Leaving Academia: How To Get A Job In Industry After Your PhD By Julio Peironcely JUMPING INTO INDUSTRY: Getting a job in industry after your PhD is an honorable alternative to an academic career. Despite its appeal, many PhD students seem terrified to take the jump. Many graduates have been in school their entire lives, and hesitate to leave, even though your degree is really your ticket out. I watched the struggles of many of my friends who stayed in academia, and I decided it was not for me. I could choose low-paying jobs as a lab assistant or visiting professor, or try to climb the ladder to a professorship, but that required an unknown number of years as a postdoc with limited pay and flexibility. WILL YOU AND INDUSTRY BE A GOOD MATCH? If I have to sell myself, I will sell to the highest bidder. And industry pays better. You might be thinking that I am only after the money. In part yes. I also have to pay the bills and I like to burn cash to enjoy life. But I am also after the wealth of opportunities you have in industry. There are hundreds of companies countrywide where I can continue my career in case I need to make a switch. There are many alternative careers for PhD students. Compare that with the 5 academic groups worldwide where I can make a switch. In Academia you spend your years going deeper and deeper in a topic. You end up knowing a lot about a very little thing. While it might be interesting for some people, I prefer variety and change. So what do I have to offer industry as a PhD? In my case, I had been very busy doing all kinds of data modeling. I analyzed chemical data to find patterns in the properties of molecules, and I built models to classify molecules. I found out that in industry, there's a need for data modeling and analytical skills. Financial companies want to find patterns in the stock market. Companies want to classify their customers so they can provide them with targeted products. The list goes on and on. So how do you convince a company to hire you? Let's see why I would not hire you if I was the HR recruiter: * You are not a fresh young master's graduate ready to be groomed by the corporate philosophy. * You have little relevant industry experience. * Because of your age you are a bit expensive. * With a PhD, you get the label "smart guy" (nothing further from reality). This for some people means "he gets bored easily if not challenged". SUCCESS REQUIRES HUSTLING: When I started my job search, my friends thought my chances were poor. I know I am no special guy, just an average dude, but I also knew that I could hustle. If you have a clear goal, and are willing to do all that it takes, you hustle, and you can succeed. Use all the resources available. Poke your network, former colleagues, friends of friends, everybody. Keep in mind that just having a PhD doesn't mean that jobs will come floating into your mailbox. You have to focus on your goal. * What kind of job do you want? Think of required skills, responsibilities, type of industry. This will help you to find the right job offers. Try to build some excitement in your mind about the job you want; recruiters will notice. * What are the keywords? You need to learn the jargon if you want to use Google Search and LinkedIn effectively. Figure out which title or headline the jobs you want are posted. In my case this is "data scientist", "data analyst" or "business intelligence". * Create an alert in Google. Go to Google Alerts and create multiple search queries using the keywords you identified before (add also "job offer" or "vacancy" or "we're hiring"). You will receive a weekly summary of what's new on the web concerning those words. * Know your weaknesses. Are you missing important skills? Maybe the recruiter thinks people coming from Academia are not good team players or communicators. Think how you can appear more competent in those areas. * Know and highlight your strengths. In my case, this was data analysis and building predictive models, very much in demand in this era of Big Data. I was also good at giving presentations (good for visiting customers and presenting results to bosses) and working in a multidisciplinary project (good for projects that involve different departments within a company) * Do you know people (that know people) in some of the companies you are targeting? Ask them for an introduction. Collect all the information you can: what skills and type of people they are looking for, expected salary, selection procedure, working environment. Let everybody know you are job hunting. Make sure they understand the type of job you want. Use LinkedIn to contact people who already have the kind of job you want. Don’t just rely on the people you know, also contact people outside your network. They can give you advice, or look around in their company for job offers. Contacting via LinkedIn has the advantage that people can immediately see your profile and your face. Add a profile photo and try to have a 100% completed profile. Customize your CV and cover letter. Mention the precise job offer. If possible, address your letter by name to the recruiter that posted the vacancy, or the HR person handling the process, or the manager who's looking for you. Send reminders and follow-up emails and thank yous. Sometimes people say "send me your CV and I will distribute it around my company". Other times you submit your CV via the company website and hear nothing for weeks. A good hustler will send some follow-up emails asking for the status of the selection process. The delay can be due to a key decision maker on holiday or that the CVs will only be reviewed after a certain date, but could also just be because someone forgot, or was stalling. Don't let good news fool you! Keep hustling even if you've been promised an interview with your dream company. Keep sending emails, CVs and contact requests. There will be many false starts and lost opportunities, and you aren't done until you're actually signing a contract. Don't take bad news personally. Even if you are the perfect person for a job, the decision process involves human factors over which you have no control. Don't get discouraged, but if you're really puzzled by a rejection, it's reasonable to ask them what you could do to improve your chances next time. PREPARE FOR YOUR INTERVIEW: Once you land an interview, you need to use this chance to convince them that you are their ideal candidate. * Know who they are looking for. Look at that job posting one more time. If one of the mandatory requisites is to have 10 years of business experience, well, sorry my friend, but this is not your league. On the other hand, if they ask for 2-3 years, you could argue that you spent 2 or 3 years during your PhD using one of the required skills for the job. Or if you have previously worked in a company (as it was my case) mention that as general business experience. * Show that you are the person they are looking for. Know the skills and personality traits you have that make you a good employee. Be prepared to volunteer, without embarrassment, the things you do well. * Believe you are the person they are looking for. Concentrate on aspects of the job that excite you, and be prepared to talk about them. Trust me, recruiters can easily figure out if your motivation is just money rather than an interest in the job. * A company might be skeptical of a fresh PhD. They may think you have no experience with teamwork, or deadlines, or multiple tasks, or business travel, or taking direction from a manager. It’s not bad to mention that you are capable of working on a long project, with little oversight, that you can handle a complex task, split it into smaller parts, finish all of them, and write a very long report. Let them know that you can work independently and that you can be held accountable. IT WORKED FOR ME: After writing all this advice, I should tell you that it really worked for me, and I got a job in industry! It’s with one of the Big Four consultancy companies. I will do, as I wished, data analysis. So hopefully I will still use some of the hard skills I developed during my PhD. The summary of interviews and job offers is as follows: * I applied to around 20 jobs. * 6 different companies gave me interviews. * 4 companies took me through to the 3rd and final interview. * 2 choose a different candidate. * 2 made me offers. In this process I have learned a lot: Be flexible and always available for interviews. I went to the first interview with my new employer two days after my daughter was born. I could have canceled, but I wanted the job and I didn’t want to take risks. A job opportunity won't wait for your convenience. At the end of the meeting, when asked about my tired faced, I let them know that I just had my first sleepless night as a father. As a student you might usually dress in old jeans and sneakers. But if you're looking for jobs outside of academia, it's important to dress well, and that especially means for interviews. Buy a decent suit, two good shirts, and a tie. Polish your shoes. Appear friendly, not too talkative, not too shy. Demonstrate that despite being a nerd, a bookworm or a crazy scientist, you can still interact socially. Plan wisely when you want to start your new job. Look for a job in early spring, autumn or winter, never before or during summer. Summer is the slow season, not many projects are running and therefore less pressure to hire people. A couple of companies with which I interviewed said they would gladly hire me, unfortunately they had not enough work at the moment (late spring). And with that, I wish you good luck in your search!