Category: Ph.D. to Industry
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Ultimate Guide to Non-Ac Career Informational Interviews
Introduction In this blog post, I answer the following questions (from my personal perspective) about informational interviews in the context of exploring non-academic career options: What’s an informational interview? You’ve probably heard the term “informational interview” floating around if you’ve spent any time in the non-academic career space. Don’t let the word “interview” intimidate you!…
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5 Major Misconceptions I Had About Non-Ac Jobs During Grad School
When I was in the thick of grad school, I was overwhelmed thinking about deadlines, experiments failing, keeping my advisor happy, and the scary thought of not knowing what to do with my life. I could barely list 3 jobs types off the top of my head that I could be qualified for. I also…
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My Honest Takes on Alt-Ac Twitter
I took 2 months off from blogging to reflect on the whirlwind of content I had expelled in the past 10 months and my experience with it. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know I used to go HAM with the content. 1-2 in-depth blog posts a week, Twitter threads,…
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6 Things I Did Right in My Industry Job Search
A few weeks ago, I published a blog post, 6 Things I Did Wrong in My Industry Job Search, and it was super popular. In that post, I promised I’d be back with a “Things I Did Right” version, and here it is. Context: I’m a remote medical writer in the U.S., and I have…
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The Top 3 Things That Helped Me Get My Remote Medical Writer Job
If I could go back, I’d tell myself that getting a job as a medical writer isn’t just “applying for a bunch of “medical writer” positions until something sticks”. I don’t know about you, but I like going into things with a plan. Whether that’s a day out, a vacation, or the laboratory experiments I…
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6 Things I Did Wrong in My Industry Job Search
I definitely didn’t have a perfect job search. Especially towards the beginning of it, I messed up on many things – many of which are listed below. Fixing them helped me increase my chances of success, so I hope they inspire you to take a look at your own job search strategies. Not to necessarily…
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7 Things Academics Get Wrong About Industry Jobs
I recently Tweeted asking former academics that now work in industry/non-ac jobs to share the biggest myths about non-ac jobs that they’ve seen academics have, and want to debunk. I got some really fun comments and I thought I’d make a post describing them, adding my own take on each. These are just for fun,…
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3 Important Lessons I’ve Learned About Working in Industry After Leaving Academia
I remember when I was a grad student trying to figure out how to transition from my lab to a non-ac/industry job. It felt like a completely different world, a world I had absolutely no practical understanding of. Having been at my job for exactly 3 months as of today, I wanted to write a…
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I Voluntarily Gave Up Authorship On My Ph.D. Research Paper and I’ve Never Felt More Free
In industry, once you leave a workplace, you don’t spend months (or years) “wrapping up” work for them, unpaid. Your old coworkers and managers don’t keep contacting you to do more work. You pass it along to them with proper documentation and make your exit. So why do academics think it’s normal to keep working…
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Did I Need to Get a Ph.D.?
Less than a year ago, I was scrambling to set a defense date. Less than 3 months ago, I started at my new industry job as a medical writer. One thing that I’ve been thinking about recently and really mulling over is the simple question: Did I need to get a Ph.D.? I mean, I’m…