Cheeky Scientist Radio Podcast

Join Isaiah as he shares the fear-based behaviors that get PhDs rejected and strategies to overcome them to be hired in the top industry jobs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why fear-based behaviors make PhDs stagnant in their job searchNext, Isaiah reveals what are the different types of fearFinally, Isaiah describes the strategies to overcome fear-based behaviors that get PhDs rejected  From This Week’s Show…  Why Several PhDs Are Stagnant In Their Job Search Fear restricts potential. It creates a bubble that’s difficult to permeate. Unemployment is one of the biggest fears in the life of a PhD. PhDs end up unemployed for a variety of reasons. However, fear based behaviors are getting PhDs rejected in their job search even when there is a demand for them in the job market. Globally, there is a shortage of labor in the job markets. Higher level jobs such as data scientists, medical science, liaison, and beyond are facing a labor shortage. These are some of the highest paying careers for PhDs exclusively. So many PhDs are hesitating in their job search. What is the reason for this behavior? What is the underlying emotion for this behavior? …

Join Isaiah as he shares about unemployment and the professional values important for PhDs to get hired into top industry positions Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why many PhDs face unemploymentNext, Isaiah reveals why PhDs should not feel held back by a sense of dutyFinally, Isaiah describes the professional values important for PhDs to avoid unemployment  From This Week’s Show…  Why Many PhDs Face Unemployment Unemployment is one of the biggest fears in the life of a PhD. Many PhDs end up unemployed for a variety of reasons. It is important to convey the reality to PhD students on what was in front of them, as well as to post-docs who had been chasing postdocs, lest they face unemployment. Many of them end up with stints of unemployment. For some their postdoc tenure ends after several years, for others it may be sooner.  There are several reasons why PhDs end up unemployed. Many PhDs even pursue jobs that do not require a PhD degree, and stay complacent in their academic engagement. A lot of PhDs are realizing right now that there is no academic recovery, that post-pandemic academia was not the part of the…

Join Isaiah as he shares quotes for PhDs to stay motivated in their job search process Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs should remain motivated in their job searchNext, Isaiah reveals the right rationale for PhDs to remain motivatedFinally, Isaiah describes the strategies for PhDs to stay motivated for their industry transition From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Should Remain Motivated In Their Job Search Being motivated defines the rate of success. The PhD job search process is arduous. When it comes to their job search process, many PhDs feel dejected. Like I want to get an industry job, but I’m not highly motivated.   This is not new, I have experienced it. We have so much else going on. We’ve wired our brains academically. We have this academic mindset. We want to get published, think, explore the theory, perform the experiments. But in a job search, it is different. You may find people who are more accomplished than you, and have more publications, projects or tenure. But you’re in the top 1.6% of the population when it comes to education. For your PhD you had to stay motivated to climb to the peak…

Join Isaiah as he compares the highest paying clinical and non-clinical R&D industry roles available for PhDs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs should explore the industry roles available to themNext, Isaiah reveals the clinical and non-clinical R&D jobs available for PhDs Finally, Isaiah describes the 6 high-paying clinical and non-clinical PhD job titles From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Must Explore The Industry Roles Available To Them You can’t hit a target that you never set. To build a transition plan you need to set a desired role. Therefore, approach the career plan with a discovery mindset. Look up the roles available to you, learn about the industry positions. If you are targeting clinical or non-clinical positions, compare them! Many PhDs never rigorously pursue information regarding their industry options until the last moment. Some PhDs wait till they defend their thesis. Others wait until they lose their postdoc, or run out of funding. Explore your options much earlier.   I’m comparing two career tracks that have been increasingly popular, especially in the last 12 to 14 months. The R&D career track and the clinical and medical affairs career track. I’m going to give you…

Join Isaiah as he reveals how do PhDs compare to the average job candidate Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs should know how they compare to the average job candidate Next, Isaiah reveals the major disconnect points between PhDs’ beliefs and the PhD job search processFinally, Isaiah discusses how PhDs compare against the average job candidate From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Should Compare Themselves Against The Measuring Stick  You’re going to get a measuring stick today. You will be able to see if you measure up to what the average job candidate is doing in terms of their job search.  It’s natural for us as PhDs to look to the top. How can we make ourselves the best job candidate possible? The problem is that the reality can be much different from our perception. There can be a disconnect. Whether you’ve worked in the industry or not, there’s always a disconnect. The question is what is the degree of the disconnect? I am going to present data from surveys that we gave to 1,679 PhDs for you to compare. These would serve as a reference to establish what that disconnect is. PhDs may…

Join Isaiah and Gunnar as they reveal the strategies PhDs need to get hired into product management roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode on product management roles… First, Isaiah explains what is a product management role and how it is different from user experience researcher and other popular rolesNext, Isaiah and Gunnar reveal why PhDs are preferred for product management roles Finally, Isaiah discusses the strategies for PhDs to get hired in product management positions and the skills needed What Defines A Product Management Role Product management roles are ubiquitous in industry across all sectors. There is a huge  diversity in the range of products that you can manage as a product manager. When I started I saw this position as a subject matter expert. A subject matter expert knows the subject very well.  So, the first thing that you do as a product manager is to identify problems that are faced by your users. When you make something in an industry, you do it for somebody else to use. The team of product managers ensures that the product you made is easy to use. PhDs in product management roles ensure that when customers are on Facebook they understand…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the average salaries of the most popular PhDs-level industry roles  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs need to know which are the high paying PhD salariesNext, Isaiah reveal why PhDs shy away from these high paying roles Finally, Isaiah discusses the average salaries of some popular industry PhD-level roles From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Should Compare Salaries Salary is not everything but it can help you in terms of a reference point. I’m going to talk about salaries across the categories of jobs that are available to you. Our research team compared salaries for different industry positions across currencies. They made sure that the reference point between any two salaries were as accurate as possible for as many countries as possible. Sometimes, the roles are called something different. An MSL in one country might be called a super rep in another country. So, we looked at five major categories, 40+ different high-paying positions. We don’t want PhDs making less that what they made as a postdoc. We want PhDs to be hired in high-paying PhD-level industry positions. These are great starting salaries; a range from around 70,000 to…

Join Isaiah as he discusses the most relevant R&D careers for PhDs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah interviews a panel of PhDs who successfully transitioned from academia into R&D careersNext, the expert panel discusses the challenges PhDs face during the R&D job search processFinally, Isaiah reveals the best strategies to navigate the R&D career tracks From This Week’s Show… Advice From Fellow PhDs A lot has changed since last year. There is a renewed interest in both the research and project management aspect of R&D jobs. Industry positions such as Quality control, quality assurance, and business development manager pay very well now. User experience, customer research, technical development, information technology based R&D jobs are in high demand. PhDs can transition into these high paying R&D roles, all you need is the right approach. I had a hard time during my PhD but I would say one of the darkest points was when I was trying to send off an academic CV to different types of industrial job openings, not realizing the deep value of referrals. They can get your resume to the top of the list. Moving out of academia was difficult as I faced…

Join Isaiah as he reveals how PhD salaries in academia remain stagnant in spite of inflation Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah reveals why PhDs in academia are alarmed Next, he shares the cause of the current inflation Finally, Isaiah reveals how PhD salaries are decreasing due to inflation and the strategies to stay ahead  From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Are Alarmed When the pandemic hit, several PhDs started panicking. Uncertainties set in, PhDs questioned their course of action. I think this paid off in many ways, a lot of PhDs instantly woke up from their slumber. PhDs realized academia does not guarantee  job security. The numbers emphasized that not even tenured professors are protected in academia. Academia has a way of luring you into a false sense of security, but even PhD students had their stipends at certain universities cut. Academia suffered furloughs, pay cuts, funding and tenure losses. The plight of postdocs was revealed. The misconception that most of the funding came from grants was cleared up. That’s something that really came to light. Get a grant, get your own funding and things are secure, the myth was debunked. The lack of support for higher…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the strategies for PhDs to stay motivated in the job search process Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah reveals how PhDs lose motivationNext, he shares why it is important for PhDs to stay motivatedFinally, Isaiah  reveals the strategies to build rationale and stay motivated From This Week’s Show…  How PhDs Lose Motivation  Staying motivated in your job search is a challenge. PhD life has its fair share of struggles. There are days when you wake up uninspired. You don’t feel like doing anything for your job search. It’s easy for PhDs who have been unemployed for months to lose motivation. Besides, PhDs’ life has several other struggles. Maybe they had a bad day in the lab or the classroom. They saw the writing on the wall. They were about to graduate. Maybe they’re going to lose their postdoc, or they’ve been in a postdoc for years. They’re an adjunct or still working on a contract. Irrespective of the nature of setbacks, PhDs suddenly get motivated, update their resume.  PhDs start their job search with excitement. Updating their resume then uploading it to a job site. This gives them a sense of…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the revised fundamentals of the PhD job search Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah reveals how the job market is changing  Next, he shares the five mental areas where PhDs get stuck  Finally, Isaiah  reveals the revised fundamentals for PhD job search From This Week’s Show…  The Changing Future Of The Job Market The job market is dynamic. The last year has seen a lot of drastic changes, from the first wave of lockdowns to the 2020 hiring boom. Then came the contraction in the second wave of lockdowns as a response to the pandemic. We have also witnessed the vaccine rollout, followed by a period of stability. Although it is not going to be entirely different from what it was in 2019, the economy might be up or down. We have all been scrambling to keep up with these changes. There’s going to be more changes in the future.  It’s important for us to now come back to the fundamentals of getting hired. Certainly we’ve already seen something we never saw before: at the end of the year 2020, we saw the highest month of PhD hiring ever in the history of…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the curses PhDs face by staying in academia Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah reveals what prevents PhDs from transitioning out of academia Next, he shares how tenure track positions are not an option anymore. Finally, Isaiah  reveals the 5 curses of staying in academia beyond your PhD From This Week’s Show…  What Stops PhDs From Transitioning From Academia Staying in academia beyond your PhD is a curse. You need to get your PhD. It is an incredible way to learn how not only to master a field, but to push a field forward. A PhD is a training position where you need to learn how to do research, how to do analysis, how to deal with uncertainty, how to face failure, how to think creatively, how to innovate. These are all incredibly valuable in the industry. Most of us stay in academia after getting a PhD because we don’t have a plan. We focus intensely on a publication or reading papers or all the other things that we can do that make our PI happy, or is rather easy to do. If you are the type that likes to learn, then it…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the strategies for the 30-60-90 day plan Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah reveals why PhDs get interviews but no job offers Next, he shares why companies care about onboarding  Finally, Isaiah  reveals the strategies to create a persuasive 30-60-90 day plan From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Are Getting Interviews But No Job Offers We have a lot of PhDs right now that are getting to the interview stage but they are not getting a job offer. While some are getting to the earlier stages—a phone screen or an initial video interview— others make it to the final video interview stages or a site visit but no job offer.  Just because you are being invited to a site visit does not mean that you are the only job candidate there is likely to be more depending on the size of the company. It certainly doesn’t mean that if you blow the site visit or the virtual interview, if you do not have questions to ask that are insightful, or if you do not come off appropriately educated as having done research on the company, you will get rejected.  As a PhD there…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the top industry careers for engineering PhDs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah interviews a panel of PhDs who have successfully transitioned from academia to engineering industry careers Next, the expert panel discusses the strategies to overcome the hurdles faced by engineering PhDs in the industry job search process   Finally, Isaiah  reveals the top industry careers for engineering PhDs From This Week’s Show…  Advice From Fellow PhDs  Engineering PhDs are very focussed on their niche background. There are often arguments regarding the interdisciplinary nature of engineering backgrounds, especially with respect to hiring. Engineers argue that owing to this niche specialization, a chemical engineer cannot be hired as an electrical engineer or a mechanical engineer and vice versa. The truth is that you can! Several companies have engineering teams where they prefer engineering PhDs of different backgrounds in the same team.  Most engineering PhDs think they have a very specific niche background of engineering that makes their situation very unique and impossible. There is no access to career centers that really can help you therefore finding access to people who know what they are talking about is important. We are often more focussed on…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the strategic changes you should make avoid being rejected  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah demystifies the transition process Next, he enlists the strategies to avoid getting rejected   Finally, Isaiah  reveals the one change needed to avoid being rejected From This Week’s Show…  Advice From Fellow PhDs  When it comes to your job search, having the right information matters the most. Cheeky transition stories provide valuable insights into the whole process. These stories have principles that apply to every PhD, no matter your background, or your situation, you have to do your part to follow those principles. You are not above the process. You are a sample size of one. There will be variations in the positions, locations, interview questions that you will face. Although it is not going to be exactly cut and paste from what the transitioned associates went through, they provide priceless comprehension of the entire process. I am going to tell you the inside story of what a PhD transition looks like because many of you have never transitioned before. I want to demystify the process. In the beginning of my job search, I was searching for posted…

Join Isaiah and Erika as they reveal the strategies for PhDs to get hired into User Experience (UX) Researcher roles in record time  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains what are User Experience Research roles and why they are available for PhDsNext, Isaiah and Erika reveal why PhDs are a getting hired for user experience roles Finally, Isaiah and Erika discus the strategies for PhDs to get hired in user experience roles From This Week’s Show…  The User Experience Researcher Roles Available For PhDs User experience researcher roles is one of the most exciting and buzz worthy career tracks that is available for PhDs now. Employers want to hire PhDs into these roles because of their understanding of the difference between quantitative and qualitative data and their importance. Every company has a website, apps that generate metrics that can be analyzed quantitatively to understand user experiences, while qualitative data are obtained through one-on-one interactions with the users. These data are crucial for all industries may it be biotech companies, retail, hospitality, or the service industry. The global demand for user experience researchers is on the surge and is expected to grow exponentially. From a reference point…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the 45 salary negotiation scripts that PhDs should use. Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs should practice salary negotiation quite early in their job search process Next, he reveals the strategies for salary negotiation in PhD-level positionsFinally, Isaiah discusses 45 salary negotiation scripts for PhDs From This Week’s Show…  Why It Is Important For PhDs To Practice Salary Negotiation  PhDs in academia have been used to being paid almost nothing. However, it is an industry trend to negotiate your worth in terms of salary and incentives. There are some soft spots that PhDs can leverage for a big impact during negotiation. PhDs have to practice salary negotiation quite early in their job search process instead of waiting for a job offer to learn about it. From the moment that you upload your resume, the situation escalates too quickly to a negotiation. When you upload your resume, you have to be prepared to answer the expected salary range. While hiring managers and recruiters negotiate seven to 10 times a day with seven to 10 different people typically, you will  do a salary negotiation only seven to 10 times in your professional…

Join Isaiah as he reveals the 15 PhD careers dominating 2021 and beyond.  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhDs need a job search strategy Next, he reveals how PhDs settle for non-PhD careers out of desperationFinally, Isaiah discusses the 15 PhD careers dominating 2021 From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Should Have A Job Search Strategy  I want every PhD to be ready for 2021. A lot of career tracks contracted in 2020, but many expanded. Those that expanded fortunately were PhD-level positions. For the most part, I am going to go through all 15 of these career tracks. I am going to give you the description for these job titles and help you understand these descriptions from a PhD viewpoint. You start to see PhDs at different levels of their job search. Unfortunately, most PhDs wait until they are in a very desperate situation to finally act on their job search because necessity is the mother of innovation. It is not until you move from moderate to massive pain that you finally take action. You start to see a lot of desperation there. At this point, PhDs take up any job they…

Join Isaiah as he reveals why resume updates are important for PhDs to get hired in industry jobs  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discuss the importance of investing in your resume Next, he enlists the importance of resume structure Finally, Isaiah reveals 12 mandatory resume updates every PhD must follow in order to get hired in industry. From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Need To Work On Their Resume Updates Everybody wants to know what to do with their resume, why they cannot get hired by uploading their current resume. If you are a PhD looking for your first industry transition, you probably have found this by getting no response to uploading your current resume. Maybe it is even your academic CV with five to six pages and gets you no response. You thought it would be easier than this, but it is much harder.  Job search for industry jobs unlike academia does not rely solely on the letter of recommendation from the professor, PI, or advisor. They are not looking for a detailed chronological description of your duties or work history in your resume. It is not like a lengthy peer review journal article. Rather, they…

Join Isaiah as he explains why it is important for PhDs to set cash goals and work towards them  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why PhDs need to set cash goals and commit to fulfill themNext, Isaiah reveals the strategies to navigate curve ball questions and get hired. Thus, contributing to the cash goalsFinally, Isaiah explains 2 controversial cash goals to set as a driving force during your job search From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Value Money We will discuss something that several others avoid: we will talk about  money. As a PhD, you should be aiming to make as much money as possible for doing meaningful work and not feeling guilty about it. You should be rewarded for your value. You can’t know your value or remember your value as a PhD if you are not being paid your value. PhDs often think that they don’t have enough industry experience, skill sets, or business acumen. Therefore, they are not entitled to more money. But you have to learn to earn it. You can earn more money and you should always try to earn more money else you…