Flex Your Innovation Skills To Get Hired

Join Isaiah as he examines how PhDs can use their innovation skills and research abilities to advance discovery in industry

In this week’s episode:

• First, Isaiah explores some of the reasons that PhDs innovation skills make them well-suited to industry research positions
• Next, he takes a look at three ways PhDs can harness their innovation skills and know-how to break into business and market research
• Finally, Isaiah encourages PhDs to be proactive about their career growth and embrace their solutions-oriented thinking to find their niche in industry

From This Week’s Show…

Your Innovation Skills Are An Asset To Industry Employers

PhDs are problem-solvers, innovators, and incubators for ideas. 

Where the rest of the world aims to be a master of this field or that craft, PhDs are contributing to an industry’s actual growth by adding to a field. 

As researchers, PhDs have many of the skills it takes to build and grow a company of any kind, such as identifying knowledge gaps; determining what needs to be researched; pitching ideas; delivering those ideas to an advisor, committee, or other key stakeholders. 

These are all skills you’ve used to earn your PhD, and they are exactly the traits that help build successful businesses. 

Today I’m going to tell you the 3 ways you can harness your natural spirit of innovation to get hired. 

Use Your PhD-Level Innovation Skills To Identify Opportunities In Specific Markets & Companies

First, do your research on your companies of interest. Ask specific, innovation-minded questions like:

How can I improve this product or service?

Can I do this better or differently?

Is there enough room for another business in this sector? 

Get good at identifying pain points in an organization. What is the main problem they’re trying to solve – at a high level but also at the level of each position they’re hiring for. 

Problems are business opportunities.

Identify Which Markets Have Pain Points You Can Address

Next, work to identify industries in need of a good shakeup, also known as a “disruption.” 

A disruption is a new product or service that completely changes the way that companies do business. 

Netflix, for instance, and later Redbox, were businesses that completely upended the competition with a new way of interacting with home entertainment. 

Remember Blockbuster video stores? Hollywood Video? Me neither. 

Research Markets & Business Leaders To Determine Where Your Innovation Skills Might Be Of High Value

The next thing you want to do is become oriented with market trends. 

It is extremely important to be intimately familiar with the state of each company’s sector of industry. 

You should be following the online activity of specific companies and their leaders too. 

Make sure you’re following top journals, media, and reports of these industries

The information is there. Get on it and stay ahead of it, daily. 

Don’t forget to follow venture capitalists and angel investors too; their actions can show you a lot about the direction of a company you’re interested in. 

Learning about your industry means learning what the market is ready for – what it’s “asking” for. 

Use this knowledge to predict the flow of any sector of industry until you find a good spot to jump in and find your place in it. 

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** For the full podcast, check out the audio player above.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.