9/17/2017 9 Useless PhD Transferable Skills In An Industry Job - Next Scientist

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9 Useless PhD Transferable Skills In An

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826 BY OLGA POUGOVKINA
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While some PhD transferable skills give you an edge, others are harmful for your
employability.

You hear a lot about the transferable skills you must acquire during your PhD
experience. The skills that you need to get a job in industry and which will make
you successful in your following career.

The main idea here is that industry recruiters have a hard time understanding
how your PhD makes you a good candidate for a job opening.

In order to help the recruiter understand your value, you need to mention those
transferable skills you developed during your PhD and present how they can be
applied in your future job in industry.

Typical PhD transferable skills are being able to give a presentation, to manage a
project, or to supervise a small team. LETTER TEMPLATES THAT GET YOU ACCEPTED FOR
A PHD

If you put together slide decks and presented at scienti c conferences, you can
do the same in industry.

If you were able to take a complex project like a PhD, split it in subprojects,
manage all the timelines and deliverables, you are expected to do some project

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management successfully in industry.

If you supervised a group of interns during your PhD, you could supervise a small
group of younger colleagues later on in industry.

So far so good, that PhD was not such a waste of time after all. Heck, you might
even be well suited for a job in industry.

On the ip side, not all PhD skills you developed are so positive. In fact, some will
harm you and wont let you to move forward. They are bad habits.

In the rest of this post we are going to cover9 useless PhD transferable skills
that can work against you in an industry job, aka career-limiting skills.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Not a problem if you plan to stay in Academia. A serious hazard if you want to
move onto industry.

9 Useless PhD transferable skills in an POPULAR POSTS

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#1 Long and complex writing (emails) The Secret PhD Productivity

Strategy: Do Deep Work In Less
Mastering writing skills is a pride of any PhD student who learns to give even to a Hours
simple message a high level scienti c twist.
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Motivation

This is especially the case when it comes to emailing, which is the primary source
of communication in many organizations. Writing emails is an art form of itself
and a craft that you shouldnt jump into with an academic mindset.

When racing through your inbox to sort out new mail, the last thing you want is a
large chunk of text. You can tell that it took substantial e orts to wordsmith the
ve paragraph message that doesnt t on the screen. Scrolling down to the end
of the email, ah yes, the signature proudly states PhD.

What to do instead
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What to do instead

In many cases, you can distill down a long message to a handful of sentences with
speci c questions.

So before hitting send, think of the purpose of your message. Then aim to convey your
question/request in the smallest amount of text possible.

And trust me, this is challenging (as Mark Twain said: If I Had More Time, I Would
Have Written a Shorter Letter 1 ).

For more information on how to improve your email skills, check out Michael Hyatts
podcast episode #34 (MAKE YOUR E-MAIL MESSAGES MORE EFFECTIVE AND
PROFESSIONAL).

#2 Going too deep into science

In academia we dive deep into the subject. Its like when during your
presentation youre asked a question and youll respond with an elaborate
explanation along with some citations to relevant articles.

Here are some practical examples in an industry job where this can be harmful:

Giving additional information can raise more questions, which you

want to avoid during events like inspections. Communication in these cases
should only serve the purpose of providing the information asked for with
the mentality of every word could be used against you.
Your message is too complex for your audience. This may sound like
an obvious point, as during PhD we are aware that not everyone is an
expert in our eld. However, there is a vast di erence between scientists
who are not familiar with your topic and non-scientists who dont work in
science at all.
Excessive scienti c information in company reports. Including extra
information leads to bloated and complex reports making it di cult to nd
what you actually need.

What to do instead

Always evaluate which information is necessary and what is just interesting or nice to
have. Eliminate the latter. Get used to the idea that extra information is not a bonus
but can be harmful.

#3 Working under exible deadlines

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#3 Working under exible deadlines

During PhD there are rare cases when you need to complete a project by a
speci c date. In the worst case, you can always push your timelines by several
weeks or months.

Even the four year mark of PhD completion is rather arbitrary. Do you know
people that needed more than 4 years to complete a PhD? I do. Dozens of them.

In industry when youre given a deadline you are expected to deliver by that time.
Missing a deadline or extending it costs extra money. Industry doesnt like to
waste money.

What to do instead

The obvious x is to commit to set deadlines. During your work on a project

constantly evaluate the progress.

Also, de ne what is absolutely necessary for successful completion and eliminate the
extras.

#4 Doing the sprint

If you are an over achieving PhD (so basically a regular PhD), you are in a
constant sprint.

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The race never stops as you complete one set of experiments, submit an article,
prepare for a congress and start another study.

Its no wonder that many PhDs have weeks of unused holidays left and days of
overworked hours after defense. The problem with this approach is that if you
continue in this pace in a regular job, you will quickly burn out.

What to do instead

Realize that your career after PhD is no longer a sprint but a marathon. Therefore
allocate your energy and resources with care.

Dont do over-hours when unnecessary and take regular holidays.

#5 Overcommitting
Your words and statements will have di erent weight if youre working in the
industry.

Before, phrases like Ill try this out during a work discussion with your supervisor,
would mean Ill take a look at it when I have time.

Now such statements, especially if they are relevant to the business need, are
seen as commitments. Be aware that anything that you say along these lines will
be setting expectations and not going through will be seen as underperforming.

What to do instead

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Before yelling out any promises, take a step back to evaluate if you are ready to
commit.

Sometimes its di cult to hold back your enthusiasm and excitement; however in most
cases a good idea will be a good idea in an hour or on the next day.

#6 Spreading yourself thin on too many tasks

Participating in many projects during PhD increases your chances of getting
more publishable data as testing out ve hypotheses is likely to yield more hits
than working on just one.

How is this approach detrimental for your further career?

The book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg

McKeownexplains the concept of spreading yourself thin by undertaking too
much.

When you move in many directions at the same time, you get stuck in one place.
This is the reason why successful people stop growing and plateau as the more
successful they become, the more opportunities knock on their door.

By jumping at each opportunity they become hamsters in a wheel.

What to do instead

In short, I would recommend reading the Essentialism book :). The two key takeaways
that I would highlight here are:

Take time and think through your following steps. Its easy to overload yourself
with work creating an illusion of progress. However, running at fast speed but in
a wrong direction wont get you to your destination.
Lose the scarcity mindset and say no to the opportunities that are just good.
You only want the hell yeah! projects (No yes. Either HELL YEAH! or no.
by Derek Sivers).

#7 Over-focusing on details
Focusing on details is a strong quality of a scientist, but only in the right context.

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When working on an in-depth scienti c question, details are you friends. The
problems start when the same mindset is applied to all projects.

In industry its often necessary to see the big picture. Over-focusing on details
will lead to losing the momentum stuck in the minutiae.

What to do instead

Always keep the end result in mind and challenge all of your actions.

What information is truly critical and what information you must skip? See it as gears
on your bike, the setting for going uphill will not be optimal for racing on the at
ground.

#8 Having too many priorities

Too many priorities mean no priorities at all. Instead its a long to do list.

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These lists are very dangerous as they tend to grow and the critical tasks get lost
covered up by unimportant crap. However, it gets worse as not only you lose the
sight of essential projects but you also get demotivated.

Starting your day with twenty tasks on the list and completing just one or two will
make you feel like a total loser.

Eliminating tasks from such lists as they grow exponentially is like removing water
from a sinking ship with a spoon.

What to do instead

At the start of each day ask yourself what tasks you need to complete to have a
successful day.

The trick is that it should be not more than one or two tasks.

A caveat here is that you may have a job where the priorities constantly change.
Therefore, keep in mind that the priority list is dynamic and dont feel frustrated or lost
when the priorities shift during the day.

#9 Perfectionism
Academic work cultivates perfectionism.

Think of the well-shaped text for articles, tightly aligned gures on a poster, ideal
slides and beautiful charts with carefully selected color schemes.

The culmination of this is of course the thesis. Every detail in the formatting and
the cover seem crucial. At heart we know that this book will be forgotten the next
minute after the defense (more so if you leave the academia) and yet we put in
countless hours to make it perfect.

While perfectionism can be a positive trait in some cases, it becomes dangerous

when its holding you back from completing projects on time.

What to do instead

Accept the mentality of the good enough and only do whats required focusing on the
overall result. See this as the minimum e ective dose where excess input of time and

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energy will be a waste.

Are you going to take action?

These PhD transferable skills acquired during the PhD period are not necessarily
bad. It would suck if after all the long hours of work and tremendous e orts you
would be damaged to do other jobs.

However, you must learn to see these PhD transferable skills as tools in your tool
box and each of the tools should be used correctly for the right purpose.

Want to leave Academia and get a job in industry?

Check these related blog posts we have on nding a job in industry after a PhD.

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About Olga Pougovkina

Olga joined the pharma industry after obtaining her PhD in Medical
Biochemistry. While nishing her PhD she faced the challenges of making
career choices and transitioning into industry. This inspired her to start
postphdcareer.com, where she shares information on career development after a
PhD.

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