Skills of a PhD

This was an article I started but did not finish. I really like the personal stateement which does the job of summarising the skills gained on a PhD very well.

You wouldn’t want to employ a PhD in your business would you?

 

Overqualified, too many years at college – so divorced from the everyday realities of  work, a bit geeky, a bit sad, a bit scary, too intellectual, ignorant of what a deadline is, knowing rather too much about stuff that no-one cares very much about.

 

That’s a bit of a stereotype, but lots of people will have come across a PhD who exemplifies at least one of those characteristics. But are they typical? And if an employer writes them off, is he/she missing out on a really important source of talent?

 

I have been working with Phd students for a number of years now so I have seen them at close quarters.

 

Time management. Three years to write a book. Put like that it seems like a leisurely process. It isn’t. PhD’s face and meet deadlines on an ongoing basis. It might be about preparing a piece of writing for the regular meeting with the supervisor, or preparing a submission to the research ethics committee so you can start your experimental programme. Writing a poster for a conference. If your experiment involves growing some cells in a particular way over a particular period then you have to make it happen and be there to observe and record it. And because cells have a habit of doing stuff in their own sweet and unexpected way you have to be ready to change tack. University labs are open 24/7 so students can come in to look after their experiments which tends to build another key competence: flexibility

 

Resilience would be another requirement for most jobs. One experienced Biology PhD supervisor ( a kind of mentor /  manager) told me that in his field 90% of what he  tries does not work. Think of what that means in terms of resilience, patience and application. You are working through 90% of failure looking to find that 10% of success.

 

Independent: PhD students are self starters. They don’t do a course as such. They have to scope out their area of research, examine how it fits with the existing knowledge, create testable hypotheses and then go and test them.

 

Team player: A lot of the PhD is done by the student. Its THEIR PhD and they have to make things happen. But there is a lot of opportunity for collaboration

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have completed a PhD in pharmacology at Kings College London. My research into specific pathways and processes in inflammation was managed independently, with minimal guidance. Working in a multidisciplinary team environment meant I could broaden my technical skills and share my knowledge and discoveries with others. Formal and informal meetings within the department allowed me to hone my creative and lateral thinking. I embraced any opportunities to work with external collaborators and found that the planning, organisation and high quality assurance of these projects were all second nature to me. 

 

The most enjoyable aspect of my PhD was learning and optimising new techniques. This requires analysis of large quantities of data with relevant computer software and recovering important information. I also discovered my affinity for mentoring; I have given specialist tutorials and supervised fellow PhD students through their projects, giving positive criticism and recommendations.

 

In addition, I have presented and defended my work at international scientific meetings and contributed to several publications. Thus, demonstrating my ability to summarise complex data and develop a consistent argument.