I’ve recently had an amazing opportunity to lead a workshop with two other speakers, Dr Cody Porter and Dr Susan Griffiths, at The Annual Postgraduate Student Conference (APSC) hosted by the University of Aberdeen. The three of us talked about Forensics (Dr Cody Porter), Data Science (me), and Clinical Psychology (Dr Susan Griffiths).
In my presentation ‘What’s Next? Applying Your Skills Beyond Academia,’ I covered the key challenges, opportunities, and next steps after completing a PhD. I drew on my colourful post-PhD experiences across sectors such as civil service, market research, telecommunications, and pharmaceutical research, and discussed how to move from being ‘a researcher’ to roles such as ‘a data scientist’. Ultimately, the goal was to offer a different perspective and highlight that the academic sector is just one of many sectors to work in after graduation. If you’d like to check the presentation, it is available here.
In the presentation, I split the discussion into three key points: The Opportunities, The Challenges, and What’s Next. For each, I posed more specific questions I tried to answer alongside a series of quotes I wanted to follow. Although I initially wanted to focus on data science, in the end, I pitched the talk more broadly in hopes of prompting a discussion. I thought it might make a nice blog post as well, so below I write in detail about the three key questions I tried to answer. The intended audience is likely someone who is currently finishing their PhD and is looking for roles in non-academic sectors. However, it could also be useful for recent graduates. Ultimately, it is still the view of one person (me) and does not represent universal truth but a subjective experience.
What diverse roles exist, and how are PhD skills valued outside academia?#
In the first section, I wanted to highlight that PhD graduates often view all other industries as non-academic through the prism of their academic experience. I think this is perfectly normal when their only experience so far was their PhD (or academia); but it leads to a biased view where the academic sector is always contrasted against other industries. Comparing each industry in contrast leads to the realization that there are many similarities and overlaps. I’ve found that 21.7% of PhD holders end up working in the private sector (DocEnhance, 2021). So, it isn’t a marginal number!
For example, I believe that research skills gained during a PhD are valuable in a majority of industries. These skills could be boiled down to being able to pose scientific questions, find empirical evidence, and then evaluate the evidence. Ultimately, I think the most important of those is the ability to ask scientific questions. It is a skill one can acquire and train. In a PhD, it takes a great deal of trial and error to realise that not all questions are testable or answerable, and often (sadly) the most interesting questions are beyond what is practically achievable. In a way, a PhD offers a unique opportunity to explore the constraints of a problem and pursue it completely freely (or at least in the ideal world). So, generally it isn’t surprising when people equipped with these skills find them useful in non-academic settings. Most PhDs likely learn to solve problems effectively; in other words, they come into industry knowing that and do not necessarily need extensive training in methods of scientific inquiry. They may need some help in translating those methods but this is definitely not as difficult as learning them.
In a way, the roles that exist outside academia are as diverse as a single PhD journey. This means that by moving to industry, PhDs can distill from all the ‘hats’ they wore during their PhD journey those which they enjoyed most; thus finding roles that match their interests and strengths. Basically, as part of the PhD, most will learn to do project management, recruitment, writing, analysis, presentation, networking, and much more. All of this is immensely useful experience but no one will probably like every single aspect of their PhD. However, when moving from academia to a different sector, an individual has an opportunity to find a job that shares the most qualities with whatever they considered the most interesting part of their PhD. My former supervisor used to say that a PhD is a job - so which parameter of that job did you like the most? Now the only problem such a person faces is to identify ‘what’ it was they enjoyed the most about their PhD. Hopefully it was not a completely miserable experience! However, even if the answer to that is yes, then clearly, moving out of academia will be beneficial. In a way, whether one focuses on research itself, analysis, or writing, there probably exists a role that will strongly overlap with that area.
I believe that it pays to spend some time reflecting on the overall PhD experience and then trying to find roles that would be fulfilling based on that experience. Finally, when someone ’lands’ in the final stages of interviews, they should pay attention to the fact that any such stage is a two-way street. Both the potential employer and the PhD holder will be working to find the right fit. It is kind of like rubbish dating. So, no hard feelings if it doesn’t work out the first time.
What hurdles and mindset shifts are involved in moving beyond academia?#
I already mentioned the bias to think that academia must be ‘different’ to the private sector. Overcoming this bias is already a huge leap forward. I would say this is the first mindset shift that will allow a focus on the similarities across different job sectors. That said, it is not all ‘rosy’ on the other side of the wall and there are problems unique to the private sector. I’ll share a few of the most painful examples from my own experience.
Whilst preparing for the presentation, I discovered that “…of those working in non-academic sectors, only 31% were engaged in research (DocEnhance, 2021).” Sadly, when moving from academia to industry, the person often moves entirely from ‘research’. I still think that it does not mean their research skills are ‘all for nothing’; however, not all companies operate and profit from research as their main source of revenue. This reality requires some adjustment. For example, when I was working at Kantar, a large proportion of my role would be helping clients to understand shopping experiences of their customers. While I was not responsible for the end-to-end delivery of a study (i.e. the research), I did contribute by exploring and analysing data from household panels to help clients. So, my research skills were useful only partially. The other problem is that titles are often misleading. For example, neither Data Scientist nor User Researcher are academic positions. Clearly, it is necessary to adjust to the jargon used in the private sector, as well as to certain fuzziness and abstraction of roles. In reality, most titles are fairly inaccurate, and only when discussing the role’s responsibilities and expectations with the hiring manager does it become clearer.
From the paragraph above, it should be clear that any candidate (not just one with a PhD) should ask questions such as ‘What are my day-to-day responsibilities?’, ‘What do you typically work on?’, ‘Why do you enjoy working for this company?’, ‘How do you impact the product?’, or even ‘What products do you typically work on?’. Sure, these might not be answerable in all cases and certain fuzziness will remain, however, it is a literal ‘red flag’ if a hiring manager cannot tell you what types of products you will work on or describe the role beyond corporate terms. That is not to say to ask ’exactly’ these questions, the point is that you should know ‘what’ you are applying for, and things such as salary, job description, and responsibilities should be reasonably transparent! It isn’t a great experience to work under a manager who does not know what they want and isn’t able to communicate it transparently. Could you discuss detailed and technical questions with such a person?
Another common hurdle is that the academic sector requires unique domain knowledge, and unless the role is a perfect fit, it is expected that some expertise is lost. I would describe this as a feeling of being both ‘under and over qualified’ when applying to roles outside of academia. The under-qualification typically occurs around domain-specific topics that are closely tied with the core business of the company. These are often impossible to ’learn’ from anywhere because they are inner-source, or specific knowledge and resources only available to the employees of the company. Basically, each company will have their own way of managing their knowledge. Typically, they’ll do some form of induction for their prospective employees; this knowledge transfer isn’t something that is possible to read from the company websites. I would expect the first 6 months in a new role to be spent learning ‘where’ things are, ‘who’ to contact, and ‘what’ various acronyms, tools, or roles mean. The over-qualification, on the other hand, results from being an expert in a niche domain (typically related to the thesis) and feeling that a role in the private sector isn’t a continuation of that domain knowledge. Generally, certain flexibility and openness to acquire new knowledge are required - it isn’t necessarily a hurdle but one should not expect to be ‘an expert’ in a particular domain anymore. For example, I specialised in health communication, weight stigmatisation, and societal factors surrounding childhood obesity; however, most of my roles did not require this particular domain knowledge. Admittedly, those that did, did not appeal to me because they were not financially viable or offered only short-term contracts.
How can you strategically prepare for and secure a non-academic career?#
Planning the academic exit isn’t an easy life choice. To finish a PhD without committing significant resources (e.g. time, money, etc.) is a vain effort. A PhD is not going to make anyone richer, nor will it make any person feel smarter (Hello imposter syndrome), and certainly won’t offer a sense of life securities such as the ability to get a mortgage or car. Finalising a PhD is a major life achievement, for sure, and it is pursued for myriad reasons. However, the closer you get to the ‘finish’ line, the more real the question of ‘What’s next?’ becomes. Universities are actually ill-equipped to help PhD candidates with entering non-academic sectors.
The easiest way is to start by looking at different job roles that exist in the private sector and start narrowing down ‘what’ is an enjoyable role - any job search site will do for this part. It can be either directly related to part of the PhD experience or simply be a permanent and well-paid role! Once it is clearer what such roles are, there’s no point in waiting for a miracle role (no role will be a perfect fit most likely). The best approach is to start applying and ‘do things’. It’s like writing a thesis - it has to be done. So, finding a role and then applying means that the person will need to start working on their CV, cover letters, etc. It is unlikely that the first application will be successful, however, in the long run everything will improve with each application: the CV, resume, ability to argue at interviews, asking the right questions, answering technical interviews (and bullshit puzzles), etc. So, the advice here is quite simple - don’t dwell too much on finding the perfect role, start applying early!
The idea behind applying sooner rather than later, and for imperfect rather than perfect roles, rests on the assumption that with each attempt, the process gets easier, smoother, and more automated. What will also materialise shortly is the realisation that not all roles are great, and sometimes, saying ‘No’ is the right choice. This is where it becomes a two-way conversation about expectations, and whether each side (potential employee and potential employer) meets them. Unfortunately, it will also mean that the person who is applying like this will experience failure at some points, but hey, that’s part of the learning experience! I failed at so many roles that I stopped counting, and there’s really no point in comparing yourself to other people on LinkedIn (it’s fine for job search but it’s a pretty miserable site).
At the workshop, I also encouraged PhDs to negotiate. It’s important and it isn’t just about the salary - the overall ways of working can be negotiated. For example, ‘Do you need to commute daily?’; ‘Can you work remotely?’; ‘Can you work from another country?’; ‘Can you get a different performance bonus?’. In some sense, negotiation starts with ‘asking’. It’s a dialogue about what is possible and what is not possible in a given role. The worst is when people stop asking questions and ‘assume’ it will be done in a certain way. Yet, the problem with negotiation is that PhD candidates are not used to this. So, this is why it is useful to start this process as soon as possible to fine-tune these sorts of skills and not assume that a person will just wing it. By the way, the best questions are the ones that are important for you to feel good in the job. This might be a certain salary level; it can also be the length of maternity/paternity leave or perhaps the overall number of annual leave (fun fact: holiday entitlement that an employer must provide to a full-time worker is 28 days a year but they’ll typically give you a little less and include public holidays). So, it is subjective, and someone may be happy with less money but more free time, or a shorter commute, or a more ‘impactful’ role. It’s about you and the worst that can happen is that the company recruiter will say ’no, that’s not possible’ or something similar. They won’t stop the interview with a promising candidate because the candidate asked about a specific salary (but they may filter you out if you consistently ask for what is over their budget).
Finally, reaching out to other people or networking! Using X, Mastodon, or whatever, and trying to connect with people who do the job you are interested in pursuing. The networking isn’t ‘adding’ a random person on LinkedIn, networking (to me at least) is about reaching out to the other person and engaging in dialogue. It can be a simple introduction and then an explanation of whether they could share a couple of insights about their current role. It can help to think about this as interviewing someone for a newspaper article. Most people are happy to help and answer a few questions; it is actually pleasant if someone reaches out and is genuinely interested in the role you are doing! Some people may even offer to schedule a quick call. The point is that it will give an insider’s insight. With some luck this can even lead to a referral which is one way to increase the chances to pass the initial filtering stages of interviews.