Tips for Navigating Non-Academic PhD Career Paths

If you’re trying to transition from academia to industry, stop worrying about getting new skills. I often have conversations with PhD students whose first question is “What skills should I be trying to acquire to make myself marketable outside of academia?” I remember meeting a literature PhD with an accomplished research and teaching record who was convinced that she had to get data science certifications to be hireable. And sure, if you are bored with your current skill set and the idea of, say, working with quantitative data in your future career excites you, then go for it! Do it for yourself. But expanding your skills shouldn’t be your top priority in the job search. With a PhD, you’ve already accumulated so many valuable skills and experiences that make you an excellent candidate for all kinds of roles. Some of the problem is that PhDs have a narrow conception of what “jobs for PhDs” look like, and those jobs may overrepresent certain technical skills you may not have. But you can already do a lot. You can plan research, manage projects and budgets, process large amounts of new information quickly, work across disciplinary boundaries, mentor others, and communicate to varied audiences. And that’s all before any domain-specific knowledge comes in. Instead, learn how to talk about your skills. Figure out the jargon of your target industry, and translate your experiences into it. Prepare the right anecdotes to show your stuff and practice explaining them to people outside your field. Spend time reflecting on your experiences, so you don’t lose potentially valuable pieces of data about yourself that you may have forgotten. Invest in figuring out the narrative for why you are the right person for this job - it’s a lot more efficient than trying to change yourself into someone else. Bottom line, it doesn’t matter how many skills you acquire if you can’t activate them with proper communication. You probably already have the raw material to make it. Spend less time gathering more materials, and more time shaping them into something other people can see and appreciate. It’s easier to sell a small, well-crafted statue than a giant pile of marble.

Fawzi Abou-Chahine became a chemist because he wanted to understand why he saw a color change in a liquid. But now he sees himself as a truth seeker in business. In his current role as Head of Grant Funding at FI Group, Fawzi helps large and small companies secure funding to fuel their growth. He told me, "I need to be able to articulate the work they do, the justification for funding and how it will deliver impact. So that requires a series of skills that my PhD helped develop, specifically understanding lots of information that I'm not familiar with, being able to concisely communicate that clearly, and analyze lots of information." But Fawzi initially struggled to transition from higher ed into industry. He chronicles this process in "A Jobseeker's Diary," which attends as much to the emotional burden of a career pivot as it does to practical matters, such as translating academic skills into business terms. Fawzi suggests 3 strategies for PhDs searching for non-academic roles: 🔹 Master the language of industry. Shift from passive to active communication, from the collective "we" to the personal "I." Understand that academic work has a commercial side that can be leveraged in other contexts. 🔹 Learn to identify which of your skills are relevant to a role and which are not. 🔹 Seek feedback on where you're going wrong. You won't know what to improve until you ask. And sometimes following up on a failed application leads to other opportunities. Fawzi reminded me that each of us is more than our current role. He was always more than a chemist, just as he is now more than a fundraiser. That mindset is also a useful reminder throughout the grind and isolation of a job search. Successful people don't catastrophize their mistakes; they have the confidence to accept them and move on. You can listen to an 18-minute preview of our conversation at The Recovering Academic (link in the comments). Or catch the full episode with a free 7-day trial. A membership unlocks more exclusive interviews, original essays, and craft resources. #academetoindustry #recoveringacademics #HireHigherEd #TranslateAcademia

Want to make the leap from academia to biotech? In this podcast episode, I sit down with Ali Divan, Ph.D. and founder of Trulitica, where he coaches life sciences PhDs on transitioning into biotech careers. Ali shares his own journey from a postdoc to a thriving industry career and offers practical advice on: - Why biotech is an attractive option for many PhDs  - The key skills and mindsets needed to succeed in the industry  - Networking strategies and resume tips specific to biotech jobs  - Identifying the right companies and roles to target based on your skills Whether you're a life sciences PhD considering a career change or just curious about the biotech world, this episode offers actionable insights to help you navigate the transition. Listen to the full conversation, and let me know your biggest takeaway in the comments. And if you know someone planning their post-PhD career moves, tag them or share this episode. Link in comments. #biotechcareers #industryjobs #phdcareers #academiavsindustry #careerchange #biotech

One of the biggest challenges that I encounter with doctoral students and post-docs looking to transition into non-academic roles is communicating how what they did in their scholarly work serves an instrumental purpose. I don't mean how their overall research program serves a purpose beyond adding to the literature. I'm talking much more micro than that. What is the instrumental purpose of... ->Conducting a lit review ->Running a pilot study ->Reporting out results to a PI or research team ->Running a statistical analysis ->Doing qualitative coding ->Developing an assay ->Close reading a text ->Speaking at a conference Once we break things down into the "Why" is where the stories for resumes and interviews really take hold.