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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…

We’ve seen dramatic changes in the job market since the start of 2020; the fundamentals are changing. From the first wave of lockdowns to the mid-year hiring boom and then the second wave of lockdowns, and now –  the vaccine rollout.  We’ve observed the highest month of PhD hiring ever since we started tracking PhD hiring nearly a decade ago.  The month was November, 2020.  But this boom was followed by an 81% drop in PhD hiring.  And now, with a lot of uncertainty around future corporate tax rates in many countries, we are seeing PhD hiring stagnate in this…

Here is the funny thing that most PhDs don’t understand - your PhD is incredibly valuable and so are you, BUT you are not above the job search process. You and your PhD don’t give you a free pass to not have to learn to speak the language of industry, to not have to follow up, to not have to learn industry buzzwords and transferable skills; to not have to practice behavioral questions, on and on. Being smart, proven, or successful in one area does not make you any of those things in another area. Get over yourself. Otherwise, you…

Most PhDs think that they can get hired overnight once they start uploading their resume.  Unfortunately, this is just not true.  As an example, Irene Minkina, PhD, a member of our Cheeky Scientist Association, was applying for 5 months before she made progress. Irene uploaded 25 total resumes, took 6 writing tests, and had 6 total interviews.   PhDs who do not have any career training often have to load more than 200 resumes before they get an interview.  This just shows that a bad resume can keep you from getting a job and a good resume is not enough to…

What is the difference between a Data Analyst and a Data Scientist? Well, salary, for one.  Data scientists get paid more.  Transferable skills for another.  Data Scientists have the ability to not only understand and communicate technical data, but business data as well.  In fact, they can translate technical data into business data. This ability to translate, to “speak nerd and normal person” as I like to say, is the differentiator for most of the top industry PhD careers available right now.  Finally, job candidates with Bachelor degrees and Master’s degrees only are often hired into Data Analyst roles, while…

If you think employers or job recruiters are going to read your resume word for word, you’re wrong. The people reviewing your resumé are skimming at best.  Eye tracking studies show that employers only spend 5-7 seconds on a resume (HRDive).  Those same studies show that resumes are read in a F-shape, whereby employers skim the top one-third or so of the resume (the first horizontal bar of the F-shape), which is known as the Visual Center, then skim down the left-hand side of the first page and, if you’re lucky, the second page (the vertical bar of the F-shape). …

Studies show that 525 resumes are received for every open position but only 1 person will get hired into this position. PhDs chase one lead at a time via the outdated process of uploading their resume to a job site, when the process does not move forward, having to start all over again. Most PhDs never make it out of academia for long because they do not have the stomach for a high level job search. But You can be different. By leaning into the challenging, or tortuous parts of your job search, instead of avoiding them, you can save…

Want to increase your eligibility for the top PhD jobs? Consider our Data Scientist Career Program. You’ll get everything you need to start your career. We have seen so many PhDs without industry experience and without data science experience getting hired into Data Scientist roles, while seeing many more fail to get hired into this career track simply for being invisible to employers, that we decided to create an Advanced Program dedicated to this career path. Our Data Scientist Advanced Program ensures that your resumé, LinkedIn profile, and interview answers appeal to top-paying industry employers. The Program will also ensure…

Here is the funny thing that most PhDs don’t understand - your PhD is incredibly valuable and so are you, BUT you are not above the job search process. You and your PhD don’t give you a free pass to not have to learn to speak the language of industry, to not have to follow up, to not have to learn industry buzzwords and transferable skills; to not have to practice behavioral questions, on and on. Being smart, proven, or successful in one area does not make you any of those things in another area. Get over yourself. Otherwise, you…

Too many PhDs, are so brainwashed into thinking that their PI is some kind of omnipresent and omnipotent force in their career, that they will do whatever it takes to keep them happy, even going as far as working for free after they run out of funding. PhDs need to shake off this mindset and deprioritize their PI and their academic career if they would ever be able to transition into academia. Academic letters of recommendation, even from the most prestigious PI, are worthless in industry.

It’s essential to know beforehand what could potentially drain your energy in a job search. Knowing thy enemy ahead gives you a heads up on the war plan. Once you face a hurdle, your brain automatically looks for —an alternative— something else to do. Your brain will come up with several excuses trying to mold you away from that step. Discouragement, anger, gloom, self-pity are a few emotions that you might experience when faced with an obstacle. These emotions could dissuade you from attempting to overcome the obstacle. Redirect your emotions positively, avoid the stress and focus on the job…

My job search strategy felt inadequate, it was a painful experience. I was perplexed. My frustration knew no bounds, self pity and doubt shrouded me. I could not understand where I was going wrong. I spent days fixing my resume. Then, applied for one job at a time and waited to hear back from hiring managers and recruiters for 2 weeks before starting with the next job application. I applied for every single job that came my way. The wait was painful, it was excruciating to bear the silence from the other end.  Every moment I questioned myself; why would such…