From academia to industry: seven tips for scientists making the leap

From academia to industry: seven tips for scientists making the leap

Crystal Romeo Upperman shares her advice after moving out of the lab and into the private sector.

On 1 April 2016, I defended my PhD dissertation （博士论文答辩） — on marine, estuarine and environmental science from the University of Maryland, College Park — and passed. I was lucky to already have an offer for a position lined up in the private sector as a consultant for the engineering firm AECOM. I became the climate adaptation and resilience lead for the firm.

Many graduate students pursuing doctorates (博士学位) are so focused on writing their dissertations (学位论文) and finally completing their PhDs that they graduate without any clear options for their next step. Today, many PhD-holders feel that their only obvious next step is to do years of postdocs — at very low wages — and they often struggle to market their skills to sectors outside academia (他们很难讲其技能推销到学术界以外的领域).

In the face of these challenges, doctoral candidates should focus on finding ways to diversify their experiences. This is a crucial step for securing (设法得到，获得) unconventional employment opportunities.

Here are some tips from my own career path to help you diversify your CV as a doctoral candidate, and, I hope, make you more attractive to employers outside government and academia.

Take inventory of, learn and exercise your soft skills

Learn to relate to colleagues with diverse and sometimes opinionated in academia, and take an interest in what they do aside from research.
Read about topics that are not related to anything that you research, and find ways to share what you learn with others.

Learn project management

Drafting agendas (起草议程), taking minutes (做会议记录) and chairing meetings (主持会议) and conference calls (电话会议) are good skills that you can acquire during a PhD and that can get your career in the private sector off to a good start.

get …off to a good start: 获得一个良好的开端

Spend less time thinking and more time doing

In academia, success is measured by the impact of your research, the reach of the audience and the extent of funding.
In the private sector, however, success is measured by your ability to sell services and increase revenue while achieving a favourable profit margin (获得良好的利润率).
In the private sector, time is often limited; those who can produce high-quality products in the shortest time are often most valued. So, to achieve success in the private sector, you need to spend more time doing.

Network within and outside your discipline like your life depends on it

Your dissertation chair (论文主持者) and research lead (研究负责人) have probably worked only in academia; therefore, their ability to help you navigate a transition into the private sector might be limited. To skirt this limitation, take the initiative to (主动做) build your own network and professional relationships.

Learn technologies that have cross-applicability

There are a few coding tools that are pervasive in academia — anything from SAS and STATA to R or Mathlab. So, if you do code in your studies and use one or more of these technologies, identify which ones carry the highest value externally in industry. R and Python, for example, have much more crossover appeal than do SAS or STATA. Keep a pulse on (保持密切关注) what software knowledge the current job postings call for — it’s a good way to stay up to date on the latest skills that will improve your chances of landing a role.

Simplify your science

Understand that the esoteric (只有内行才懂的,难懂的) nature of your research is gibberish (胡言乱语) to the rest of the world. Find the simplest words to define what you have done and can do. Yes, it is daunting to think that the rest of the world does not know what you mean by a P value, or that you used mixed-methods analysis. It is up to you to translate that into laypeople’s terms that fit the job you are pursuing.

laypeople: 外行的人

Advertise and market yourself

It is best to get very comfortable with self-promotion (自我推销). Many companies use social-media platforms to find and track potential new employees — especially for niche and highly visible roles. Do not be afraid to post your publications, create a website, write contributions (文稿) for non-research publications.

business opportunities: 商机

See you tomorrow