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You get a range of skills while working on a science PhD that will benefit you in industry no matter where you end up. If you choose to study an area that actua
by acadien 12y ago
You get a range of skills while working on a science PhD that will benefit you in industry no matter where you end up. If you choose to study an area that actually has industry applications then its even better.
If, on the other hand, you get a science PhD and spend all of your time working with some insanely complex device that only has 1 application studying an esoteric process that has no industry applications... then yeah you're going to have a hard time finding work. This is the story I have seen over and over again among my friends and colleagues that get PhDs.
If you're a graduate student be smart about it and make sure you get the experience necessary to help you find work after graduation! No one else is going to help you with that, it is up to you to build your resume.
Professors that take advantage of cheap labor and don't help their students transition after graduation are a problem that Universities should take up. It is to the University's benefit to get their students into nice industry positions.
- analog31 12y agoI would say it like this: You either make yourself employable or you don't, in spite of working on a PhD. What I observed during grad school was that students who wanted to be employable in industry pretty much had to direct their own efforts in that regard. They had to get into the right professor's research group in order to have the leeway to steer their goals. The soft skills needed to function in the business world were those that they were born with, or somehow learned outside the academe. Luck played a role too.