Choosing a career inside or outside academia has always been an important decision for a Ph.D. candidate concerning a post Ph.D. career. As a working group for a career outside academia, we are making our best efforts to deal with the situation and perspective of Ph.D. candidates who decide to leave academia and seek a career outside academia. Hence, our ambition is to investigate or hear the opinions about what industrial job market or potential employers seek from a Ph.D. candidate to hire them or what preparations a Ph.D. candidate needs to make if he/she wants to go for a career outside academia.
As students and Ph.D. candidates are confined within the interior of academic institutions it is not surprising that they have seen more academic and less outside academic prospects. Hence, we aim to get insights through surveys, interviews, or articles from either experienced candidates who had a bright career outside academia or from HR managers/employers about what they seek in fresh candidates who want to pursue a career outside academia.
Currently, we are working to prepare a report from the survey conducted in 2020. At the same time, we have planned to have opinions and voices from outside academia employers what they see in their next potential employees in different subject areas. We believe our work will provide a realistic perspective of work and career outside academia and the process to get there.