PhD Transition Report On-Demand

Join Isaiah as he reveals what a unique selling proposition is and what you should consider when crafting yours Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses what you should consider before crafting a unique selling repositionNext, Isaiah reveals the topics that you should avoid when talking to employersFinally, Isaiah explains how you will differentiate yourself by defining you true unique selling proposition From This Week’s Show…  How Your Unique Selling Proposition Will Help You Position Yourself In The Job Market Before you can pitch yourself to an employer effectively, you have to understand what makes you unique in the job market. Then, you have to position your unique qualities as a proposition that will benefit someone else. In other words, you have to craft a Unique Selling Proposition. The term Unique Selling Proposition or USP (sometimes referred to as a Value Proposition) comes from the world of advertising, marketing, and branding. A USP is a description of the factor or factors that differentiate a company’s product from its competitors. As a job candidate, YOU are the product that you are trying to sell to employers. When employers are reviewing your application, they will be asking:How will…

Join Isaiah as he explains what an elevator pitch is an why you need one if you want to find your dream job Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why you should always be ready to pitch yourself to employersNext, Isaiah discusses why PhDs often fail when they deliver their elevator pitchFinally, Isaiah explains how to craft a proper elevator pitch that will resonate with employers and recruiters From This Week’s Show…  Why You Should Always Be Ready To Pitch Yourself There will be rare occasions in your job search where you will achieve moments of focused attention from those you’re connecting with, whether it’s after they talk about their interests and pause to ask you “What about you?” or from the moment you start your first in person interview when the interviewer says, “Tell me a little about yourself.” These moments will be very fleeting so you need to be prepared for them. You will have seconds, literally, to impress the other person. You won’t impress them with your accomplishments but with the concise delivery and impactfulness of your elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch is a personalized, top-of-mind script that you can deliver in…

Join Isaiah as he discusses the difference between connecting and networking and how to ensure you get a job referral Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah examines what most PhDs waste their time when networking the old fashion wayNext, Isaiah discusses the difference between connecting and networkingFinally, Isaiah explains why it’s so important to have a good networking strategy and how to use it to get job referrals From This Week’s Show…  Why You Shouldn’t Waste Your Time Networking The Old Fashion Way I wasted the first three years of my graduate school career networking the old fashioned way. I would go to internal seminars with the same people over and over again, arriving just in time and leaving right after it was over. Once or twice a year I would go to a conference and stand in front of some last minute poster I made like a used car salesman begging people to care. I would collect business cards and university cards at my poster and think “I’m networking! I’m networking! It’s happening! I’ve been discovered!” Only to go home after the conference and never have anyone who took my card or gave me a…

Join Isaiah as he explains what you should add to your LinkedIn headline if you wan to catch an employer's attention

Join Isaiah as he discloses the information that your should add to your LinkedIn summary and Experience sections and how to format them

Join Isaiah as he discusses why PhDs should add quantified results to their industry resume and how to identify your quantified results Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why you should add quantified results to your resume Next, Isaiah discloses why PhDs have such a hard time figuring out what quantified results to add to their resumesFinally, Isaiah reviews how to craft the perfect bullet point for a resume that will catch the eye of employers and recruiters From This Week’s Show…  Why It’s Important To Add Quantified Results To Your Resume Every single bullet point on your resume needs to end in a qualified result. You can easily transition to this part of your bullet point using language like “resulting in…” “as demonstrated by…” or “as evidence by…”.   It is challenging to sit down and figure out your past results and then to quantify them? Yes. It is certainly more challenging than just listing skills, duties and experiences in your resume, but is the only way to move past the resume stage to the phone screen stage.   Eye tracking studies have shown that employers’ eyes pause at length on numbers. But there’s a catch. The…

Join Isaiah as he explains why resume bullet points are important for PhDs to get hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses what mistakes PhDs commit while crafting bullet points in their resume Next, Isaiah reveals why PhDs need to craft better resume bullet points to be hired into the industryFinally, Isaiah explains what recruiters want to see in PhD resumes From This Week’s Show…  What Mistakes PhDs Commit While Crafting Resume Bullet Points Your resume is your marketing document. The most challenging part of putting the resume together is carefully crafting the bullet points. Think about the last resume or academic CV you created. What did you write for the bullet points? Was any research involved? You either found a job posting you liked or merely thought about a job title you liked and started crafting bullet points.   Points that you assumed would sound impressive for that job based on your past experience. Focused on the complex technical skills you learned in academia. Emphasized the number of years of experience you had in your PhD field or other academic field. Didn’t talk to a company who was actually hiring for the…

Join Isaiah as he explains why the 8 hours that people work next to PhDs is important and how can PhDs put their best qualities forward  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to have a pleasing personalityNext, Isaiah reveals how can PhDs put their best qualities forward Finally, Isaiah explains why your professional brand will follow you throughout the entire job search process  From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Have Pleasing Personality If the number one reason employers aren’t hiring you right now is invisibility, or obscurity. Then ignorance of likability, personality and your own professional brand is the second reason. Likability doesn’t mean winning a popularity contest. Not meaning trying to be nicer, funnier, or more agreeable. The truth is that some people hate all of those qualities, while others value them. Employers want to know if others can work around you for 8 hours. Are you likeable? The problem with likability – everybody likes something different. This also changes depending on their mood. It doesn’t mean you have to change your personality. Rather it means that you have to put the best…

Join Isaiah as he explains the 3 flavors of transferable skills that PhDs must communicate to get hired in high-paying industry  roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to set specific target Next, Isaiah reveals what are some system-oriented skillsFinally, Isaiah explains what are people-oriented skills that PhDs can leverage  From This Week’s Show…  Why PhDs Must Know The 3 Flavors Of  Transferable Skills There are 3 main flavors of transferable skills. Systems-oriented, people-oriented, or self-oriented skills. PhDs must communicate two to three skills from each of these categories. List them on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Be ready to discuss them during the interview process. Connect these skills with experience. Communicate how these transferable skills have helped you achieve relevant results in the past. And how they will help you perform better than other candidates at the job at hand. Your previous academic experience and even life experience is proof that you are an expert in at least one subject or discipline.  The key is phrasing the skills in a universal way.  If you helped manage your lab’s budget. List “financial acumen” as one of your job skills. Ensured…

Join Isaiah as he explains why employers are not hiring based on technical skills and how can PhDs communicate their value to the employers  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why employers look beyond technical skillsNext, Isaiah reveals what are the transferable skillsFinally, Isaiah explains how PhDs can communicate their skills to the employers From This Week’s Show…  Why Employers Are Looking Beyond Your Technical Skills PhDs love their technical skills. When I landed one of my first industry jobs, I thought I was adding value to my team by talking about technical skills. Things like “statistical significance”, “reproducibility” and a hundred other academically minded concepts. This language was awkward and irrelevant for the position I was just hired into. My recruiters and colleagues thought, “What is he talking about? Is he trying to teach us a basics stats class right now? We’re not an academic lab functioning on $50,000 a month. Rather we’re a 100 million dollar plus a year company.  Companies need you to focus on bigger, more business-minded concepts. Like integrating your efforts within their Agile project management system, gaining awareness of their brand. Or helping them develop some new conference collateral,…

Join Isaiah as he explains why attention of the employer is necessary for PhDs to get hired in high-paying industry roles  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to understand employer attentionNext, Isaiah reveals what PhDs can do to grab this attentionFinally, Isaiah explains how can attention help PhDs to be hired in well paying roles From This Week’s Show…  Why Must PhDs Know About Employer’s Attention  PhDs must have the attention of the employer. What happens if you stop pursuing attention in your industry job search at any time? Then whatever attention you have gained will quickly leave you for another job candidate. Consider the position of the hiring manager or recruiter whose attention you are trying to command. A hiring manager wanting to hire a PhD for a position at the company would want the job to be easy. Considering that at times recruiters are trying to hire job candidates for 12 different positions. On top of this, the need to hire could be urgent.  This is the state at which you will meet most hiring managers and recruiters. Also consider the fact that the vast majority of hiring…

Join Isaiah as he explains the real reason why employers are not hiring PhDs and how can PhDs get hired in high-paying industry  roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses what is the real reason employers are not hiring you Next, Isaiah reveals what tools PhDs have at their disposal to get employer’s attentionFinally, Isaiah explains how can PhDs overcome invisibility to be hired in well paying roles From This Week’s Show…  What Is The Real Reason Employers Are Not Hiring You Employers can only hire you if you are visible to them. The number one reason employers are not hiring you in industry is because you are invisible to them. This is an attention economy. As a PhD who has spent their entire life in academia, you are attention poor. Your job candidate profile is not adept. Resume is being ignored due to obscurity, not a lack of technical skills.  Technical skills are not what gets you hired. Most companies care very little about technical skills. They can teach you technical skills. You can learn on the job. Besides, their techniques are likely proprietary. Lightyears ahead of the underfunded techniques PhDs master in academia.  Companies…

Join Isaiah as he explains why PhDs must know what career they are chasing and follow strategy to get hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to know what they are chasingNext, Isaiah reveals why PhDs must ask the right questionsFinally, Isaiah explains why professional lifestyle of choice is important for PhDs From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Know What Career They Are Chasing Chasing a career?Ask yourself. What is important to you in life? What are you chasing? And why? Can’t answer these questions? You’re in trouble because without these answers you have no idea what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. Everyone is chasing happiness of some kind.  The problem is it’s not defined. Define what happiness means for you. Or what will bring happiness in your life. Happiness is just a feeling. That makes figuring out what will make you happy right now incredibly simple. Figure out which actions will give you the feeling you’re chasing the most frequently. Put this in the context of your career. Which activities do you want to spend most of your time…

Join Isaiah as he explains why PhDs must set a target career and follow strategy to get hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to set specific target Next, Isaiah reveals why chasing job titles will not PhDs hired into the industryFinally, Isaiah explains why professional profile is important for PhDs From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Have Specific Target Industry job titles are a lot different than those in academia. There are several job titles. But you must decide what you want your professional lifestyle to look like first. Understand what you want. Set your career goals. Only then start fitting job titles to it. Choose the right career based on what would give you a sense of fulfillment. Do you know which career is right for you? Probably not. Most PhDs never set professional goals. They don’t set a target. They just fall forward into whatever position happens to come next. Without a target they get into any position. Only a few PhDs start searching for a job outside of academia. They do the research necessary to start understanding the industry…

Join Isaiah as he explains why job candidate profile is important for PhDs to communicate their value to the industry employers and get hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why it is important for PhDs to have a strong job candidate profileNext, Isaiah reveals how PhDs should manage job candidate profileFinally, Isaiah explains why a professional profile is important for PhDs From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Have Strong Job Candidate Profile Many PhDs want to transition out of academia. To get hired in the industry, you need to craft your professional profile carefully and correctly. Your job candidate profile should communicate your PhD worth in the language of the industry. PhDs acquire many skills. Highlight the as the right keywords. Your professional profile includes your industry resume and your LinkedIn profile.  These give the recruiter a comprehensive idea about your expertise and skills with respect to the job at hand. You can expand your profile to include other documents and other social media profiles. However, the most searched ones are resume and LinkedIn profiles.  Spend very little time during your job search on your professional…

Join Isaiah as he explains why a job search strategy needs to be created by PhDs to be hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why should  PhDs create a job search strategyNext, Isaiah reveals how PhDs can create a successful job search strategy Finally, Isaiah explains what PhDs should do after creating a job search strategy From This Week’s Show…  Why Should PhDs Create A Job Search Strategy What does it take to get hired into rewarding industry careers? What must PhDs do to get hired into a fulfilling PhD level job? These questions are essential. PhDs think about getting hired without any actual execution. This leads to a sense of failure, rejection and frustration. PhDs need a PhD level job. A job where you can do meaningful work. Industry job search needs a campaign. It has to be executed in the correct sequence. Start with understanding your career options. Then create a job search strategy for those options. An effective strategy needs the correct sequence. Don’t haphazardly execute different job search related activities at different times. Rather be organized and in order. How PhDs Can Create A Successful Job Search…

Join Isaiah as he explains why PhDs are doctors of learning and how should PhDs leverage their skills to be hired in high-paying industry roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why PhDs are masters of learningNext, Isaiah reveals why PhDs  must communicate their ability to learn to employersFinally, Isaiah explains where can PhDs leverage their learning skill From This Week’s Show… Why PhDs Are Doctors Of Learning PhDs are masters of learning. There is a huge difference between leaving graduate school with a Masters degree rather than a PhD. Masters degree are those who have mastered a field. PhD is much more. PhDs contribute to the field. They advance the field further. Less than 2% of the population has a PhD. Because adding to a field is hard. Anyone can regurgitate information. However, it’s much harder to create information.  It is difficult to bring new knowledge into existence for the very first time. But PhDs have done it. You are a creator of information. This is one of your most valuable and most transferable skills. Don’t assume that everyone can create information. Most job candidates can’t even do a book report. You spend years creating information. Months…

Join Isaiah as he reveals how understanding the industry hiring funnel can help PhDs get hired in high paying industry jobs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why some PhDs fail to get hired in the industryNext, Isaiah reveals what PhDs fail to see in the industry hiring processFinally, Isaiah describes how understanding the industry hiring funnel can be leveraged to get hired in high paying positions From This Week’s Show…  Why Some PhDs Fail To Get Hired In The Industry PhD job search is not easy. Understanding the expectations is crucial. Many PhD-level job candidates fail to get hired in industry. Just  because they incorrectly align their efforts with what the hiring funnel looks like from an employer’s perspective. The hiring funnel is the company’s increasingly stringent workflow. This is the selection process  that job candidates go through on their way to being hired.  On an average, companies receive about 250 resumes per day. Larger companies receive more than that. But out of those resumes only 12 to 15 of the job candidates will be invited for the phone screen interview. Companies stop reading resumes after they’ve read 10% of them. An even  smaller…

Join Isaiah as he shares how academia flips PhD job search strategy upside down and keeps them from top paying industry jobs Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah explains why PhD students should focus on their job searchNext, Isaiah reveals how lack of specific goals that holds PhD students back in academiaFinally, Isaiah describes how academia flips PhD job search strategy upside down From This Week’s Show…  Why PhD Students Should Focus On Their Job Search As a PhD student, you may have several questions regarding your future. A major question is: How soon should I start my job search? An industry job search is maddening. The reason that this is so challenging is because there’s so much uncertainty. The path has not been laid out before. Academia is vague on this on purpose. We are never trained rigorously on how to do it in academia. Most PhDs are never, ever trained on how to execute a job search at all.  Knowing how to apply for a job is the limiting factor. It dictates how successful your industry job search and subsequent industry career will be. How successful your career is will be a major determinant in…

Join Isaiah as he explains why PhDs are valuable in the industry and how PhDs can leverage their skills to be hired in high-paying industry  roles Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode… First, Isaiah discusses why PhDs should transition out of academiaNext, Isaiah reveals the three much sought after skills Finally, Isaiah explains why PhDs are valuable for industry employers From This Week’s Show…  Why Is It Important For PhDs To Overcome Imposter Syndrome Many PhDs want to transition out of academia. They feel professionally unfulfilled in academic positions. Overworking in uninspiring roles is common. In academia PhDs are also underpaid. Marginal academic stipends or fellowships or wages. Numerous PhDs are unable to find any meaning or joy in their academic careers. This negatively impacts both their professional and personal lives.  Information and strategy are key for transition. A major obstacle faced by PhDs is the lack of training on how to get a job outside of academia. You need to create a job search strategy and stick to it. Most PhDs have been in academia for the entirety of their professional careers. Therefore, learning the language of the industry becomes more crucial.   Another major issue is imposter syndrome.…