What's your superpower?

How to market your PhD to employers

Successfully obtaining a PhD in a STEM field requires a complex set of skills that are invaluable in the workforce. To best market these abilities to employers STEM graduates need to break their PhD experience into terms of transferable skills, not topical expertise. Translating your abilities also has a second benefit. You’ll realize that you’ve gained highly desirable traits that employers are looking for and gain the confidence you need to successfully market yourself to employers, land that job, and launch your career!

Characteristics of STEM PhD graduates*

  • Ability to quickly learn and become an expert in a field
  • Ability to break complex problems down into solvable pieces
  • Ability to manage up (who hasn’t had to corral an advisor, committee member, department chair, etc. to move their PhD along?)
  • Technical skills (Coding! Data analysis! Math!)
  • Public speaking and oral communication skills (teaching, conference presentations, committee presentations, symposiums)
  • Written communication skills (papers, grants, and other technical documents)
  • Ability to take responsibility for project direction and findings
  • Ability to formulate a project and manage it to completion
  • Resourcefulness, PhD students often have to get a lot done with limited resources
  • Critical thinking, the ability to thoughtfully evaluate an argument or idea
  • Evidence based problem solving, the ability to make decisions using data
  • Ability to form a hypothesis, but not allow it to cloud your judgment
  • Ability to support a viewpoint with logic, data, and evidence
  • Ability to conceptualize, generalize, and see patterns, which is useful in both analysis and in communicating concepts. (PhDs use this in research, presentations, and teaching)
  • Ability to consider multiple viewpoints
  • Ability to integrate information from different sources, and handle overlaps and difference between sources
  • Ability to make decision and move a project forward with incomplete information

*this list is not exhaustive (there's still more superpowers to discover!)

Case Study 1

Ann, World Class Researcher

Ann has recently completed her first major research project for her thesis. Her paper has been accepted for publication by Nature Geoscience, and she recently presented her work at the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) conference, after which a number of people from different fields approached her with ideas for future collaboration. When writing this accomplishment on her resume she may be compelled to focus on the topical knowledge, but instead Ann should translate this accomplishment into the transferable skills she gained during this process. By marketing her accomplishment in terms of the skills she needed Ann will be better able to translate its value to her future employer.

Ann's Superpowers, Decoded

Academic Acheivement

Decoded Skills

Designed, led and completed a project on the formation plate tectonics

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Formulated, managed, and led a project through to completion

Became an expert and took responsibility for outcomes

Project stood up to peer review process and debate at conferences and meetings

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Ability to support viewpoint with argumentation based on logic, data, and evidence

First author of Nature Geoscience paper

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Excellent written communication skills – publication in a top ranked journal

Presentator at international AGU conference

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Excellent public presentation skills – ability to engage a diverse audience at a broad, international conference

Case Study 2

Mark, Teaching Fellow Extraordinaire

Mark has been a teaching fellow for organic chemistry for several years. He regularly designs and gives lectures, and holds discussion sections for students. When writing this on his resume Mark may be compelled to focus on the topics the class covers. Instead he should think about this experience in terms of transferable skills he gained while in this position. By marketing his experience in terms of the skills he needed to excel as a teacher, Mark will be better able to translate its value to his future employer.

Mark's Superpowers, Decoded

Academic Acheivement

Decoded Skills

Designed and presented weekly lectures for undergraduate organic chemistry class

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Excellent public presentation skills – ability to communicate complex scientific information to non-experts

Designed innovate ways to help students learn complex concepts in organic chemistry

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Ability to break complex material into understandable pieces

Learned material well enough to teach it to the class

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Became a topical expert and took responsibility for material

Taught class material using scientific findings in organic chemistry

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Ability to support and evaluate viewpoints with argumentation based on logic, data, and evidence

Held discussion classes and office hours to answer questions on course material.

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Ability to think quickly and answer unexpected questions