PhD Skills

Mastering work habits during your PhD.

Good work habits are important throughout our professional careers. Your PhD offers you a chance to perfect them. Knowing how to manage your motivation, time, productivity, and prevent burnout whilst also ensuring you keep developing is key to thriving in any career whether that be in academia or beyond.

Applauding your methodical PhD mindset.

Being methodical is the key to keeping the big picture in mind. It’s important to move away from a reactive and reactional state of mind for any job. Thinking about the strategic direction for your role, team, or company will fast-track your career success.

Your manager shadow post-PhD and beyond.

Being a manager isn’t as straight forward as it seems. Having adept interpersonal skills to foster support and develop those around you is essential. As you progress up the ladder it’s important to think about your manager shadow – how others perceive you, model and emulate your behaviour.

Being a self-starter – it matters.

Being a self-starter comes naturally do PhDs. Exercising this skill is an incredible asset to help support your growth and development whilst contributing to your personal brand. However, if we’re not careful, this skill can hide us from the credit we deserve.

Intellectual Curiosity: The missing ingredient for post-PhD success.

We often take intellectual curiosity for granted, however it’s a core ingredient to help you thrive in any career you pursue. Having the desire to ask the ‘why’ questions will increase your skillset, opportunities and overall visibility, ensuring career success.

Supercharging your ‘get stuck in’ PhD attitude.

Getting stuck in is what PhDs and academics do best. Recognising this skill and tailoring it to help you develop further, grow your network, and acquire new skills will lead to improved opportunities for your academic career and beyond.

Cherishing your PhD critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking is a core skill most, if not all, PhD students possess. This skill enables you to evaluate concepts, articulate their flaws and opportunities for improvement without being confrontational. Being able to critically evaluate concepts outside of academic is an asset for any organisation.

Emphasising your leadership and mentoring skills.

Leadership and mentoring skills are often hard to foster during a PhD due to limited opportunities. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t highlight it as a transferable skill or something you can consciously work on whilst in your PhD.

Applying your recruitment skills beyond academia.

Recruitment is a career many PhD students overlook. However, much of the skills acquired during the PhD set you up for success for this profession. Here we break down the skills needed for recruitment and things to consider about this career option.

Acknowledging your ability to synthesise and interpret information.

Being able to synthesise and interpret information is a core skill that’s developed during your PhD. The great news is that this can be generalised and carried over to a wide range of professions and even comes in handy when you take the leap and look for new careers.

The core skills every PhD student has.

All PhDs go on to develop a core set of skills no matter what the subject discipline. The combination and integration of these core skills can open a range of opportunities and career prospects. We must first identify them, and then emphasise them.

Highlighting your PhD creative thinking skills.

Being creative and innovative is integral to completing a PhD as you seek to produce something novel for your field. This skill can be applied to a range of professions, careers, and future opportunities.

Affirming your PhD communication skills.

A PhD fosters multiple opportunities to develop your written and verbal communication skills, which can be leveraged when seeking post-PhD careers. This post provides examples of how to demonstrate these skills and make them more tangible.

Celebrating your PhD self-resilience.

Completing a PhD requires a tremendous amount of self-resilience. This is a key transferable skill to refer to when applying for post-PhD careers as it can give you a competitive edge.

Recognising your PhD project management skills.

Project management becomes so instinctive as a PhD student we forget it is even a skill. Being able to juggle your PhD and everything else that’s going on in your life should not be overlooked as a transferable skill.

Valuing your PhD writing skills.

Writing throughout your PhD is a constant practice. Eventually, we forget how good we actually are at writing. This is a core transferable skill that can open thousands of career opportunities for you. Be sure to let people know.

Appreciating your ability to learn.

The ability to learn is not often thought of as a skill. Having a PhD is the reflection of how quickly you can learn new things, providing you with the ultimate skill for the rest of your life.

Owning your PhD problem-solving skills.

Problem solvers are rare and always in high demand. Fortunately for you, you’ve got excellent PhD problem-solving skills and you might not even know it.

Setting yourself up for PhD success.

Doing a PhD is one thing, but how should you maximise this opportunity to achieve PhD success? This post provides a break down on what to prioritise and how to make the most of your PhD for the long term.

Leveraging your PhD data skills.

Understanding how to manage, interpret, analyse and visualise data is a hot skill for a range of jobs. Learn how to leverage your PhD to emphasise that these are skills you already possess.

Developing better interpersonal skills during your PhD.

Having good interpersonal skills is essential to having a successful career, especially if you plan to leave academia. During your PhD, it’s important that you don’t neglect your interpersonal skills, you should be making a conscious effort to improve them!

Creating the perfect conference poster.

A step-by-step guide on how to create the perfect conference poster.

The benefits of teaching during your PhD.

Teaching during your PhD improves your employability, gives you a break from your own PhD, and can help generate a bit of extra cash.

Should I learn Python or R during my PhD?

Data analysis is a key skill for most, if not all PhD students. However, should you learn Python or R?

What are my transferable PhD skills?

Here we outline what transferable skills you’ve acquired throughout the course of your PhD and how this applies outside of academia.

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