Are you a graduate student looking for a non academic job after graduate school? If so, you might feel like the path is very uncertain. Professors are often bad at giving advice about how to prepare a resume and transition into an industry job. This week in the grad school group chat, we were lucky to chat with a graduate student career counselor, and she gave some great advice! Here’s what she recommended…
We’re going to do this AMA style! The grad student chat had some awesome questions for Kirsten, a career advisor at a research-intensive university, about applying for a non academic job after graduate school. Here’s what she had to say about finding non academic (or “alt-academic”) jobs after your PhD or MA.
Writing your industry resume
Q: How do you effectively describe the skills you gained from a PhD and translate those into job skills?
A: An important first step is to spend a little time with your work and list out all the activities, tools, and methods you’ve used. When we write CVs, we just list out titles of publications and conferences and classes people have taught. People reading resumes want to know HOW you did those things. For instance, on the last article you published: did you clean data, write interview protocols, visualize findings, and negotiate access to the site? List out what you did, this will give you great resume fodder. Google “resume accomplishment statements” and “resume action verbs.” This will show you the format you can use to translate your PhD experience.
Q: How do you translate your CV into a resume?
A: CVs are sparse in their descriptions. On resumes, you need to spell out skills, activities, and outcomes. Resumes also usually only include your work history, versus your publications and conference presentations. Here’s a great guide to converting your CV to a resume.
Gaining industry experience during graduate school
Q: I have very little industry experience on my resume. Should I consider an internship to get a foot in the door?
A: Yes! Not everyone has time to do an internship, but if you do, do it! You’ll gain exposure to your target industry and learn how it works. It’s definitely easier to get a job with work experience in your field. Hiring managers and recruiters think past performance predicts future performance.
If you can’t swing that, remember that working on projects and networking is also important. There are a lot of ways to get experience, like projects, volunteer work, and student organizations. Whatever you can squeeze in will get you more contacts in your field.
Q: How do I network with the industry I want to join?
A: You could do what I did: find 5-10 smaller organizations you’d love to work for and shoot them a cold email. Introduce your skills and ask to chat to see if you can help them and gain experience. I didn’t get paid doing this, but I got to do some cool stuff this way! Also, reach out to alumni from your program. See what they’re up to and if they can create any connections in their industry.
Q: I’ve heard PhDs with stats skills can get jobs in data science. How can we be competitive with those with masters degrees in data science?
A: Yes! You absolutely can get a job in data science! A big part of being competitive is applying for the right role. Take a look at some MSDS programs and compare your skills. You likely have more critical thinking skills, deeper domain knowledge, and more comfort with ambiguity than these programs. Look for roles that prioritize that. Connect with alumni who you think are doing cool projects in this area!
Finding alt-academic jobs after graduation
Q: Are there non academic career examples for humanities majors that are NOT corporate jobs?
A: Yes!! Humanities PhD skills include qualitative research, writing, storytelling, project management, strategy, coordination, public speaking, curriculum and program development, and more. Foundations, nonprofits, associations, museums, government, and higher education all need these skills. There is also an entire eco-system of for-profit companies that provide these services to these organizations.
There’s a free tool called ImaginePhD that shows “job families.” You can see roles and typical employers for humanities and social science degrees. I would also start tracking down alumni from your program to see what they are up to!
Q: Where should I search for these jobs?
A: Check out what your program alumni are doing on LinkedIn, this will give you an idea of where your skills will be useful. I also love using AI for this. Be specific: tell it your degree, domain of knowledge, and the skills you want to use, and then ask it to generate a table of 10 job titles, descriptions of each role, and a list of employers in your area. This will generate a ton of keywords you can use to explore on LinkedIn, Indeed, Idealist, and Devex.
Q: At what point during our academic journey should we apply to non academic jobs? Should I apply to industry positions after graduation or before?
A: It’s always good to start early. I would say start working on this the spring before you graduate (1 year before). This will give you a good amount of time to figure out next steps, consider a summer internship, build a network, and apply. Many consulting firms with early career programs start hiring the summer before. But, late fall/early spring of your graduation year is fine timing to start applying for roles.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, Kirsten! You can follow Kirsten’s awesome sewing and style instagram here! And if you’re looking to apply for professor jobs, here’s advice about that!