7 PhD Skills That Attract Employers (#3 Is Very Rare)

If you’re a PhD searching for a job, what’s the most important thing to have in your job search? 

This should be easy - it’s the required technical skills, right?

No.

As a PhD, you have spent years developing your technical skills.

You are an expert in your field (there’s no doubt about that), but you’ll also need certain transferable skills--also known as "soft skills"--if you want to find industry success.

Believe it or not, you already have many of these skills.

A study published in PLOS found that graduate school actually does equip PhDs with the transferable skills they need to get industry jobs.

The study asked PhDs already working in industry to identify whether they had gained particular transferable skills in graduate school.

The majority of respondents said they gained many transferable skills as a PhD student, including project management, innovative thinking, improved communication, and plenty more.

Your PhD gives you the skills--both technical and transferable--to do meaningful, fulfilling work in whatever industry area you choose. 

You need to realize that you have those skills and emphasize them during your networking process and, most importantly, job interviews.

Here are the top 7 transferable skills PhDs can bring to the company of their choice.

1. You know how to manage your time.

Time is money.

Industry employers simply won’t hire you if you don’t understand this concept. In industry, every moment spent unfocused, or spent on a frivolous task, is a waste of money.

It’s viewed differently in academia, but as a PhD, you still have tons of experience with time management. 

I probably don’t need to tell you that PhD students with poor time management will struggle to graduate on time.

That is some serious motivation to develop excellent time management skills, which, no doubt, you have.

Plus, many PhD programs have instituted a time limit for the length of PhD projects.

This means that you must be able to manage your time in order to complete a multipart, several-year long project on time.

So you’ve got the core skills (or else you’d still be working in the lab), but time management can always be improved.

Identify ways that you can do this. Then, when you’re pitching yourself to potential employers, highlight that you value time management and demonstrate the results you were able to achieve by implementing those developed skills.

2. You’ve got writing skills (but they can get much better).

Being able to communicate well is essential to industry success.

You will need to communicate with:

• People within or outside your team
• People with or without a science background
• Clients and customers
• Executives
• The team you’re managing (if there is one)

This is slightly different from an academic environment in which you are often writing for an elite, educated audience possessed of strong technical expertise - like yourself!

Not so in business.

You should practice writing about your research for people who are not technically skilled. 

Try to view your project from the perspective of an investor. What would you need to write about in order to convince someone to invest in your research project? 

This is actually pretty similar to grant writing, which you probably know pretty well at this point. Not to mention your titanic dissertation - the greatest bulk of written work you will probably ever complete!

In essence, you know how to write. But that’s not good enough.

Develop the ability to write for a variety of audiences - broaden your style and make it more accessible. This will aid you greatly in your industry career.

3. You have information and data analysis skills.

Industry needs employees who can do more than regurgitate information.

They need you to interpret information, and then move the field forward - sound familiar? As a PhD, you are comfortable at the edge of what is known. You thrive on asking innovative questions. 

You know how to read on a subject, prioritize important information, and data and use it to make a decision.

PhDs know where to look to find reputable information and data - this is called research.

PhDs also know how to carefully scrutinize and evaluate that information and data - this is called analysis.

Most people cannot do either effectively.

Being a part of a journal club will help you develop your ability to gather and interpret even further. This gives you the ability to interpret a range of information and produce the best possible interpretation.

4. You’re a decision maker and a problem solver.

PhDs boast legendary troubleshooting skills. You have an advanced degree in a specific discipline, but you’re also a doctor of problem solving. 

Your PhD project almost certainly had roadblocks and bumps along the way that you had to overcome.

Discovering a problem during your PhD was not a sign that you needed to quit - it was an opportunity to discover something new. PhDs are working right at the edge of known information. 

That means you’re encountering brand new problems, and those problems need solving. 

PhDs are naturally creative innovators. They offer immense value to industry companies with the skillsets they carry. 

5. You can communicate verbally at a professional level.

Oral communication impacts not only your ability to be understood but your capacity for working well with others.

As a PhD, you have already developed this transferable skill.

You are constantly communicating with the people in your group, with any collaborators you may have, with other staff at your university, and with students you teach.

You know how to verbally communicate with different types of people, and this is a valuable skill in industry.

You also know how to communicate complex ideas in a way that can be understood.

All PhDs have given presentations, so they know how important it is to speak in a way that allows others to comprehend.

By practicing and giving lots of presentations throughout your PhD studies, you have become an excellent verbal communicator. 

Make sure that you leverage this experience when applying for industry positions. 

That way, potential employers will realize your value and start thinking about bringing you into their company.

6. You can learn much faster than most people.

There are very few people who can rival a PhD’s capacity for rapid learning.

You have the ability to read and understand the paper’s conclusions, and even implement those new findings into your own research.

That whole process can happen in a matter of hours - talk about fast! In industry, if the project you are working on becomes irrelevant unprofitable, it will be scrapped. 

This means you will likely have to switch to a completely new project very quickly.

You’ll need to learn about this new project, which could very well be in a different field! As a PhD, your ability to learn quickly means that you will be able to keep up with the changing priorities of industry.

7. You are a highly experienced project manager.

Project management is a key transferable skill. Industry employers are constantly on the lookout for candidates with this valuable ability.

And it should come as no surprise that, as a PhD, you are an expert in project management!

You have seen a multi-year project through from beginning to end, and the driving force behind that project was you.

As a part of your work in academia, you've had to:

• Budget your funds
• Plan and execute experiments
• Manage other graduate students and undergrads who worked on your project

You had a vision for your project, you paved the road to that vision’s realization, and you managed the day-to-day activities to make the entire project a reality.

You literally are a project manager already.

So when speaking and writing about your experiences as a PhD student, highlight this skill to demonstrate that you are a top job candidate.

Are you a PhD?

If so, what soft skills have you used to impress interviewers?

Tell me in a comment below.

To learn more about transitioning into industry, including how to gain instant access to industry career training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, a complete industry transition plan, and a private online job referral network for PhDs only, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association.