The Danger Of Dabbling In Your Job Search

Join Isaiah as he talks about the dangers of dabbling in your job search and what you should instead if you want to stop being invisible

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

• First, Isaiah explains why you should never dabble in your job search
• Next, Isaiah lists the tools PhDs have at their disposal to reach out to potential employers
• Finally, Isaiah discusses how academia isolates PhDs and why you should break your isolation and work hard to build an industry network

From This Week’s Show… 

Why You Should Never Dabble In Your job Search

Many hiring managers and recruiters will never come back to a job candidate’s LinkedIn profile once they have decided that you lack industry credibility.

Worse, many top employers have a mandatory six- to twelve-month waiting period before they will reconsider you for a position at their company once they have reviewed your resume and rejected your candidacy for a position.

Your industry job search is not a trial-and-error affair. This is not academia. If you are performing a poor and sloppy job search, you are burning bridges, and it is time for you to stop.

The Tools You Can Use To Reach An Employer

You can find everything you need to know about an employer on their website. They might even have a careers page that gives you specific information about how to get in touch with them.

You can find these employers on LinkedIn too, including every employee who works at these companies.

You can email these employers or simply pick up the phone, call their office, and ask to speak to someone in the hiring department.

How Academia Isolates PhDs

As PhDs, we are trained for years and years to keep to ourselves, and, over time, we have become isolated in our ivory towers. In our isolation, we tell ourselves stories that fit our situation and shift blame off ourselves and onto imaginary forces.

We imagine that we’re not being contacted by industry employers because our PhD has made us overqualified. We imagine that our PhD background is too niche or that we lack some specific skill on a job posting.

In reality, we just don’t want to reach out to anyone because it’s too uncomfortable. Nobody in industry knows you, and nobody will know you if you keep doing what you’re doing.

You can read and learn as many job search strategies as you want, but none of them will fix your number one problem: your lack of network and your lack of drive to network.

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.