Mentioning This Skill Prevents PhDs From Getting Hired In Industry

Time and again, I see PhDs reading outdated articles about job searching. Articles that were not even meant for PhDs in the first place.

This misinformation will harm your job search.

Recently, one PhD told me that getting wrong information cost her a job offer.

She said, “I read online that employers really want people with team working skills so I made sure to mention this skill several times, especially because I thought that since I am a PhD they must think that I don’t know how to work in team.”

Turns out this was wrong and mentioning that she is such a great 'team player' actually prevented her from getting hired.

The employer told her after the interview that they were looking for somebody with a different set of skills, skills that every PhD already has: self-starting, hard working, disciplined, internally motivated, dedicated and determined.

Employers want to hire you because of your PhD not in spite of it.

Focus on communicating the skills you have as a PhD in a way that is relevant to potential employers.

Instead of mentioning teamwork, focus on these 3 skills that employers want to see in PhDs.

1. Your unbelievable ability to do research.

If you've ever looked at a reference online, and then went to the end of that reference, looked for other references, or looked for embedded hyperlinks in the reference, and then read the other references, and then kept reading more and more references... that's not normal.

Most people don't do that. Most people go onto YouTube and watch cat videos all day.

As a PhD, you have an uncanny ability to look up information, to seek out knowledge, to consume it, and then to go onto the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. Your brain doesn't shut off.

That is a very special ability, a special skill.

The problem is if you mention research on a resume or during a phone screen, most employers won't really understand what it means, it sounds too academic.

So what you want to say instead is problem solving, initiative, and accelerated learning.

In industry most recruiters and hiring managers don't have a PhD, so you have to use their language.

2. Your ability to plan and systemize.

As a PhD you have an ability to create a methodology and to follow a methodology. You did this every time you followed or created a protocol in your research.

Regardless of your PhD discipline you have made and followed systems.

But the words protocol and methodology don’t mean anything to employers.

Instead you want to say strategic planning, systemization, and SOPs (standard operating procedures).

Use that language, it's very valuable.

Use the word systemization.

Systems allow business to scale.

When employers see that word they are going to be blown away, they love that word, strategic planning also is the simplest way to say all those things.

3. Your high level of autonomy.

This is the opposite of saying that you are a ‘team player’ and it’s what employers want to hear.

As a PhD, you have a very high level of autonomy. This refers to your ability to work by yourself and get things done.

Many PhDs see this as a disadvantage, but that is more misinformation.

Don’t listen to lifetime academics who tell you that in industry they're afraid of people who can work by themselves.

They have no clue what is going on in industry.

The #1 thing employers want in today's economy is people who have initiative, who are dedicated, who can work on their own, and who don't need to have their hands held.

PhDs are being hired more today than ever before because of their ability to work autonomously, to work with others when needed, but to get things done on their own, to drive a result on their own.

You need to communicate this.

Stop hiding this key skill.

You are hard working, disciplined, dedicated, determined, and have internal motivation. Employers want to hire people like you.

Have you been incorrectly highlighting teamwork on your resume?

Ready to learn the right strategies you need to get hired in industry as a PhD?

Join us for a free webinar this Thursday April 18th "12 Resume Secrets From Top Recruiters & Hiring Managers (For PhDs Only)."

Learn the right way to write a PhD level industry resume.