Pilgrimage for a Job PhD to Consulting

I have to be proud of myself, but even prouder of the people who actually take some of their precious time to read my blog. I am so happy with the feedback obtained with the previous Pilgrimage for a job post, that it acted like nuclear fuel propelling me to improve my communication even further. From the pit of my heart, Thank you all! 

I think today we have a great lecture ahead of us. I am particularly excited about this one because I have put a lot of thought into the idea of dropping Academia once for all. A role in Industry or a Consulting position in detriment of Academia is my favourite option. Why dropping academia? Why a role in Industry? Why Consulting? 

Answering these questions would require a post for each of them, but in really short words I can assume that the Academia world is a mind-grinding vicious system that uses young talent to exhaustion, postpone their personal dreams taking advantage of their youngness and naivety, and in the end gives them a postdoc throwing most of them to a career void. The Industry does not represent the good guy in comparison to Evil Academia; that is not what I am trying to say. But I cherish the "stability" offered by a position in the Industry and the much better payroll that actually uses more vividly your professional skills. I am a Researcher and I want to be a Researcher for the rest of my life, if possible, but I wish not to be a day dreamer. Consulting has become a real good way out of the Academia for those who are not lucky to nail an Industry job. Please dont take all these answers literally as they are mere bullet-points, but for many like me these explanations are not that far from the truth!

Consulting represents a great future for most of us. I can definitely see myself as a consultant. I speak four languages, I have plenty of research experience in my area, I know a lot about other areas related to mine and I have a good number of strong transferable skills. But what do the experts say about it? I had to read to try and understand how and why to transit from Academia into Consulting. If you feel enticed by becoming a consultant, just stick around for some good advice I collected this week:

1) There are three main types of consulting opportunities (freelance, own company or boutique consulting firms);

2) Many management consulting firms are actively recruiting PhDs in all disciplines (for their strong analytical skills);

3) Some firms will place recently graduated PhDs initially at a lower level until they prove they belong in the business world. And here it is why I have taken/attended/participated in so many venture challenges, business courses and business conferences these last six years.

4) Always check the websites of firms before applying. Read their specific policy to know which position suit you best. Known the Top Management and Consulting Firms. Verify each of them carefully to see if you fit any of their projects, to start with. And if you really see yourself working for the Top Ones, check this list.

Damn Important!!! When applying to companies that serve specific industries, you will be thoroughly tested. On the other hand, if you are going for companies serving many industries, excellent general thinking will be seen highly. Anyways, be prepared for the case interview, seriously! That is essential.

As for career progression an MBA really makes a difference. I actually asked a person in an Oxbridge talk if an MBA was crucial for career progress in the consulting industry. His face along with his simultaneous silence/furrowing brow kind of offended me, but I got the gist.

Also very important is the notion that later on if you have landed a consulting position and feel that you are to look for something different, former consulting workers are highly regarded in the job market, especially for their problem-solving skills gained in a real wide world business setting.

I definitely feel that I need to embrace this possibility and for that matter will have to get back to this subject later on. I hope that the guidelines presented can help you as I believe they will help me when a bifurcation happens and I have to decide. Most of these ideas were obtained from this original article that I have complemented here and there with the links I present you throughout the text. Thanks for reading such a long article. Much appreciated!

Image kindly taken from raise5, [http://raise5.com/service-594] on the 14th of January 2015.

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Pilgrimage for a job PhD Job Searching the Laura Anderson lecture

A new year is here and you hear yourself selling resolutions that are intended to resolve your problems... good and poetic, but in the long run we all need help focusing on the adequate strategy. Forget 2014; if you are looking to the future and craving for the job of your life, as I am, lets march together and learn from the best. This is the Laura Andersons lecture on PhD Job searching. Ive compiled the key ideas that will definitely help me, as any other job seeking reader, draw the right path to a really good job. Overall, the impression one gets after reading through Laura Andersons contribution online is that we are very ignorant and naive when initiating our job search plan.

Forget about feeling miserable when employers ditch your CV. As Laura states, "only 5% of resumes submitted online ever receive a response" and not all responses are positive ones!

The numbers are clear and painful, "theres more competition for PhD jobs than ever before. Executing a trial and error strategy when applying for jobs reduces the chances of the applicant and slows his/her possibilities when competing with well informed people, e.g., people who actually read The Toxicologist Today!

A crucial rule is that "looking for a job isnt something you should be doing alone". It requires experience, people who know the shortcuts and applicants who are eager to roll up their sleeves and humble their narcissism. Like Dr. Farkas mentions in her post used on my previous article, networking, connecting with the right people, is a must. People build bridges to other people and at some point one of them will realise you GOT IT! Laura states that so clear you should tattoo it on your forehead; "Networking is the starting point of every job search. Over 50% of of jobs come from direct referrals." Lets call it rule zero; the absolute divine truth.

Laura Anderson lists 10 commandments for PhD job seekers. If we follow them biblically, we will definitely enhance our chances of standing above the crowd:

1) You will never hear back after submitting your resume online, however a resume is a very important introductory tool, but always after you have built your network.

2) Most industry jobs are not advertised. This is painful to read because I had been suspicious for a long while. But this confirms my suspicions. For years I have read and heard people talking about friends of friends who found incredible roles that were never advertised anywhere. Jobs so good you could feel the creamy sugar whilst fantasizing with it. And you know why? Hit it Laura - "Companies dont need to advertise their high level positions because there is already a high demand for them. Companies will either hire internally or seek referrals."

"Current unemployment rates for PhDs at graduation is 60-80%." We dont want to be seen rambling in that class, do we?

3) Stiff competition is a reality. This is obvious and mentioned by everyone to the tiredom exponential. What can we learn from it? Everyone is different and even against the most qualified individual you will have something different to him, something that makes you also... an individual. Use it, that is your best weapon. If you are not sure that you have it, the trick here is to "learn skills most of the PhDs do not have". Gosh, this is a hell of good advice, just go get your pen and paper right away before it fades away.

4) Finding an industry job takes time. 2-8 months to find a job, 2 to 6 years to change careers (academia to industry), numbers say. Transition can be lonnnnnng, real lonnnnng.

5) You have 90 seconds to make an impression in interviews, regardless of how cute you are. Laura lists a number of attitudes that put the interviewer off:

- no eye contact (67%)

- poorly dressed/carried (55%)

- no knowledge of the company (47%)

- no confidence/ not smiling (38%)

- bad posture (33%)

- never read The Toxicologist Today (30%).

OK, I made the last one up, but if I was the employer that would be a stop sign for the interview, right there! Do you want me to prove this point? Fair enough; so Laura says that "meeting someone for the first time activates your amygdala", now go check the amygdala article posted on the 23rd of September 2010!!!

6) Cross what is there on offer with what you want to do. And be sure you know what is what.

7) "The first person to place a follow up call to an industry job posting has a 95% chance to get the job position". The following day? 1%! I promised myself that in the future everyone giving me an interview or turning me down well get a thank you note so awesome they will fire/promote the HR guy who made the call.  

8) Negotiating is life. You hate it you hate life. Do it on your terms, but do it for Gods sake. And above all it doesnt reveal your desperation, so it works like a kick-ass attitude and people wont take you for granted. 

9) Hiring managers are people and people sometimes do dumb things. "Over 85% of hiring managers say they hire people they like rather than what the job requires". This is almost rule zero stapled to the networking one. If you cannot act normal as any other human being, just run to some interpersonal skills workshop and pimp your ride because you will need it. Fact!

10) Social media is the word these days. Your resume is too long and too boring. People want the sparkling bits of you. "In 2014 18,400,000 people found jobs on Facebook; 10,200,000 on LinkedIn and 8,000,000 on Twitter. I will have to learn liking Facebook and optimise my Twitter usage.

This was quite a long article, but if you want to start 2015 properly you must show energy, give your very best and reach to the stars. In case you want to read Laura Andersons contribution online, access here. I am not entirely sure she is the responsible one for the original article, but she is the one who advertised it and therefore I hereby acknowledge her incredible contribution to my job seeking strategy.

Image kindly taken from Next Scientist, 9 types of difficult PhD supervisor (and how to dometicate them), [http://www.nextscientist.com/domesticate-difficult-phd-supervisor/].

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Pilgrimage for a Job PhD to Industry

Its been a while I guess, but the time between the last pilgrimage post and this new one offered a few important reflections on the state of academia state of public research and how well people are NOT coping. Last time I offered the result of my brief research on jumping from a PhD to a career in consulting as part of a three way route-out along with a career in industry, or finding a nice job in the business industry. Vague? Maybe to a certain extent, but this time I believe it is important to cover that exact extent with a basic analysis.

Why you need to leave academia in 2015? 

by someone in the Cheeky Scientist

"I thought climbing my ways to the highest echelons of academia would give me this life [a better life]. I would be paid well, treated well, and allowed to do meaningful work. But I was very wrong."

"Stop ignoring the data... 360,000 [is] the number of people with graduates degrees on government assistance in 2010."

"68,000 [is] the number of postdocs in the U.S. alone waiting for tenured professorships."

"100,000 [is] the number of PhDs granted in a four year period."

"Over 60% [is] the number of PhDs who will not have a paying job at graduation."

And the horrible data blurbs on and on and on in every sad statement publicly made from someone honestly worried about his own future. But it is important to understand that our ostridge attitude of extreme complacency is also to blame. That is well stressed in the original article.

"Youre not above the data. You are the data... The fairy tale is over. Academia is broken. The time to leave it is now. If you dont leave it you will be poor, mistreated and unhappy."

"The academic system makes you so dependent that you get used to being treated poorly... Professors have too much power over you and often abuse this power."

"There are thousands and thousands of non-academic jobs in the world right now that allow you to do meaningful work while also being paid well."

I very recently shared a comment with a Biotechnology Recruitment Specialist that stated there are many roles out there to be filled, but a shortage of top candidates. And in my opinion this is the result of a long and old vicious cycle that starts with poor understanding of the job market by academia, and a greedy fly attitude by the industry. Here I quote myself!

@ Simon: I dont mean to be the devils advocate, but I see here two really big problems, 1) Universities are not preparing their students for jobs outside academia (that is undeniable) and 2) Industry is looking for a thousand skills employee rather than employing many people with different skills (and this is just because industry wants to save on wages!!!!). If there are vacancies to fill in, these both sides of the coin are to blame. People can only do what they are taught to and businesses can only use what is available out there. Sad, but true.

Industry is not the miracle out there waiting for you to to happen. You must know what jobs you can do, what differs you from the rest of the herd, what skills will prompt your successful career in industry. That, whilst you wait businesses to have a more ethic (hope I am not offending anyone with this word) approach towards hiring superhumans.

What jobs can I do in Industry?

by someone in MindThePhD

Here are a few titles that someone compiled for us to have a simple idea. There are many more, but a title is nothing, always look in depth to the job description.

Pharmacovigilance officer if you are good with data, databases and compiling adequate information;

Regulatory Affairs Manager if you went through  the adequate formation as I tried to, see here.

Quality Assurance/Compliance Auditor/Manager if you like ISO and protocols;

Product Development Manager if you are R&D passionate with good communication skills;

Clinical Research Associate if you like running clinical trials working closely with hospital staff and medics;

Project Manager if you like working as a consultant (see previous pilgrimage article) trying to perfect your clients strategy;

Medical Science Liaison/Regional Science Manager/Clinical Research Scientist if you are great with establishing relationships, develop educational material for clients and travelling a lot. God, I see myself doing this for sure! I got my eye on this one!!!

This was a long post, but queing for job seekers allowance can also be long and tedious. Make the most of your skills, work with dignity and professionalism, but most of all be honest to yourself when leaving academia. Ask yourself these three questions before applying to a certain job:

1) Do I know how to do this?

2) Can I learn fast how to do it?

3) Is there something more releated to what I actually know?

Good luck!

Picture kindly taken from Pinterest, [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/353462270727085790/]. 

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Pilgrimage for a job PhD to Own Business

I am walking with you this long path of preparing the journey towards job applications. I mean successful and meaningful job applications that make a difference to my life as well as to my future employers life. To accomplish mutual satisfaction I cannot waste my time or their time, I must hit the bulls eye rather than just be some more of the same matter hitting the fan. I thus promised explore three possible vias, having in consideration the unbearable lethargy academia is going through and the fact that life is also to be lived as well as personal dreams are to be accomplished. 

Industry, Consulting or Start-Up? When Industry seek not for our expertise and a consulting opportunity is not an option, what else is there for us? Developing our own project. Is that a viable option?

[1]

Well, even though times have changed a lot since our grandparents were born, in both academia and industry, creating your own project/company is still an option. A real tough one, but an option anyways. You know?, in our grandparents times there was so much to innovate, so much to create, so much to bring up to life, times were pulsing with NEED. Nowadays innovation is scarce because this era of consumerism forced the market to constantly produce more and more in a trash-producing rhythm. This created a wheel of constant production of things that differ a picometer from the previous versions. The next idea the market used to overcome expected selling difficulties was the creation of necessity, and this is why the gaming industry exploded orgasmically as we see it these days. The need for more speed, more colours, more characters, more sound and more definition was never a real need, but basically an imposition of the market using primitive vulnerability to stimuli in people. But creating a need very rarely works, and it is the wrong market approach. My idea is that rather than creating need or attempting innovation, one should offer quality. So what if your start-up will deliver more of the same, the real deal here is to offer more quality. Other experts in business might say differently, this is only a personal view from someone whos out there learning the walk.

But for a PhD student with no option but to create its own business there is fear and excitement at the prospect of starting from scratch. Your startup will not have financial power to overcome far more powerful corporations. So where does the secret key to escape the maze reside? In my opinion we can only aim for one exit door - learning from more experienced people and do it with passion.

I am starting my own company not because I believe I wont be able to find a suitable job for myself, but because I dont want to be another one waiting for desperation to kick-in and then do it. It is a humble project, but it is my project and as I err and try again my network keeps growing and my business skills ever more. 

I recently read an excellent simplistic article on starting our own business. First you face a natural fear mixed with excitement, but there is nothing more grandiose than providing for yourself with your own ideas. All you need is to be fully aware of the:

1) Capital required really influences business selection, but these days online businesses have shown that the internet actually reduced costs a lot;

2) Skills, one might have them or not, but when you start your own business it is always good to use the ones you have whilst constantly seeking to get the ones you dont.

3) Managing other people and yourself is like wearing your supervisor shoes. This time you will be able to prove that you can do better under somehow similar circumstances, especially when it comes to motivate or negotiate with people that apparently have nothing to immediately gain from your business.

4) Your personality in the business area youre in is crucial. If you dont like laughing please do not become a comedian. Simple as that. Figure out your top three personality skills and apply them to the niche you are wishing to enter.

I read quite sometime ago a very nice article from Jayne Sharples (Part-time Postgraduate Careers Consultant in Higher Education and freelance coach and consultant) available in the jobs.ac.uk website entitled "From PhD to Business Start-Up" [2]. I dont want to make this post even longer, therefore have decided to just post here the main valuable ideas (in italics) Jayne shares with us and some of my own experience gained in these last seven months:

• If you value independence, autonomy and creativity you are suitable to an entrepreneurial career option.
• If you have a go-ahead attitude towards risk then you are suitable to an entrepreneurial career option.
• If you are committed and do not mind putting in the hours then you are suitable to an entrepreneurial career option.
• You will need to have a robust business idea and a well-researched understanding of the market place.
• Read everything you can online about starting your own business; there is no such thing as too much information. If by the end of it you feel dismayed by the difficulties rather than excited about the opportunities, you are not entrepreneurial material.
• If you do not have an idea just keep your mind open to problems that need solving and there lies your idea. Check these 50 Business Ideas You Can Start Right Now.
• If you feel like you need a hand, partner up with someone you know and trust.  Check How to choose the right partner.
• Write your business plan as this is the most important document thatll actually x-ray your understanding of the niche youll be in. Great help from GOV.UK in BUSINESS PLAN WRITING.
• Raise finance - if you have no money whatsoever, opt for crowdfunding like Kickstarter.
• Test, test and test, and only then build your brand. The Guardian has a really nice article on market research for small businesses.

[1] Business development manager, LinkedIn, [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-development-manager-science-phds-career-option-arunodoy-sur], last visited on the 23rd of February 2015, last updated on the 8th of February 2015.

[2] From PhD to business to start-up, jobs.ac.uk, [http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers-advice/studentships/1741/from-phd-to-business-start-up], last visited on the 23rd of February 2015, last updated in December 2011.

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