When I started my PhD program, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to get my PhD, do a postdoc at a prestigious university somewhere, and then become a professor. I’d done undergraduate research and loved it, and I was inspired by my mentors who had taken that path. Naturally, I wanted to follow in their footsteps.
About halfway through my PhD, my goals changed. Like many other graduate students, I grew tired and disillusioned with academia. There was nothing dramatic about it – I still loved science, I had a good working relationship with my supervisor, and I had a couple of publications. I simply got tired of the slow pace of academia, the tedium of coming into the lab on weekends and holidays to sit at the microscope, and the lack of relevance to real life.
After I graduated, I got a job working for a startup initially as a scientist, transitioning to a more business-oriented role two years later. While my career path was serendipitous, my journey out of the ivory tower was not. I did a lot of research, went to lots of career and networking events, and tried a lot of things to find out what worked and what didn’t for me.
A lot of people who are trying to make the same transition often ask: “Where do I start?” For many graduate students, the world outside of academia is a big unknown, especially if all their work experience has been in research. Add to that myths about alternative (sometimes known as “alt-ac”) careers, supervisors and peers who aren’t always encouraging, and the pressures of publishing and finishing up a degree, you get a lot of procrastination and half-assed attempts that often result in graduates doing a “short postdoc” to pay the bills that turns into a long, dead-end stint, or taking online course after online course trying to further their skills and perfect their resume.
I decided to sum up some of the most important things I learned while making the transition. Obviously, your experience may not be exactly the same. My PhD work was in basic research, and had very little application outside of a small niche field of biology. Someone who analyzed lots of big data sets or worked on stem cell protocols may have an easier time transitioning. That said, many of the things I outline below are fairly general and should apply to most people.
1) Discovery
When making any sort of major career transition, “know thyself” is an excellent rule of thumb. It’s already hard enough as it is; why make it harder by trying to force yourself into a box you don’t fit? An in-depth exploration of your skills, strengths, and preferences is the best way to learn about careers that might suit you. Also, you’ll make your life so much easier if you can convincingly explain to an employer why you’re a perfect fit. Employers have problems that need solving, and you need to show how you’re the perfect person to solve that problem.
The good news is you don’t need to go on some fancy retreat or self-discovery workshop. You can access a lot of these resources for free or at low cost. These were some of my favorites:
Clifton StrengthsFinder: I’m usually skeptical of “quizzes” that claim to tell you how to live your life, but this one was actually helpful. I had access to the Clifton StrengthsFinder (now CliftonStrengths) through a workshop run by my university’s career centre. Check with your university to see if you have access, or you can get it for $11.99 (US) with a student email. Don’t bother getting the full “34 strengths” report – the Top 5 is more than fine.
What I liked about CliftonStrengths was that it was very detailed and gave me concrete action items. They give you your top 5 “Themes” which relate to your strengths, examples of what each strength looks like, and how to apply them to your advantage. I also loved the focus on strengths, rather than weaknesses. Learning what you do best and how you do it is the key to happiness in the workplace.
I highly recommend downloading your full report and storing it somewhere you can easily access it. I’ve returned to my results whenever I’ve thought about a career change, reflected on a period of time at work, or even when I’m just updating my resume, because I found that it helps me focus on the strengths I most want to highlight or develop further.
myIDP by AAAS: The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a free Individual Development Plan for grad students and postdocs in STEM. It’s a great way to see how your skills match up with those required in different scientific and alt-ac careers. You can print out a copy and have a supervisor or trusted peer assess you, to see how well their assessments match up with yours. You can also come up with a plan for how to address skills you want to work on, and find resources on each career path.
What Colour is Your Parachute?: I was recommended this book when I was exploring different career paths. Contains a bunch of useful exercises for thinking about what you want to do, how you want to work, what are your “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves”, etc. Not specific to STEM, but applicable to any student, no matter which stage of your degree you’re at. Don’t skip on doing the exercises – get some paper (yes, actual paper) and write things down.
Other resources: If your university has a careers centre, drop by and check them out. They may have resources you haven’t heard about, and some may even have career counselors who specialize in working with grad students.
2) Research
Once you have some ideas about what you might like to do, it’s time to start researching careers that might interest you. The internet is obviously an excellent place to start. Some of the bigger journals have career columns where they feature people who have gone into alt-ac careers. This is where I did a lot of initial reading.
Look out for career events on campus. These may be put on by your university or by student societies. I went to almost every single panel discussion and networking event I could find. If you can’t find any, organize one yourself! Invite a few local professionals with similar academic backgrounds to come talk to students. You’ll find that most people are supportive and will at least recommend someone else, even if they can’t make it themselves.
And finally, set up informational interviews with people doing jobs you might be interested in. This is NOT a job interview, so do not go in asking for a job. This is purely an information gathering exercise. Invite them for coffee and find out about what they do, how they got there, what they like and what they don’t like about their jobs. Come prepared with lots of questions, offer to pay for their coffee (you’ll often find they don’t want you to cover them, but ask anyway!), and send a follow-up thank you email. This was one of the most helpful things I did when researching careers, and was also how I started making meaningful connections and building my professional network.
3) Experiment
There is no substitute for doing. The only way to find out if something is really for you is to try it out. You have extra flexibility as a student, especially if you don’t have too many responsibilities outside of your degree (some people do, and that’s OK – just prioritize accordingly, and do your best). Below are some examples:
Professional development workshops: Many university career centres hold workshops dedicated to exploring different careers. I took workshops in science communication, technology transfer, project management, and many others. It’s a nice, low-commitment way to learn the basics and figure out if you want to go further. If you’re in Canada, check out Mitacs – they hold workshops all across Canada that are usually free for students and postdocs.
Courses: You can learn pretty much anything online these days, often for free. Also, look out for in-person options at your university – I took a 6-week business course specifically aimed at grad students. These are slightly more commitment than a workshop, but give you the chance to do a deeper dive into a topic you’re interested in.
Volunteer: If you have the time and financial ability to do so, volunteering is an easy way to get your hands dirty. I volunteered for various science outreach and advocacy organizations during my PhD, and while I didn’t end up working in those areas, I developed some useful skills along the way.
Side projects: Some skills like coding and data analysis lend themselves better to side projects than others. Not only are they crucial for developing these skills, they also give you something concrete to show a potential employer so you can back up what you say on your resume.
Finally, it’s important to remember that professional development is an ongoing journey, and the above is not a linear process. Many of today’s jobs didn’t exist a few decades ago, and many of tomorrow’s jobs may not exist today. Keep an open mind, talk to as many people as possible, and always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Good luck!
I Have A PhD, Now What? 