Transferable skills make STEM graduates highly employable outside research settings, but how do you identify those that are specific to you? Abi Parsons reflects on the importance of making time for personal development during your PhD.
During the course of your PhD, it is easy to identify which laboratory techniques you’ve learnt. We are explicitly trained on these by more senior scientists and, usually, it’s clear if you have successfully followed a protocol or not. Progress isn't always as clear for ‘transferable’ skills and wider career development. Taking time to identify the transferable skills that you have developed during your studies is something we should all do. As well as helping you to tailor your CV and nail job interviews, this exercise can also serve as a reminder that a PhD is so much more than a training in lab work.
Think about an average day in the lab. You likely arrive with an idea of what needs to be done that day, and how that work fits into the wider project. This is a classic example of effective project management. The down-time or incubation periods between experiments are often spent planning out the next steps. Many of us run experiments in tandem, making clever use of those calmer moments to maximise how much we can get done in a day. Being able to view your PhD as a large project with individual experiments making up pieces of the puzzle trains us in good time management and organisation. As we progress, these skills become second nature to us, so it should be unsurprising that PhD students make very good project managers.
A near-universal experience of PhD students is explaining your research to a non-expert audience. This doesn’t have to mean holding events at science festivals or doing school visits, it’s also talking about your work with family and friends who may not have a scientific background. Within my own family, breaking down my research into accessible terms is a skill that naturally developed and, in doing so, massively improved my communication skills. This comes in handy when attending conferences, giving me the opportunity to discuss my research with other scientists from a basic to an expert level. Adapting communication styles depending on the circumstance is a skill that is highly prized outside of a research career.
Many PhD students are also involved in teaching throughout their program, a job in which effective communication is essential. This could be through informal support of undergraduate or placement students undertaking short projects in the lab, or by working part time as practical class demonstrators. Through such roles, PhD students get further experience in communication and leadership. Assisting a group of new students through their first laboratory classes is a rewarding, but challenging, experience. Balancing this kind of paid work with our own research is also another example of good time and project management.
Since the start of my PhD I have constantly been problem solving. This includes academic challenges, piecing together the science of my project and overcoming logistical obstacles. No doubt at some point during your PhD you’ve had an experiment planned only for an antibody not to work, a piece of equipment to break or some other bout of scientific misfortune to occur. Unfortunately, this is all part of the process. Rather than giving up when faced with these obstacles, PhD students must adapt, plan a slightly different experiment and move the project forward. These conditions can be difficult but allow us to develop some pretty strong resilience in the process.
Reflecting on my PhD so far, it’s clear that my transferable skills are just as important and useful as my scientific training. A PhD really does teach you more than just lab skills, but with so much focus on the science it is easy to overlook our personal development. To identify those applicable to you, walk through a standard day and reflect on all those moments you are not actively doing lab work. What are you doing? Has it become easier with time? If so, that’s a skill you’ve developed through experience. Write them down, list clear examples of using them, and reflect on how you came to develop them. You’ll quickly realise that your scientific skills aren't the only thing you’ve developed in your PhD.
This article was written by Abi Parsons and edited by Ailie McWhinnie. Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch!
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