Articles Written By Isaiah Hankel, PhD

Tenured positions are disappearing fast. This is a problem because tenure is the only thing graduate school is geared to prepare students for. Now that tenure positions are drying up, students and postdocs are left empty handed. If you’re a graduate student or postdoc, you are not alone. Everything that’s holding you back is also holding others back. The key is to know that your’e not the only one going through a hard time. Here are 10 things you should keep in mind as you continue down your academic career path.

Having a PhD is a significant advantage. PhDs get paid higher than non-PhDs and are in high demand. Trained professionals who know how to create information, not just repackage it, are desperately needed. Entrepreneurship and innovation are at an all time high. These trends will continue as the economy continues to favor innovation. If you have a PhD or are on your way to having one and you’re reading this, the future is yours. The only thing that can hold you back is yourself—by choosing to be one dimensional and choosing to ignore the less objective soft skills that will…

Have you gone to a scientific conference lately? Have you worked a booth? If so, you’ve probably noticed how many students, starving postdocs, and unemployed PhDs come up to you asking for a job. It's not their fault though. They just want to get paid a decent salary for a change. If you’re behind the booth, it’s annoying. You’re there to help your customers, not to get someone a job. If you’re in front of the booth trying to get a business card, it’s painful. Walking up and introducing yourself to strangers in the hopes of getting a job is…

Navigating the bridge from academia to industry is not easy, especially for PhDs. It’s hard to know where to start. You can save a lot of time, energy, and frustration by ignoring the advice of people who have no idea what they’re talking about. If you want a PhD-level job in industry, avoid taking industry advice from these 3 people.

Everyone is negotiating for something. Whether or not you understand how negotiating works, it is being used against you. This is especially true when you're applying for a job, interviewing, or trying to get a promotion. The problem is that most people, especially PhDs, don't know how to negotiate salary. There are, however, a few savvy PhDs who take the time to learn about negotiating and are happier (and richer) for it. Here are 10 tips to help you negotiate salary contracts higher.

The only way to get industry employers to notice you is to do things differently. Instead of trying to be the best needle in a haystack, try to get as far away from the haystack as possible. Stop trying to force your way through the crowd to get noticed. This strategy will never work. A better strategy is to completely differentiate you from your peers. Here are 7 things you can do to differentiate yourself from other PhDs and industry employers will hand pick you for open positions.

Even if you want to stay in academia, you should NOT limit yourself to staying in academia. You should identify your transferable skills, develop new skill sets, and position yourself for success at or away from the bench. Whether or not you want to transition into a research, applications, sales, marketing, management, or some other position in industry, the time to start preparing is now. Here are 3 things you can do to prepare.

Almost half of all job hires at top tier companies are from networking referrals. If you're about to graduate and haven't started networking yet, it's not too late. There are some things you can do to get you back on track fast. Here are 5 things that will help you get ahead and transition into industry.

Meeting someone for the first time activates both your amygdala, which is one of the few areas of the brain that receives information from all your senses at once, and your posterior cingular cortex, which controls your autobiographical memory, emotional memory, and attention. First impressions stick and having good interpersonal skills is the key to making a good first impression. The good news is you can improve your interpersonal skills any time by following a few simple guidelines.

The number of PhDs who will have a business job at or soon after graduation is below 40%. And the number of Life Sciences PhDs who will have a business job at graduation is below 20%. The truth is most PhDs will never get a job in business even though they’re doing all the right things. The problem is they’re doing the wrong things too. The key to starting a great career in business learning what not to do. Here are 5 things to avoid.

More than anything else, big companies want to hire confident people who understand the system. The problem is that the system in question is different than what most graduate students and postdocs are used to. But this system, like any other, can be mastered. Here are 15 things PhDs can do to make themselves better job candidates for big corporations.

If you want a high-paying job, you have to come to terms with one simple fact--selling products makes money. Buying and selling is the transaction that drives all business. The closer a particular job is to that transaction, the more money the person doing that job gets paid. This is why most big companies pay their salespeople in the field more money than they pay anyone else. The great news for PhDs is they know a lot about the equipment, reagents, and technologies that companies sell. This knowledge is useful, not just in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, but in…