How Wage Push Inflation Is Getting PhDs Hired Into Senior Roles At Higher Salaries

Join Isaiah as he shares how wage push inflation is getting PhDs hired into senior roles with higher salaries

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah explains why PhDs should know about wage push inflation
• Next, Isaiah reveals the different checkpoints to go through for transitioning from academia to industry
• Finally, Isaiah describes the 5 strategies to use wage push inflation to procure senior industry positions

From This Week’s Show… 

Why PhDs Should Know About Wage Push Inflation

Wage push is imperative especially when we are in a very rare time in terms of the timeline of humanity. We’re going through a period that’s called wage push inflation. So it’s an overall rise in the cost of goods that result from a rise in wages. Companies need to maintain corporate profits even after an increase in wages. Therefore, employers must increase the prices they charge for goods and services that they provide. The overall increased cost of goods and services has a secure, circular effect on the wage increase. Hence, everything increases together. 

Globally, since the pandemic we are seeing inflation occur. Governments helped people with money stimulus packages because of the pandemic. These have caused an influx of liquidity into the marketplace which has pushed wages up. Although money in the market has increased there is a shortage of labor. People are reluctant to get back into the job market, many of them have either gone back to school or they’ve applied to higher level jobs at the same time. 

So there is an increased liquidity but a decreased supply of labor. 

Checkpoints To Go Through For Transitioning From Academia To Industry

There’s a lot of different checkpoints that you have to go through to get a transition. Some goals for transition can even be just moving out of bench work, getting into a better management role and a good salary hike. This is something every PhD can get whether you have industry experience or not. You may have a gap on your resume or been in academia for too long. But now is your time to take advantage of the wage push inflation, and what’s going on in the job market. You must understand where you have leverage.

So number one, it’s important to face the reality that you are still invisible. Arguably, PhDs are now more in demand than they ever have been before in the job market. But you’re fighting obscurity right now. Many PhDs don’t even have their recruiter button turned on. They haven’t even alerted LinkedIn that they’re looking for work. Many of us don’t even know there is a LinkedIn Recruiter, the separate LinkedIn that employers use or LinkedIn talent insights, many don’t know what their SSI score is. Their social selling index, which is a metric that measures your visibility. 

Most PhDs have at most a couple of hundred connections on LinkedIn when they need thousands. You must construct a complete LinkedIn profile and position it for an industry job. If you don’t, you will never be found by employers who are just searching on LinkedIn Recruiter. 

The top three search fields are job titles, locations, and skills, and mostly transferable skills.

5 Strategies To Use Wage Push Inflation To Procure Senior Industry Positions

The opportunity here in terms of wage push inflation lies in starting at a higher job title that pays you a higher salary. Think about it as, somebody at level one because of wage push inflation is now getting a job at level two slightly higher than the entry level. So everything is shifted up because of the liquidity and because of the labor shift. So this is your chance to get into a higher job title.

There was an article that came out from the wall street journal talking specifically about data scientist roles, how there is a shortage because that’s a higher level role. A lot of people start as data analysts, but now these individuals that would get into data analyst roles are getting into data scientist roles. This is the best time to focus on your ideal career, not as an entry level-career. A lot of us as PhDs have a sense of imposter syndrome. When we start our job,we think we need a safety net. We look for safety jobs that we can do. Instead, you need to show your commitment. Build a rationale for why you’re the best person for the job and why this company is your number one choice for some reason. So find a reason that has to do with their mission statement, or their values, etc… Every company can be your number one choice. For a reason, every company wins in the marketplace in a different way. Find out what that reason is and build a case. 

Remember you’re selling yourself. This is persuasion. You have to have confirmation bias. You have to tell them I want to work here over anywhere else.

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