Don’t pursue a PhD as skills training for “the industry”!
Based on another recent conversation on LinkedIn -this time far more productive and polite compared to my previous experience , I want to expand a little on the answer I posted. Ashley Ruba, a UX Researcher @ Meta Reality Labs, wrote about her experience of leaving academia after her PhD to pursue a career in the digital design industry with Meta : Unfortunately, I often hear PhDs lament that they have no transferrable skills. First of all, stop that. You have transferrable skills. You just weren't taught how to identify and market them. This is why academics struggle to write resumes (more on that later this week). Okay, so what are your transferrable skills? For UX Research, my biggest transferrable skills are: 1. Qualitative research methods & analysis 2. Experimental and survey design 3. Statistical analysis (using R) 4. Public speaking 5. Technical writing Do you have these skills too? I bet you do. Experiences, industries and sectors vary widely, but this is not the firs