Best Of Transition: PhD Jobs & Job Search Strategies, April 24th 2021

Every week, we at Cheeky Scientist scour the Internet for the best articles on topics that help in the search for the Best of Transition: PhD Job Search in the industry. Our two consultants independently search for the most informative articles in the categories of networking, CVs/resumes, interviews, transferable skills, academic blues, industry positions, and business acumen. Our consultants vote on a top article for each category and a top overall article for the week – if it’s a recent article that can help readers find and acquire PhD jobs, then we want to include it in this weekly digest.…

In the beginning, you only bothered with applications for your dream industry postings.  They had openings. You have a PhD and the skills.  It seemed like an open-and-shut case. Days turned into weeks. Your phone never rang, and your inbox stayed empty. “They probably already filled the position before seeing my application. They can’t exactly backtrack after hiring someone.” You moved on to your second-tier choices, then third, and then whoever else had a relevant opening with a salary you could live with. Sadly, this is usually the point where most PhDs give up and sentence themselves to a resentful…

My resume is above average. Certainly it’s at the mean. That was my belief when I started my job search. I’m way ahead of where I should be when it comes to transitioning into industry. I mean …I haven’t even graduated and I was already looking at options. That was another belief I had when I started my industry job search. Looking back, I’m amazed at how unscientific my approach was when it came to the most important thing in my life at the time – my career. In retrospect, I had no idea what I was doing. I was…

Every week, we at Cheeky Scientist scour the Internet for the best articles on topics that help in the search for the Best of Transition: PhD Job Search in the industry. Our two consultants independently search for the most informative articles in the categories of networking, CVs/resumes, interviews, transferable skills, academic blues, industry positions, and business acumen. Our consultants vote on a top article for each category and a top overall article for the week – if it’s a recent article that can help readers find and acquire PhD jobs, then we want to include it in this weekly digest.…

PhDs are increasingly being hired in the top-paying jobs across industries. So, there is no reason for you to stay stuck in academia where PhD salaries are stagnant or plummeting. The U.S. National Institute of Health reports a starting annual salary of US $37,740 for academic postdocs and a study published in Nature reported a starting salary of US $23,660 — the minimum wage set by the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act.  Even with the current inflation, the average salaries for postdocs are below $49,999 per year. This means that rent and prices of other day to day products and…

Every week, we at Cheeky Scientist scour the Internet for the best articles on topics that help in the search for the Best of Transition: PhD Job Search in the industry. Our two consultants independently search for the most informative articles in the categories of networking, CVs/resumes, interviews, transferable skills, academic blues, industry positions, and business acumen. Our consultants vote on a top article for each category and a top overall article for the week – if it’s a recent article that can help readers find and acquire PhD jobs, then we want to include it in this weekly digest.…

I thought I was doing what PhDs were “supposed” to do. After 10 years of hard work, I was reaching a major milestone: my thesis.  But, in the back of my mind, I knew I was treating my thesis like a means to an end. How could I not? I was a 32-year-old student, who had never actually worked a day in the field, turning over stones for a groundbreaking discovery.  Sure, I knew my stuff and had confidence (I was a PhD after all). But there’s a certain type of confidence that you can only earn through the mundane…

There is a crisis in academia. PhD salaries are stagnant. The economy is facing inflation, yet PhD salaries are dropping. One of the worst mistakes you can make in your professional career is staying in academia beyond your PhD. The sooner you realize this, the better it is for your career and your overall future. PhDs are exceedingly valuable in industry. During your time in graduate school, you acquired mastery over a field of study. You learned how to research, analyze, innovate, and present data. Furthermore, you  learned to innovate and push the boundaries of knowledge.   You amassed skills such…

I thought I had it all figured out when I started my industry job search from academia. I had several excuses. Before I even started, I told myself “There’s no rush Isaiah, you have plenty of time to get hired” and “You have a PhD and on top of this it’s a STEM PhD, you will be able to get a job in no time.” Then, of course, when I didn’t get any responses from the resumes that I uploaded online, I continued to tell myself lies like “There’s not jobs out there right now so I should just wait to…