted to know if my experience is in line with others, so I ran a poll. You can see the wake of this poll and the results here:

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Drawing your roadmap for life after the PhD

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

A topic that we've discussed a number of times on this blog is "life after the PhD." We have discussed career options after the PhD, I've given advice on what a reader should do after the PhD, moving around the world for your career after the PhD, working as a scholar in the gulf region, the job interview, the benefit of your academic skills for future employers, how to frame your mind for a job after the PhD, how to find a job outside of academia, how to plan an academic career, and how to figure out which career path may be good for you.

Today, I am showing you a possible roadmap on how to prepare yourself for your career after your PhD. This roadmap is not set in stone, of course. It is a collection of ideas and questions to help you frame your mind. If early on during your PhD, you feel like you'd like to stay in academia, that doesn't mean that your decision is made and that you can't change your mind. Thinking about your next steps, and exploring options is a better way to prepare yourself than writing your thesis and then waiting for a job to magically be offered to you.

1,5 years into your PhD

It's never too early to start thinking about what you'd like to do after your PhD. After 1,5 years in your program, you probably have a good impression of what working in academia means, and what type of (strange?) beast the academic is. You don't have to decide on anything yet, but you can start thinking about your options after your PhD, and make some choices based on your interests. If you are interested in the industry, plan to attend career fairs in the future to learn about possible employers, and visit the exhibition hall at conferences.

When you start to think about your options, think about what would work for you and your family. Would it work for you and your family to move to the other side of the world for a post-doc position? Are you willing to move away from your home at all? Can you gamble on a short-term contract, perhaps with low pay, or does your family need your income? Consider your ideal conditions first.

If you find it difficult to answer these questions, then write for yourself what your ideal work looks like. Which tasks do you do? Do you travel? Do you commute? How does your ideal day look like? Do you want to work part-time perhaps to spend time with your kids in the afternoon? Define for yourself what you want, and start making it happen.

1,5 years before graduating

Now is a good time to start thinking more seriously about your plans for after your PhD. If you can't define a direction you want to focus on for after your PhD, see if you can get help from a career counselor. Most universities offer some sort of support for their students. If possible, get one-on-one coaching with a career counselor, or stop by to brainstorm with one of them or with a trusted person within HR, so that you can get the ideas from an outsider. If your university offers workshops around the topic of finding employment after the PhD, sign up to such a workshop or series of workshops.

Discuss with your supervisor and colleagues about your options. Catch up with recent graduates from your PhD program to learn from their experience. At conferences, talk to recent PhD graduates. If a conference is organized through a professional organization, they often have a career center (sometimes available as a booth at the conference) - visit them and learn from them.

1 year before graduating

Hopefully, you've been able to do some good thinking for yourself over the past few months, and have been able to exchange ideas with HR professionals as well as with recent PhD graduates in your field. If you've identified for yourself which career paths call your attention, start to work more actively towards getting a job.

Don't just scroll through job openings online. Mention to your friends and colleagues that you will be graduating soon, and that you are exploring options. If you are looking for an opportunity in a certain sector, see if you can meet with an acquaintance from this sector for coffee to learn from his/her/their experience, and ask for advice. Don't list somebody as a reference on your resume unless you have a good working relationship - so don't try to make your contact in this sector your reference right away.

Send your resume to companies and institutions of your interest. See how you can get a foot in the door by volunteering at industry events, going for a short research exchange, or do some case studies for a public institution. Just don't think that, because you've shown your face, you are entitled to a job - but show up, and show what you can bring to the table.

6 months before graduating

Interview time! Have you heard from anybody to whom you sent your resume? If not, don't panic (and don't start stalking people). If necessary, make another appointment with a career counselor to revise your resume and give you extra advice. If you seem to find it hard to get noticed by employers, work with a recruiter.

If you're invited for an interview, go prepared. Do your "homework." Learn about the company,its people, and identify for yourself what you can bring to the table. At the same time, define for yourself what you want. Return to your description of your ideal job: which tasks excite you? What do you expect in return from your employer? What is non-negotiable for you? Would you opt for more salary or for more holidays?

when finishing your dissertation

Time to celebrate! If you finish and publish your dissertation before your defend, and you are looking for a job, then use your dissertation to do a bit of shameless self-promotion. Send your finished dissertation to anybody who may be interested in your work, and who perhaps may be having a job opening. You never know what good it may bring. Take your printed thesis copies to conferences, and mention at the end of your presentation to you can give away a few copies (bring a stack with you).

Upon graduating

If you are graduated and don't have a job yet - don't panic. Decide for yourself if you want more advice from a career counselor and/or recruiter, and see if you can survive financially until you land a job, or if you need to take on some "emergency" employment, or raid your savings.

Don't let the fact that you haven't found a job yet overshadow the success of finishing your PhD. Celebrate in style, take time to appreciate yourself and your effort, and then throw yourself back into the job-seeking activities, now with all your energy. Let your entire network know you are graduated and available. Don't spam the entire world, but send personal emails to possible interesting contacts, and use LinkedIn to your advantage.

After your PhD

If you've taken a first job after your PhD, know that you have your entire career in front of you. If after some time, you find that the job is not what you thought it to be at first, then take that lesson and learn from it: what is good for your? Which new skills did you learn? What did you not like - something related to the contents of the job, or is the commute making your miserable? Go back to the drawing board, reshape your ideal job, and start looking for something that more closely parallels your vision.

Testing Positive

Today's guest post is a contribution from Patrick Bigsby. Patrick is an alumnus, former employee, and diehard wrestling fan of the University of Iowa. He currently clerks for the Hon. Jessica R. Bear, Chief Judge of the Meskwaki Nation Tribal Court. 

About two months ago, I, an adult man in graduate school, sat down to take the hardest test of my life. No, the test wasn’t compliments of Maury and no, my elementary school principal didn’t make any surprise discoveries in my file. It was a standardized test, complete with timed writing sections and bubble sheets, and it was the single most important element of my graduate education. Last week, the State of Iowa toasted my score because (sorry haters, but) I passed.

Graduate school is, traditionally, an environment for original research, creative thought, and years-long exploration of enormously complex niche interests. In other words, it’s the antithesis of the board-defined curriculum and rote application of standardized testing; the life of the mind instead of the life of the #2 pencil. Or is it? Most graduate students in the U.S. reached that station following a satisfactory performance on the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, or another acronym. For many of us, board and bar examinations of some variety await at the end of the tunnel. Despite the proliferation of thinkpieces about the educational faux pas of “teaching to the test,” standardized testing remains an important part of graduate school entry and, in many cases, exit.

By the time you read this, I’ll be a state-certified standardized test success story. But it wasn’t easy: being a graduate student meant I was several years removed from my last sealed Scantron form. 

Below are my tips for shaking off the standardized test rust you’ve developed since the tenth grade.

Don’t overestimate yourself. Graduate students are, by definition, high achievers. We’re a smart bunch and just self-aware enough of that intelligence to be dangerous: our past academic success has a tendency to encourage confidence in our future academic success. Confidence is fine, but don’t let it lull you into overlooking something as seemingly mundane as a standardized test. Sure, your thesis might be a brilliant, original work, but that won’t get you off the hook of navigating the black-and-white world of algebra or sentence correction questions. Don’t succumb to graduate school hubris: this isn’t the tenth grade and whatever inherent future-grad-student intelligence we used to dominate ITBS won’t cut it on your graduate school exam of choice.

Use your community. For all of their alleged drawbacks, one of the great things about standardized tests is that literally thousands of people are having the exact same experience that you are having. Need a study strategy? Many organized test preparation classes exist. Unsure about how many layers to wear on test day? Hundreds of people ask that question on message boards every year. Fed up with mnemonics and trick questions? Take a night off with your equally fed up peers and blow off some steam. Many graduate students report at least some social isolation, but I’ve never felt closer to my classmates than enduring the identical shared pain of standardized testing.

Drill. Graduate work in all disciplines tends to be a slow-moving affair involving long-term goals. Spending four, five, or six years on a PhD isn’t considered an anomaly. A standardized test, on the other hand, involves a predetermined schedule with no flexibility or extensions. Athletic readers are probably already familiar with the concept of race-pace training - eventually you have to practice running at the speed you need to run during the race - and your test preparation should be similar. Taking a standardized test is an unnatural exercise, but the right practice techniques combat that. Be very strict with your stopwatch on practice tests (yes, you should take practice tests) to help your race pace feel natural on test day.

Prioritize your comfort. Ultimately, your performance on the test is the only thing that matters. I don’t mean to state the obvious but, no matter which test you’re taking, there are no points for martyrdom. Where possible, you should be willing to splurge on yourself when it will put you in a position to deliver your best performance. The scoring panel doesn’t care that you commuted two hours each morning to the test site instead of staying in the hotel next door. The Scantron machine won’t know that you used your cruddy, chewed-up old pencils instead of buying new sharp ones. I’m a big fan of student-specific budgeting, but all that goes out the window when everything is riding on one big test. If you’re having a hard time justifying test-related expenses that aren’t per se necessary, ask yourself why, if you wouldn’t cut corners on your study routine, you’d be willing to shortchange yourself in other forms of test preparation.

Let yourself off the hook. One of the reasons some students find standardized tests so challenging is the pressure of myriad professional and academic goals depending on a single score. In my recent experience taking the Uniform Bar Examination, failure would have been professionally catastrophic. If I had failed, I would have been unable to work as a lawyer, forced to admit I had essentially squandered the last three years, and, as the results are publicly posted, outed in front of my classmates, professors, employers, and anyone else with an internet connection as a big stupid dummy. Despite the nightmare fuel of knowing I could, despite my best efforts, still blow it, I was remarkably relaxed. I knew I could trust in my months of preparation leading up to the test, but even more comforting was the fact that I had secretly given myself permission to fail. Lest the UI College of Law ABA Accreditation Committee experience heart palpitations upon reading this, I don’t mean to say I didn’t have a healthy fear of and respect for the test. I merely acknowledged privately that, even if I turned in the choke job of the century, the Earth would keep spinning, I would wake up the next morning, and Maury would still be on the air. In short, even my most epic failure wouldn’t be the end of the world - a comforting notion when you’re looking down the barrel of a bubble sheet.

Got any good test tips? Anything you wish you knew before you took a standardized test? Let us know in the comments what helped you crush the GRE, conquer the MCAT, and slay the bar!

Q & A: Exploring the job market after the PhD

Time for another long overdue reply to your questions!

I received the following question:

Your advice on reversing delayed gratification mode after the Phd is very pertinent. I am waiting to hear from my examiners to see if I passed after major revisions. Since I self-funded my research and studies I really need a job. I am more than willing to work in industry, government or a non-profit. (I am older and have already gone down the adjunct path of no return before the Phd.) Is there age discrimination here? It is hard to find openings where my skills fit so I have only applied for a few jobs, but I get no interviews. There is always one box that I have not ticked that would require another degree or certification. I am beginning to wonder why I started this--I wanted to teach literature instead of driving an hour and a half one-way late at night to adjunct-teach grammar. Maybe a job at Walmart is in my future! I am fortunate to have a hard-working spouse to support me and our 5 kids, but with a son with a chronic illness, bills are piling up! My question is, how do I fashion myself into those other jobs without more so-called necessary training?

As always, let me break down your question:

I am waiting to hear from my examiners to see if I passed after major revisions. Since I self-funded my research and studies I really need a job.

First of all, I hope your corrections went well, and your job search made a turn for the better since the time you wrote me.

Is there age discrimination here?

Ageism is a thing everywhere in this world. I graduated from my PhD very young and am female, so I get the friendly remarks that the only reason that I got hired at university is because my husband is working there too. Never mind my 20 publications in Scopus. On the other hand, there is discrimination against older people as well. Perhaps the fact that you recently graduated is going to help - your knowledge is still considered fresh. But ageism is one of these persistent problems.

It is hard to find openings where my skills fit so I have only applied for a few jobs, but I get no interviews. There is always one box that I have not ticked that would require another degree or certification. I am beginning to wonder why I started this--I wanted to teach literature instead of driving an hour and a half one-way late at night to adjunct-teach grammar.

Confidence! The ideal applicant does not exist. It still is a difficult job market, more so this year with the dropping oil prices, and for us Europeans, because of the never-ending Eurocrisis. Just keep trying, and don't be afraid to look out of the box. Learn how to reframe your specific academic skills for the requirements of the industry. I wrote a lengthy article about the topic in the past. And please, don't lose hope - eventually you will find something.

Maybe a job at Walmart is in my future!

Think positive. Zen and stuff as well, to shield off the despair.

I am fortunate to have a hard-working spouse to support me and our 5 kids, but with a son with a chronic illness, bills are piling up!

I'm sorry to read this, and I hope you found a job that makes your life easier.

My question is, how do I fashion myself into those other jobs without more so-called necessary training?

After my PhD, and while I was preparing my job search, I wrote quite a number of posts about this topic. My recommended reading for you:
Preparing for life after the PhD: re-train your brain
Life After Graduate School: What happens next?
Getting a job, after the PhD
What should you do after your PhD?
Q & A: The PhD and The Job Market
An Expat Scholar’s View from the Gulf
Finding employment outside of academia
How you should prepare for a career outside of academia: 7 lucky tips for a smoother transition
PhD Talk Interview: Creating your Career, post-PhD
I am Nathan Ryder and This is How I Work

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: How to get the most out of career events

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

Continuing with the career theme, we are going to look at career events today. While this post is written from the perspective of you, a prospective PhD student or post-doc, who is visiting a career event, you can also apply these tips and think about these elements when you go to visit the exhibition area of a conference and talk to possible future employers.

You might think that in the 21st century, your future job is something you will arrange all online. But good old career events are still a very popular choice for job seekers and employers to meet each other. One of the big advantages of going to such an event is that, while strolling along the stands and talking with representatives of different companies and universities, you might actually learn about option you would have never thought about.

I think back to the first career event I attended. While I was hoping to land a scholarship to go and do a second Master's degree in the United States, I was also keeping my options open to find a job. I signed up for a presentation of a company randomly, sort of thinking it would be not the type of company I'd be interested in. But their presentation was informative, showing cool construction projects, and they explained that in their company, engineers work on a project through all stages. Virtually every where, you pick your part of the construction process, such as design, and stick with that. But they had a different philosophy, their engineers work on the bidding, design and planning of the project in the office, and then put on their boots and go supervise the actual construction of the project. I talked to them afterwards, inquiring about international opportunities, and was happy to hear that they have offices all over the world, and would certainly consider sending me a couple of years to, say, Denmark. Even though I ended up getting funding for my studies and becoming an academic, this experience taught me to have an open mind and explore opportunities at career events.

So, say you are somewhere half-way your PhD program. You might have a feeling that you'll never graduate and that you still have a mountain of work to overcome, but in reality, it might be a good moment to just start informing about career events. There's not a career event every Tuesday on the town's market square, so you might want to inform about the interesting events in the upcoming year. If you've found a career event that you want to attend, don't wait until the day of the actual event to go play tourist over there - plan, and make sure you can get the most out of it!

Before the event

As I said before, if you want to get most out of the event, make sure you plan ahead. Don't just take the train and show up, but do these few things in advance:

1. Revise your resume: make sure you have your full academic resume up to date. With full resume, I mean a resume that describes you in a paragraph, has your educational background, your work experience, your publications, your professional membership, your committee appointments, an overview of the journals you are a reviewer for, other service appointments, and perhaps something about your additional personal interests. Don't forget to mention your blog if you have one!
2. Summarize your resume: A full resume can go on and on for pages - nobody who gets introduced to you at the first time would be interested in reading the entire thing. Put yourself in the shoes of the exhibitors at career events: they get stacks and stacks of resumes. So make sure you have a shortened resume - maximum 1 page, I'd say, but a resume that highlights your biggest achievements. Print a large number of copies of this document!
3. Check your online profiles: If an employer is interested in you, chances are he might Google you. If you are months before a career event, you have plenty of time to revise your online profiles, see what Google finds about you, and course correct if necessary. Check out an earlier blog post about online branding for scientists if you want to change what can be found about you online.
4. Read the descriptions of the employers and institutions in the exhibition: Learn who will be there. It might take an entire afternoon, so go somewhere comfortable, get a coffee, read through the descriptions of the employers and institutions and look online for further information about them. Take some notes (thank me later).
5. Identify down the 10 most important booths to visit: Go through your notes, and see which are your top 10 exhibitors to go and visit. Check out the map of the exhibition area, if the venue is large, and highlight the booths you need to visit. If you think you'll be short on time, make an itinerary.
6. Identify your networking options: Will there be a drink at the end of the day? Can you meet up with a certain group for lunch? Make sure you take advantage of your time at the event to network.
7. See if there are presentations: I highlighted the importance of presentations in which companies can show what they are actually doing and give you a hint of their workplace culture. If there are presentations, make sure you can attend some of these. If you're interested in a company, don't be afraid to ask questions at the end of the presentation and follow-up with the presenter. You can't wish for more direct access to the company.

During the event

1. Hand out your resumes: You printed a good number of your short resumes? Good! Now don't be afraid to hand them out to people at their booths.
2. Hand out your cards: Your resume is not something you put into every one's hands, so make sure you also carry cards. If you make new acquaintances, it's good to have cards with you and hand out your contact information.
3. Talk to people: You're at the event to shine. While for some of us, talking to people you don't know is very intimidating (for me that sure is!), conversation is nice. It can be awkward, but most often it is not. Just ask questions, and get people to talk about what they are passionate about, and the awkwardness will be gone soon. If you are scared, think of the powerposing trick.
4. Don't be scared to have a quick chat with booths that might not interest you: You never know what you might learn from these booths. They might not directly be the holy grail for you, but they might have something interesting to share with one of your friends or colleagues.
5. Politely walk away from booths that are a disappointment: If a company you were really interested in, seems to be a disappointment once you start to talk to them, you don't need to keep talking to them. Find a polite way to back off, and go. If a company, for example, seems to have different rules for women (i.e. tell you, as a woman, that they "can't" send women out to projects in the field), then you have no reason to keep talking to them. Just thank them for the explanation and back off.
6. Enjoy the networking events: Enjoy the time of the drinks, meeting cool young people, and loosen up a little bit. A career event might be stressful (and trying not to spill your coffee all over yourself equally stressful), but at the end of the day you can take a breath, have a drink, have a chat with people in the same situation and stop holding your breath.

After the event

1. Write thank you emails: If you had a nice talk with an exhibitor or with a fellow young job seeker, don't be afraid of sending a short email to thank them for the good conversation. When I get a thank-you mail after a conference, it always brings a smile to my face. There's nothing intrusive or wrong about sending a kind message
2. Archive your information: Archive flyers and information of interesting companies. If you need to take action on something, do so before you archive the information. Thrash what you don't need anymore.
3. Connect with new contacts: If you met new people, for example during the networking events, you can see if you can connect with them on LinkedIn, ResearchGate or Academia.edu.
4. Follow-up: If you left your resume, and an exhibitor told you he/she would contact you, but you haven't heard from them, say, after a month after the event, it can simply mean your one sheet of resume got lost. Don't be afraid to send an email to follow-up and inquire if there is still interest from this company to see your possible future options with them.

These are a few elements you can think of the prepare for a career event, take full benefit of it while you are there, and then make sure you take the right steps when you get home. Good luck in attending events and finding your next step in your (academic) career!

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Career opportunities after the PhD

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

While you might read the title of this post as something that has "after the PhD" in it, and you might think that is a problem to address once you have the date of your defense in your planning, it is never too early to start thinking about what you want to do after you graduate.

In the months around my PhD defense, I have blogged extensively about my experiences in finding a job, and I've tried to make the voices of others, who made other decisions, heard as well. I also got interviewed about it.

In today's post, I will go through the different career options you have. By now, you will already realize that not every PhD student continues on in academia. People with PhDs are needed at different places in society, and your academic skills prepare you for a wide array of challenges. And of course, prepare well for your job interview, for the job you are actually interviewing for.

So let's look at the different options and paths that you could walk upon finishing your PhD:

1. Academia: post-doc

Landing a post-doc position is maybe the most traditional step in academia. Post-doc contracts have varying lengths (between 1 year and 4 years, typically). One option is to stay at the institution where you got your PhD, and get a continuation project on what you did for your PhD. You can use the years of your post-doc then to publish the work you did during your PhD and grow your research network.

2. Academia: faculty position

Some people skip the postdoc step and land a faculty position right away. If you become a faculty member on a tenure-track program, fresh out of graduate school, you might be in a slightly disadvantaged position, because you don't have the post-doc years to up your publications. Typically, as a young faculty member, you will spend quite some time on teaching.

You might be thinking of landing a faculty position at the institution where you obtained your PhD, and you might know that the number of openings are very limited. However, if this is the career path you are seeking, and you are willing to make a move and become an academic nomad, then you might find that other parts of the world are desperate to hire people with a PhD title to join their faculty. Developing countries are a good bet for this option. John Laprise wrote about his experiences in the Gulf in a previous post.

3. Academia: adjunct position

Adjunct positions are other non tenure-track positions at universities. While some universities abuse their adjunct faculty and overload them with educational responsibilities, other institutions treat their adjunct faculty as they are supposed to be treated: faculty members who deliver valuable contributions and have opted not to pursue tenure and the title of full professor.

4. Academia: teaching at an undergraduate institution

In the Netherlands and Belgium, undergraduate institutions are called "Hogeschool": these institutions only deliver undergraduate degrees, and carry out shorter research projects that have a direct application into the industry. In other parts of the world, you find similar systems at institutions that are mostly teaching-oriented colleges.

These institutions need people with PhDs to make up their teaching staff and carry out practical research. The ties between the industry and these institutions are typically more direct than at larger, older universities.

5. Industry: your field of specialization

Joining a company in your field of specialization (in my case, that would be anything from a bridge design company to a large contractor) is an option. While some people tend to treat the PhD as a useless extra degree, and a waste of time (you could have gained practical experience in this time period!), most companies do agree that employees with a PhD bring additional value to the company, and can be set to tackle more complex problems or to put their highly refined skill set to work.

6. Industry: adviser to policy makers

The link between the researchers and the policy makers is a person who is familiar with the technical literature and recent research, and at the same time can communicate these results to policy makers and politicians to assist them in their choices. We want to carry out research to make this world a better place, but we also want our research to be actually put in practice. For this step, consultants to policy makers come into play.

7. Industry: business consultant

You might have a PhD in neuroscience, thinking business is nothing for you, but large consultancy firms hire graduates with a PhD from all different fields. If you know how to manage large amounts of data, these companies will be looking out for you. If you want to get acquainted with the work of these companies, you can typically join them for a weekend in which you are challenged to solve a business case.

8. Industry: become an entrepreneur

Why not start your own company and turn your research into a marketable product? In Delft, there is Yes!Delft to help you get started with your project, and other universities have similar initiatives.

You can also start a company that is not immediately related with your PhD research. PhD graduates start companies acting as professional proofreaders, as technical translators, as independent researchers and as career- and/or research-advisers to PhD students. Check out the interview I did with Dr. Ryder on this topic.C

For more on transitioning to industry, read this guest post of Dr. Chris Humphrey. Read here for 7 tips to transition to the industry. I also conducted an interview on finding employment out of academia.

9. Government

You could be actually doing the research (academic jobs), you could be the link (nr. 6: adviser to policy makers), or you could decide to go in public service and use your knowledge in a government institutions. You could be working at one of the ministries, where your understanding of complex problems helps making informed choices. In transportation, for example, a good understanding of a complex transportation system is necessary to make the right choices (remember that research has shown that building more roads only leads to more traffic and does not solve complex traffic problems). Or you could use your keen mind to work your way up in a political party and serve your country as -eventually, hopefully- a minister. Belgium's former prime minister, who is praised for steering the country through the Euro-crisis, holds a PhD in Chemistry.

10. Science communication and science journalism

Do you enjoy explaining your friends and family what are the broader implications of your work? A career in science communication or science journalism might be for you. Universities need science communicators, who are the link between the researchers and the broader public. Newspapers and magazines rely on science journalists to keep up with recent publications, and turn these into a lighter and clearer read, focusing on the impact on the world around us.

11. Whatever you wish

You have the power to build your own career. You don't need to make one single choice (academia or industry), and stick with it for the rest of your life. You will make a number of job and career changes throughout your life. Pursue your interests. Follow your nose. Enjoy the ride. Build a career, as Dr. Kelly explains in this interview.

To learn more about how to do the necessary soul-seeking to find what you want to do, check out this post. As I explained here, it's not up to me to tell you what is the "best" job (hint: it's different for everybody anyway).

QS GradSchool Guide 2015/2016

Today, I'd like to invite you all to have a look at the QS GradSchool Guide for the academic year 2015/2016. It is 128 pages full of great information for anyone considering to do a PhD, as well as for current PhD students. You'll need to sign up for a free account on the QS website - a rather painless and quick process - to access the document.

On page 17 of the guide, you can find an article for which Laura Tucker from topuniversities.com interviewed me, as well as other bloggers who write about life after the PhD. Even though the focus of my blog is not essentially on finding employment after the PhD, I've written a fair amount about this topic as I transitioned from being a PhD student to a professor.

That's all for today - you have 128 pages of assigned reading waiting for you elsewhere ;)

Q & A: The PhD and The Job Market

I was recently interviewed on the job market after obtaining a PhD. You can find the interview here:

1. When you began your PhD, what were your initial career plans?

I didn’t really have plans – my original plan was to pursue a PhD at the university where I was enrolled for my Master’s, but then the economic crisis of 2008 hit and funding was impossible to find. At the beginning of my PhD I was open for both working in the industry after my PhD (seeing bridges being built) as well as staying in academia. More than anything, I went into my PhD out of curiosity and out of my love for learning – two factors that have been driving the course of my life.

2. Were you always interested in going into academia?

Not really – I just always wanted to do something that I find interesting and challenging. The regular school system had me bored out of my mind, and once I got out of there, I just wanted to go and study something difficult, something that would actually be fun and intriguing – and, as I mentioned before, this curiosity and need for getting my brain to work, has been a constant drive for me.

3. If you weren’t in academia, what career path would you have taken?

I have a broad range of interests. I could have gone full-time into bridge engineering in the industry (I am working on some projects in the industry besides my academic work at the moment). Other career paths that draw my attention (in no particular order) are: teaching yoga, writing (poetry mostly) and music.

4. How did your PhD research get picked up by the Dutch Ministry of Transport?

I actually joined a project as one of 5 PhD students that was funded based on a need of the Dutch Ministry of Transportation to further analyse the shear capacity of the existing bridges. Since I applied to the open position for a PhD student, their need for this research came before any of my results.

5. How did you secure your research position at TU Delft after receiving your PhD?

It followed naturally from the experiences that I had during my PhD – more than anything, I think the excellent work relationship I built up with my direct colleagues made it a logical step to keep working together. It was decided before my graduation that at least I would be able to stay as a guest, without a salary, but keeping the research tie, keeping my library access and similar benefits. When funding was found to hire me as a part-time researcher, I was very happy. Practically it means that during the summer semester of Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where I am a professor, I return to The Netherlands to focus on research, work on short research projects, or chip in where my colleagues need an extra bit of help.

6. What do you think of the jobs market for PhD graduates outside of academia?

At least in the field of engineering, I think there will always be a need for people with a deep understanding of the problems that the industry faces. Sometimes it might be a little more difficult to explain the value of the PhD degree to some companies, but none of my fellow PhD students from the same research group seemed to have any difficulties securing a job position – in academia or in industry.

7. Do you feel your PhD gave you an ample skillset to pursue roles outside of academia?

Absolutely. I work on some smaller projects in the field of design of structures outside of my academic work, and the speed with which I can develop a design is very high, because I have a deep understanding of the structural behaviour of concrete. Moreover, when I’m faced with the need to design a structural element I haven’t designed before, or I need to familiarize myself with a code that I haven’t used before, I only need a few hours to soak up the new material before I can put it into practice – again, thanks to a thorough understanding of the behaviour of structural concrete.

8. You mention the need to learn ‘non-scientific skills’ during a PhD, what are these?

Communication more than anything: giving presentations and writing reports and papers. Planning and time management skills are another important set of skills: you can’t manage 4 years’ worth of research without a basic time management system.

9. What advice would you give someone undertaking a PhD who is worried about finding a job after graduation?

If your graduation date is more than a year into the future: relax – you never know what curveball the economy is going to throw you (good or bad). If you graduation date is coming up: go to events and network with companies and other universities, talk to your senior colleagues about your job search and ask about their recommendations and experiences, visit the career center of your university for some guidance on finding a position upon graduating. If you want to stay in academia, familiarize yourself with the institutions that award research grants, and their requirements.

PhD Careers - Interview for QS Top Grad School

After my recent guest post for Topuniversities.com, I was contacted by QS again, this time to see if I could answer a few questions about finding a job after the PhD.

The information from my interview and many others will be used to develop the 2015/2016 QS Top Grad School Guide. Since this guide will be published only before the start of the Fall semester, I can't link to the document yet - but you can go and check out the 2014/2015 edition of the guide.

Here you can find the questions I was asked, and my answers:

When you began your PhD, what were your initial career plans?
I didn’t really have plans – my original plan was to pursue a PhD at the university where I was enrolled for my Master’s, but then the economic crisis of 2008 hit and funding was impossible to find. At the beginning of my PhD I was open for both working in the industry after my PhD (seeing bridges being built) as well as staying in academia. More than anything, I went into my PhD out of curiosity and out of my love for learning – two factors that have been driving the course of my life.

Were you always interested in going into academia?
Not really – I just always wanted to do something that I find interesting and challenging. The regular school system had me bored out of my mind, and once I got out of there, I just wanted to go and study something difficult, something that would actually be fun and intriguing – and, as I mentioned before, this curiosity and need for getting my brain to work, has been a constant drive for me.

If you weren’t in academia, what career path would you have taken?
I have a broad range of interests. I could have gone full-time into bridge engineering in the industry (I am working on some projects in the industry besides my academic work at the moment). Other career paths that draw my attention (in no particular order) are: teaching yoga, writing (poetry mostly) and music.

How did your PhD research get picked up by the Dutch Ministry of Transport?
I actually joined a project as one of 5 PhD students that was funded based on a need of the Dutch Ministry of Transportation to further analyse the shear capacity of the existing bridges. Since I applied to the open position for a PhD student, their need for this research came before any of my results.

How did you secure your research position at TU Delft after receiving your PhD?
It followed naturally from the experiences that I had during my PhD – more than anything, I think the excellent work relationship I built up with my direct colleagues made it a logical step to keep working together. It was decided before my graduation that at least I would be able to stay as a guest, without a salary, but keeping the research tie, keeping my library access and similar benefits. When funding was found to hire me as a part-time researcher, I was very happy. Practically it means that during the summer semester of Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where I am a professor, I return to The Netherlands to focus on research, work on short research projects, or chip in where my colleagues need an extra bit of help.

What do you think of the jobs market for PhD graduates outside of academia?
At least in the field of engineering, I think there will always be a need for people with a deep understanding of the problems that the industry faces. Sometimes it might be a little more difficult to explain the value of the PhD degree to some companies, but none of my fellow PhD students from the same research group seemed to have any difficulties securing a job position – in academia or in industry.

Do you feel your PhD gave you an ample skillset to pursue roles outside of academia?
Absolutely. I work on some smaller projects in the field of design of structures outside of my academic work, and the speed with which I can develop a design is very high, because I have a deep understanding of the structural behaviour of concrete. Moreover, when I’m faced with the need to design a structural element I haven’t designed before, or I need to familiarize myself with a code that I haven’t used before, I only need a few hours to soak up the new material before I can put it into practice – again, thanks to a thorough understanding of the behaviour of structural concrete.

You mention the need to learn ‘non-scientific skills’ during a PhD, what are these?
Communication more than anything: giving presentations and writing reports and papers. Planning and time management skills are another important set of skills: you can’t manage 4 years’ worth of research without a basic time management system.

What advice would you give someone undertaking a PhD who is worried about finding a job after graduation?
If your graduation date is more than a year into the future: relax – you never know what curveball the economy is going to throw you (good or bad). If you graduation date is coming up: go to events and network with companies and other universities, talk to your senior colleagues about your job search and ask about their recommendations and experiences, visit the career center of your university for some guidance on finding a position upon graduating. If you want to stay in academia, familiarize yourself with the institutions that award research grants, and their requirements.

PhD Talk Interview: Creating your Career, post-PhD

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Kelly, after exchanging some thoughts on Twitter about life after the PhD. Dr. Kelly is an analytical chemist specializing in NMR spectroscopy. She completed her doctoral degree in 2008 and a postdoctoral fellowship with the NIH. She has worked in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, in addition to her current position at a non-profit research organization. She is has two wonderful sons, and tweets under the name @KanneDo.

You can find the full interview here:

How you should prepare for a career outside of academia: 7 lucky tips for a smoother transition

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Seán Mac Fhearraigh, who will discuss his thoughts on life after the PhD - a topic on which I've seen a lot of discussion here on the blog as well as on Twitter over the last year, and I'm glad to add Sean's voice and thoughts to this discussion. Sean is the founder of PhDAdvice.com, a website for PhDs and Post-Docs looking for a advice on what next after the lab. You can find Seán on twitter with @postpostdoc1.

Being prepared is what a PhD and PostDoc is about, managing reagents and consumables, booking conferences, applying for grants and so on. But preparing for careers outside of academia sometimes does not get the attention it deserves. After all the likelihood that you will leave academia and transition into industry is around 30% following a PhD according to the ASCB.

To help with your job hunt during your PhD or post-graduate research I put together these ten tips to help you succeed:

1. Talk to newly graduated PhDs
Newly graduated PhDs will have a good idea of what the current job market is like, they will have potentially been looking for jobs for the past few months and will have a list of agencies and contacts from the job search.

2. Start a LinkedIn profile
Stats are you probably have a LinkedIn profile already, if not, sign up straight away. A LinkedIn profile is a great resource to make connections outside of academia in start-ups and firms. If you can, try and stay away from Facebook habits and treat LinkedIn as your professional network. It is not just about being connected to your friends, but reach out to potential employers that might be looking for candidates like yourself.

3. Volunteer
If possible, that’s if you have time, try and volunteer for a start-up that aligns with your skills, I know this might sound impossible, but lending a few hours a week to a company as an intern always looks good on your CV. If not, volunteering for scientific outreach events would also be a good idea. There are many festivals that now involve scientific outreach worldwide. Volunteering for events or conferences like this allows you to build your skillset beyond academic skills and makes you look like a team player.

4. Start reading job boards
I know it’s obvious that you will need to read job boards to look for positions, however, what you need to get use to is what type of jobs you need to be looking for, how employers might phrase job descriptions. This might be of benefit if you are non-native speaker. I think looking at job advertisements will also let you set your expectations on salary and positions within companies.

5. Meet a recruiter
Meeting recruiters can be hugely beneficial, especially if you look as equally good on CV but may be a stand out candidate because of your personality. Furthermore recruiters are always looking to fill positions, they have direct contact with HR departments and will more than likely be able to tell you if you application for a job has succeeded or failed. In many cases you might not be able to get this information or it may take a long time off a company’s HR department. Furthermore, recruiters may also help in bargaining for salary and benefits, a skill you may not have from working in academia.

6. Update you CV to be more business/industry focussed
A scientific CV will differ from an industry CV. Although they will both have a similar format, a business CV will focus more on success, management, deliverance, office skills & team work. Although most of these elements are within an academic CV, a potential business employer may not have an interest in what technical skills you have, unless they have been advertised in the job application or maybe related to your job. If possible try and highlight how you succeed in your PhD, what impact it made and what your potential would be.

7. Tell your Professor
Your Professor not only holds the keys to your PhD, but potentially holds the key to your future career. If your Professor knows that you are not interested in pursuing an academic career they may help you with finding university courses that may support your move out of academia or provide you with roles within the lab that would provide some industry experience. Also they may have contacts within companies or start-ups that might be of interest for jobs.

What should you do after your PhD?

More Q&A today!

I recently received the following question from a reader:

Hello, i just want to know what i should do after completion of Ph.D?

Excellent question, but not one that I can answer right away. I don't have my crystal ball lying around to tell you what the Flying Spaghettimonster has in store for you after the PhD.

Now with that disappointment out of the way, let me give you the no-nonsense answer:

It all depends on you!

To guide you in your thinking, consider the following questions:
- What would you like to do after your PhD?
- What are your strengths and for which competences can you leverage your skills?
- Are you willing to move away from your current location?
- What type of lifestyle do you want to have?

As I transitioned from being a PhD student to a young professor, I've written extensively about the topic, and I also had the opportunity to invite others over to share their experiences. Here is an overview of posts that might be of your interest:
- Getting a job, after the PhD: my own cautious tale on how to navigate the job market after the PhD. Do read the comments - some people found the post to be rather negative and have more uplifting stories to share.
- Finding employment outside of academia: My interview with Samuel Oduneye in which we touch upon the many possibilities you have outside of academia, and how you can show the value of your skills.
- Preparing for life after the PhD: re-train your brain: an excellent guest post by Dr. Chris Humphrey about leaving academia when the time is right.
- Life after graduate school: What happens next: a guest post by Gemma Gaten, on the fact that your diplomas sometimes might not be valued as much as you'd wish.
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Leveraging your Job Seeking Position by Highlighting your Academic Skills : What are you, as a recently graduated or soon-graduated-PhD bringing to the table that other candidates (without a research degree) don't have?
- Four Tips That Will Get You Noticed During a Job Interview : Once you are at the point of going for an interview, read this guest post by Ross Jilling before you walk into the interview room.
- An Expat Scholar’s View from the Gulf: There are academic jobs out there, but sometimes you might need to move far away. I opted for South America, John Laprise, author of this guest post, moved to the Gulf - read his positive story about moving countries to build your academic career.
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Academic Culture and the PhD Experience : I wrote this post for prospective PhD candidates, but the idea holds true for every academic: consider the culture of the country and university you will moving to when you are thinking about making the leap.
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: The Curious Case of the Academic Nomads: More about moving countries - this post deals with the fact that we often move around for our studies and academic careers, and give some advice.

Life After Graduate School: What happens next?

The topic of finding a job after the PhD, and life outside of the ivory tower has stirred reactions in a good number of people. Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Gemma Gaten, who gives her warnings and outlook for life after graduate school. Gemma is a literature major and works as a paper writer atuk.bestessays.com. She is a blogger, photographer, and traveler. She writes more about education, student lifestyle, writing, and careers. To know more about her please visit herblog and add her in google+.

People believe that obtaining a master's or a PhD degree is a good investment for a bright future. If you are a diploma-holder of a higher degree of education, there are more doors of opportunities that await you once you step off the portals of grad school. Having an advanced degree is a big advantage in almost all industries especially in the fields of education, social services, medical health, business management, etc. If you have a desired position in a professional field, you need to take an advanced degree. In our education and employment system, it is like you are required to get a higher degree of education to become qualified to the position that you want to attain.

Why you should go to graduate school and be a PhD candidate? Well, to put it simply here are the things that graduate school can give you. Graduate education will provide you the intellectual ability, work ethics, improved and advanced skills, in-depth knowledge, and well-related work experience to the field that you want to belong to in the future. As you know and learn these benefits, you became more driven to increase your career security, professional and personal development, right?

If you know and understand the positive aspects of getting into graduate school, you get excited to start a graduate education right away. But before you indulge yourself to the challenging and stressful life in grad school, there are things that you must know first. Life in graduate school is different from the life after grad school. What do I mean by that? Many students didn't know that the things that matter during their graduate education years don't matter anymore once they got their Master's or PhD diploma.

Let's say you have completed the years of your master's or PhD degree, you got your diploma, and you're done with all those academic paper works. As you bid goodbye to your alma mater, do you already know what awaits you in the real world? How are you going to face your new life? How are you going to address the transition after graduate school into the workforce? To give you a clearer perspective of what I am saying, here's a simple illustration.

THE EXPECTATION

Some graduate students thought that they don't need to work harder and exert much effort in searching for job opportunities since they already got a ticket, their PhD diploma, to get the job that they wanted. This can be possible for PhD graduates who already have a career while taking their master's or PhD education. But for those beginners or those students who do not have a job in their prospective field, they have to start looking for a job immediately that would best fit their skills and educational attainment. Because even though they are Master's or PhD degree-holders if there are no available positions for them in the market place or in non-academic careers, it would take a while before they land a full-time position. But for those in line with research and academic work, there are plenty of job opportunities that they can apply for.

THE HARSH REALITY

Even if you are a graduate student or a PhD candidate, you need to keep your options open. Whether it's a non-academic or academic work, you have to understand that the real world doesn't only look at the diploma that you are holding or the years that you've spent in the academy. There are already many students who pursued their graduate education and not all of them were given good academic jobs. Becoming a graduate from a prestigious graduate school is a good credential, actually being a certified Master's or PhD graduate is already a big accomplishment. But the sad part here is that the school you graduated from and the degree that you have don't matter anymore once you go to the workforce. Companies need your advanced knowledge and abilities so you have to show them what are the things that you can do for them because if they don't see you as a good contributor to the success of their business they will not going to hire you.

THE ACCEPTANCE

You have to accept the truth, real world is far different from the life that you had in graduate school. Whether you like it or not, you have to understand how the real world works. You will obtain the career that you want with the help of your good credentials, advanced education, and the professional network you have built. But the promotions, recognition, high salary, and good benefits that you will receive will depend on the contribution that you will make to the company.

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Leveraging your Job Seeking Position by Highlighting your Academic Skills

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

After 3 or 4 years of hard work and study, you have received your PhD degree, and you wonder: "What is next in life?".

Very few PhD graduates remain in academia after obtaining their doctoral degree. Most of us will go to the industry.
And every so often, especially in the Netherlands, the following remark comes up during the hiring process:

"Why did you spend your time on doing research, while you now want to come and work in the industry? Shouldn't you have gone to work straight after your Master's degree and used these years to get real-life experience?."

When this question, or a similar remark comes up, don't feel offended or misunderstood. Instead, highlight your academic skills as a function of your job search. Needless to say, think thoroughly about this subject before you walk into the interview room...

While a number of years of experience in practice are certainly very valuable, these years in academia, especially while working towards a PhD degree, provide you with skills that might make you a more attractive candidate for the open position.

Let me restate that clearly: your doctoral training has made you an independent researcher, with an array of unique skills that are highly valuable in industry.

Depending on your field, you can think of the following skills that put you ahead of other applicants:

1. Analytical skills
Whether your PhD research relies on qualitative or quantitative data analysis, there is almost always a large chunk of analytical work involved in PhD research. Being able to handle large amounts of data is a skill needed by consultancy offices, private labs as well as many large technical companies.

2. Autonomy
Getting a PhD is all about becoming an independent researcher. No third or fourth year doctoral candidate has his/her adviser watching over his/her shoulder while working. You might be working weeks on end on something, trying out different paths, iterating, and making your own decisions. This large level of autonomy gives you the ability to work on larger projects, all by yourself, while being able to communicate your decisions and the reasons for these decisions to your superiors later on.

3. Ability to learn new topics and skills
A very typical situation during your PhD studies is one in which you run into a subject that you don't know much about, or one in which you seem to be needing a different computer program or programming language to continue your research work. Instead of lifting up your shoulders and thinking: "Well, too bad, I don't know that...", you head out to the library to pick up a book on the subject, read a couple of papers on the subject, follow an online tutorial or start getting involved in a programmer's forum. This ability to learn by yourself new topics and skills, combined with your autonomy, gives you the ability to advance quickly in your career in almost any given field.

4. Deep understanding of your field
Since a doctoral degree is the highest level of education you can achieve, you can pride yourself in the fact that you know more about a certain topic than most other people. In fact, when it comes down to your sub-topic of research, you can claim that you are the expert in your field on that topic - you simply are the only person who knows all the ins and outs of the topic you chose for your PhD studies.

5. Teamwork skills
A PhD degree is always the result of cooperation: with your supervisors, with funding institutions, with other researchers, and with laboratory technicians. Nobody ever graduated by brooding in his/her room in complete isolation for a couple of years and then spitting out 1000 pages of innovative research material. Being able to work in teams is one of the great skills you learn during your doctoral studies.

6. Writing skills
Those papers and that thesis didn't write themselves, and they certainly did not get written without developing sound academic writing skills. With all the writing practice you get during your doctoral years, you will be able to whisk together reports and briefings faster and in a clearer style than your peers who did not go into a PhD program.

7. Presentation skills
Just like you got a good training in (academic) writing during your PhD, you also got a good training at giving presentations. Remember your very first presentation in graduate school? Remember how nervous you were, and how afterwards you learned how to better structure your talks until it almost became second nature? You need to realize that this communication skill is again very valuable to prospective employers.

8. Extra skills you learned during your PhD
During your PhD years, you certainly picked up a few extra, general skills besides your analytical and communication skills. You might have taught yourself a programming language, you might have learned how to speed-read, or you might have taken a number of courses to sharpen your soft skills. Think about all these extra skills, and use them to your advantage to show the benefit of your years of doctoral study.

As I said earlier, make sure that you go well-prepared to your interview, by thinking about the additional benefit you can bring to a company through the skills and topics you mastered during your PhD research. Highlight the value of yourself and your skills as a function of the company where you are applying for a position: show them clearly what unique characteristics you are bringing into the company, and how the company will benefit from this.

An Expat Scholar’s View from the Gulf

Since I wrote a post about the topic of finding a job after the PhD, I've been receiving a lot of feedback from you guys (thanks so much!). One of the people who approached me to discuss the employment debate a little further is John Laprise, a Visiting Professor in Residence at Northwestern University in Qatar. He's about as interdisciplinary as you can get with degrees in Media, Technology and Society; War Studies; History; Religion; and Interdisciplinary Studies. He has also worked as a consultant in the private sector for a decade in the logistics, telecommunications and higher education sectors. John contacted me and told me about his story. Since I'm now a professor at a young university in a country that might be considered as "off the beaten path" as well, my curiosity was triggered, and I asked John to share his story on PhD Talk.

I recently re-entered the job market for the first time in ten years from Doha, Qatar. In 2003, I began my PhD at Northwestern. Five years later, they approached me and asked me to join the faculty of their new campus following my graduation. I was fortunate. I was the right person at the right place at the right time. I could teach needed courses, my research was portable, I had lived previously in the Middle East, I did not have a family to complicate relocation, and I had a solid reputation as a graduate student. I was also an older graduate student having spent ten years in the private sector consulting before returning to university.

In 2009 I arrived in Doha and for the past four years, I have been part of an amazing project. There have been many challenges. Starting a university campus is no small feat but the faculty, staff, and students have produced a truly remarkable program over the intervening years. Along the way, my faculty position has afforded me amazing opportunities. Northwestern supports active global scholarship at international conferences which has enabled me to stay connected with disciplinary colleagues and build new international networks of contacts and collaborators. Moreover, I have had truly unique opportunities for interaction ranging from a serendipitous coffee with Vint Cerf to chatting with cast members from Kevin Spacey’s touring production of Richard III. I have had the incredible good fortune to work with ictQatar, the government council that regulates and sets policy for information and communication technology. Many if not most of the amazing interactions I have had here are unthinkably improbable if I were a junior faculty member in the United States.

It is thus with some regret that I confront the end of my time in Doha and look forward to new challenges and opportunities. Unlike many colleagues who have written about the dismal state of the academic job market, I have a decidedly rosier if broader point of view.

I will never be unemployed unless I choose to be.

As an international academic, I quickly realized that as a holder of a US PhD, I would always be able to find a job if I did not limit myself to US academia. Start-up universities are eager to fill newly created faculty positions while existing universities are always interested in improving the prestige of their departments. While US universities receive significant criticism within the US, they have a strong global brand and a US PhD is prestige. PhD holders from US universities are globally rare and sought after, regardless of discipline. A PhD can be a credential for non-academic employment. International organizations and governments are eager to hire PhDs.

PhD holders are trained to be creators of new knowledge and in an information society that skill set is highly valuable.

Our information society thrives on the creation of new knowledge and PhD holders are an important part of that ecology. A PhD announces expertise at creating and sharing new knowledge in a critical and intellectually rigorous way. Disciplinarity is in some ways less important than the skill set that comes with the discipline. These skills are also very valuable outside of academia. I am a historian of computers and the same skills I use to sift through archives and construct narratives is equally useful when I consult on trends in technology policy.

I want to be paid for doing intellectually challenging work with people I like.

My happiness is important to me and I value it highly. Crucially, I do not define who or what or where my employer might be. I think of myself as a renaissance artisan or condottiere whose work is supported by a patron. When the funding runs out, the contract ends, or the interests of patron and scholar diverge, I must find a new patron. This does not diminish the quality of my work or my professionalism. This is the situation I find myself in currently. Northwestern has established itself in Qatar and is now developing a strong regional research program while I study White House computerization. “It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.”

Non-tenure track faculty are underpaid academic consultants.

Post-docs, visiting and adjunct faculty tread academic water hoping for a tenure track line, but most will drown without ever landing that position. If these academic consultants decided to ply their trade in the private sector, they would almost certainly command equal if not better compensation and work-life balance but this is not an easy choice because:

Academics tend to identify with their knowledge rather than their skills.

Academic position are frequently advertised by looking for scholars with knowledge in particular areas. The private sector is interested in what skills you have. For many academics, setting aside their knowledge in a subject and identifying with the skills of an archival researcher for instance can be difficult. One big exception are scholars who are methods pioneers. They tend to make the jump without a problem. This is compounded by the fact that:

Academia does not encourage taking risks.

Graduate students spend five or more years at the mercy of their committees. In some cases, this is a benevolent tyranny but in others it’s more like the Terror. Tenure-track faculty are no less ruled by tenure review committees. So for ten or more years, academics are encouraged to take some risks but only within circumscribed bounds. It’s no wonder that many academics fear a private sector job search.

It has never been easier to search for a job.

Internet ubiquity and the global hunger to fill challenging positions means that employment and networking opportunities abound. Spread your wings and move a little outside your comfort zone. Odds are your comfort zone is actually bigger than you thought it was.

Four Tips That Will Get You Noticed During a Job Interview

Today we are expanding on the topic of finding a job after the PhD. This guest post by Ross Jilling gives you some ideas on how to stand out when you go for a job in the industry.

The economy has made finding a job increasingly difficult, but when you reach the interview stage there are a few steps you can take to increase your chances of landing the position. Being polite, forthcoming, honest, prepared, well-dressed and having extra resumes are all excellent preparation to be made, but if you focus on a few key areas, you’ll stand apart from the pack and increase your chances tremendously. Companies want employees who can communicate well, are personable, and know how to behave in professional settings, and the following will help prove that you are capable of such tasks.

Speak With Authority
The most common mistake people make during interviews is to speak elaborately and meekly. Filler words such as “um” and “like” should be avoided while talking to the interviewer. If necessary, pause while speaking to collect your ideas instead of using filler words. The company wants to see that you can communicate effectively, and as a professional. Verb tense should never be passive, either. A passive tense is typically dull, and many people find it boring. Instead, use active tenses to increase your own energy and raise the interviewer’s interest.

Remaining confident and upbeat can also help, but don’t be disingenuous. An interviewer may think that you come off as fake if you behave with too high-levels of energy. Instead, try to maintain a natural and healthy level of positive energy.

Practice Your Posture
Aside from speech, your posture is the second most important outward trait that others will use to judge you. It’s important not to slouch, recline, or sit awkwardly. It’s also best not to lean against objects while standing and to retain an upright posture. While seated, sit upright, back straight, with your feet planted firmly on the floor, or crossed. Hands should remain at your sides while standing, or in your lap while sitting; never fiddle with objects, play with garments, or fidget since unnecessary distractions may interrupt your thoughts and make conversation awkward.

Eye contact is another important and often-neglected aspect of posture. It may be difficult, but don’t let your eyes wander while speaking to the interviewer. Eye contact creates a human connection, and it also affirms an assertive presence.

Personal Speech
There are common questions asked during nearly every interview. One is surely a variation of “tell me about yourself.” Always prepare for this question by creating a story about your past that has shaped your values, accomplishments, and goals. Make it informative but brief, so the interviewer may ask you questions afterward. Beforehand, do some research about the company and tie the organization’s values into your story as well.

Dress to Succeed
Most interviews will require business dress. For men, that means a button-down shirt and tie, slacks, and dress shoes. For women, it means a business suit, a blouse and skirt, or a dress paired with nice shoes. Appearing at an interview with a slovenly or casual appearance is unacceptable, and most interviewers will discard the interview, no matter how impressive you may be. Choose clothing that fits well and you’ll stand out on your own. Friends or family can help you choose clothing that works best, but remember to dress conservatively and in a way that doesn’t distract from the interview.

It’s important to stand out in a positive way during job interviews. Many interviewers will interview dozens of people, and your chances of getting the job drop dramatically if the interviewer cannot recall much about your time together. Speak clearly, maintain a strong presence, prepare a story that identifies you, dress well, and you’ll stand apart from the crowd.

Ross Jilling writes es all about employment and education. His recent work is a piece titled "Smart Choice 25 Best Online Colleges"

Finding employment outside of academia

Recently, I interviewed Samuel Oduneye, after his comment on "Getting a Job, after the PhD".

Samuel was awarded his PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto, and just starting working in management consulting (as a healthcare consultant). You can follow him on Twitter @Samuel_ITL .

As I got curious about the many opportunities freshly graduated doctors have in industry, that rely on the generic skills you learned during your PhD, I invited Samuel for an interview.



I've summarized some of the main points that Samuel taught me during the interview.

First of all, there are 3 things to consider for your post-PhD career:
1. Your title is important. It shows your credentials and it can count as a guarantee for a certain level that can be expected from you.
2. Your degree and your title can help you to get a foot in the door and build an audience, but they won't make your career. You'll need to show that you have something to bring to the table.
3. You need a plan!

Regardless of the career you choose after getting your PhD, there are 3 important skills that you learned in graduate school and that you can use as a selling point when you are applying for positions:
1. Communication: all this writing and presenting we did in the past years make us quite experienced communicators.
2. Teamwork: no PhD is a completely solitary experience. You might be working with lab technicians, other scientists, students or senior faculty, and this all teaches you how to perform in a team.
3. Analytical and problem-solving skills: besides solving riddles that were part of our PhD, we are suited for cracking tough nuts regardless of their field of application.

Finally, there is a number of common professions and career paths that are suitable for young doctors. CaleD wrote a series of posts on the blog of Medical Biophysics at University of Toronto, titled "The Inevitable Career Search". These blog posts help us think out of the box and off the well trodden path of academia. The following are careers that might appeal to you:
1. Management Consultancy: This is the career path Samuel chose, and you can hear his description in the interview.
2. Patent Lawyer or Patent Agent: Intellectual property is a buzzword these days, and your technical understanding can be required in a patent office.
3. Financial Services: The banks need people with strong analytical skills for data analysis.
4. Technical Writer: This career path lies relatively close to all the writing you did during the 4 to 5 years of your PhD.
5. Policy Analyst: Both in the public and private sector, your analytical skills will come in handy to weigh qualitative and/or quantitative data to help make informed decisions.
6. Technology Transfer and Business Development: Working at the intersection of industry, academia and law, you can use your communication skills and analytical skills to find a market for a research proposal.

If you have more questions on the possible career paths after your PhD, or management consultancy in particular, you can contact Samuel on Twitter.