Preparing Academic Scientists for Careers in Industry

Adapting to industry jobs can be a significant challenge for scientists coming from academia. Industry values and even requires skills that go beyond the traditional scientific/technical competencies. "The ability to work in cross-matrixed environments, demonstrate solid tactical and strategic thinking, ability to delegate, communicate and understand basic concepts of project management" are common prerequisites for jobs in industry. Although these skills are not typically emphasized during academic training, many research activities do in fact map to these competencies. Having an awareness of your skills and an ability to express those skills in business terms provides a significant competitive advantage in landing an industry job and being successful in that job.

This training workshop presented by Dr. Randall Ribaudo (CEO of Human Workflows; Founder of SciPhD.com) introduces business competencies valued in industry, relates them to postdoc research experiences, and demonstrates how to identify those competencies and relate them to job ads and descriptions.

Full info: http://www.cpa.caltech.edu/Activities/Ribaudo_oct2011