By Maggie Kuo and Jia You
Science, November 27, 2017 —
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Ph.D. holders in a variety of careers agree that they started developing many of the professional skills they use in their jobs while they were in grad school. The information interpreting, data analysis, and problem solving they did as Ph.D. students were important in research and nonresearch positions alike, a recently published survey of 3803 science and engineering Ph.D.s shows.
However, some skills that are very important at work tend to take a back seat during Ph.D. training, the survey also highlights. Overall, respondents were least prepared for the degree of time management, team work, and personnel management their jobs require. But the importance of these professional skills also varies between career paths. For example, managing others is important for tenure-track researchers, but less so for careers in communication and consulting.
Identify the skills you need to focus on with this interactive based on the survey’s data, which compares the extent a skill is developed in grad school with its importance in 12 career sectors. Scored on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, respondents reported whether they believed they developed each skill during their Ph.D. training and whether the skill is important for doing their job successfully. The average scores generally fell between neutral, which lies at the center of the plots, and strongly agree at the outside edges.
Coming out of grad school with the necessary professional skills can ease the transition into the workforce, as an informal survey of new hires at one company illustrates. Having these skills on hand can also make trainees more competitive in the job market. So, explore the day-to-day duties and responsibilities of jobs in a variety of sectors to shed some light on areas that you might want to start prioritizing.
How well does Ph.D. training prepare you for a job in
Developed during Ph.D.
Importance in job
Technical skills
Discipline-specific knowledge
Interpersonal skills
Work with people outside the organization
Day-to-day skills
Make decisions & solve problems
Common job titles in this sector include:
Assistant Professor
Research Associate
Research Professor
Scientist (including Research Scientist and Staff Scientist)
How well does your PhD training prepare you for a future job? Explore the skills that can open career doors after your doctoral training with this nice interactive tool: http://bit.ly/2AeQgLV
Jia You
