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What is a PhD supposed to do when you send hundreds of resumes out and get nothing back but a few automated responses? This is the question I was trying to answer in my last year of graduate school. I literally sent out hundreds of resumes. I posted my resume to Monster and other resume aggregation sites and waited for the tidal wave of industry PhD job offers to roll in. Of course, this didn’t happen. I polished up a generic resume and uploaded it to dozens of industry job websites. I remember getting on Pfizer and Shire’s websites, clicking…

The holidays were not so happy for my family as my husband was about to be laid off by his employer due to funding restraints at the lab. Employers hire but they truly do not care. We had finally come to realize that academia does not look after people. Even after dedicating our time and effort to writing grants, publishing papers, and tirelessly working for hours in the lab, we were expendable.  This was a wake-up call; the plight of a postdoc in academia. We started sending our resumes to every company in January with the hope of a miracle. Endless…

I didn’t start my LinkedIn profile until after the pandemic hit. Suddenly, I had some time on my hands and desperately needed a job. I quickly threw one together and connected with everyone I could think of. I had 100 connections and a Social Selling Index (SSI) score of 12. Luckily I had learned about SSI in a recent Cheeky Scientist webinar. So, even though I joined LinkedIn pretty late in my PhD career, I knew enough to get me started.  I decided to improve my SSI score before I even started looking for a job. It made me very…

I began my job search optimistic and determined. There was a job posting that seemed to be written specifically for me. I had all the qualifications, the work was extremely interesting. It was as if I had written exactly what I was looking for in a job and there it was on a job site. I spent all my time on the resume and did not touch my LinkedIn. I felt for sure I would get it, it was just too perfect. Finally, I hit “submit” and waited. For weeks, I heard nothing but I was patient. Then I got…

I remember this interview as if it was yesterday. I was just a couple of months out of grad school and actively reaching out to potential clients to establish myself as a freelance medical writer. My biggest mistake was not using silence to my advantage.  This was my third round of interview with this client – I had already made it through the phone screen and the writing test – and it was supposed to be the last. It was a virtual panel interview with the lead editor and fact checker.  I had been preparing for this for weeks, researching…

When I started writing my dissertation in September, I kept my head down. I was focused and determined. I ignored all social gatherings, all other responsibilities, this was my prime directive. 200 pages later, it was done, approved by my committee and my defense date was set, March 7th, 2020.  The defense went great, standing room only. For the first time in months, I could breathe.  Little did I know this would be the last in-person defense at my campus for the foreseeable future. Not even 10 days later, the world would shut down, the pandemic closed everything. I was…

When I told my labmates I was working on my LinkedIn profile, they said what for? In their eyes LinkedIn was not for academics. Obviously, since I was getting a PhD in academia, there was no place for me in industry, I had to stay in academia. And so, I stopped asking them to connect. I stopped asking other academics within my university to connect too, and soon I stopped asking everyone to connect. My LinkedIn profile laid dormant for several years while I went through grad school. As I neared the end of my PhD, I realized I wasn’t…

The world is your canvas and informational interviews are your paintbrush. What does that even mean? I was a PhD looking for an industry job, and that was the kind of advice I used to get. But this one I really struggled with: You’re a PhD – you can do anything. Hearing this sentiment over and over again was not empowering for me, but infuriating. Why? Because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Sure, I could do anything…  But that still left me very lost. The tide shifted when I discovered informational interviews. An informational interview is when…

Are you submitting your resume to online job postings? You might be surprised to learn that your resume is never even seen by a human being. 98% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking software, according to Jobscan. Large-size firms (those that employ more than 500 individuals) receive many thousands of resumes every week. The only way their hiring departments can be functional is by using tracking software to weed out unqualified candidates. This puts applicants in kind of a tough spot - optimize your resume to get through the tracking software or get used to rejection. Even highly qualified…

According to its parent company Microsoft, LinkedIn has 630 million professionals in over 200 countries registered as members.Over 30,000 companies in the US use LinkedIn for recruiting new hires, and over 3 million US jobs are posted on LinkedIn every month.Hiring trends in industry show that employers are increasingly factoring in the social media profiles of job candidates in their recruitment processes. That means, a professional LinkedIn profile and online engagement is a critical component of job search strategy for PhDs.What does your LinkedIn profile look like?

If you are using the internet as your main tool for learning about new job opportunities then you are missing out on the vast majority of available jobs. You’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg, as they say. For example, PayScale reported that between 70-80% of jobs are not advertised. Many companies do not advertise positions because the role will be filled through a referral faster than the advertisement can be made. Other companies incentivise employees and prefer candidates who come with a referral. The Association For Talent Development reported that you can expect to earn 6% more if…

LinkedIn is a huge professional networking platform and it is growing. Hootsuite reported that 2 people join LinkedIn every second and, LinkedIn currently has more than 590 million users. This is an incredible resource for you to leverage. If you are not using LinkedIn you are missing out on a powerful resource. Plus, Forbes reported that 45% of the people on LinkedIn are in upper management. This is a place where you can connect with and learn from company leaders. Within the vast network of LinkedIn you will be able to find people in the companies and positions that you…