this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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What roles are you looking for? I'm quite familiar with the academic market as I have 3 degrees at this point. .
My advice is to keep looking for technical roles. I'm not sure what's your background, but don't fall into the trap of doing more research degrees to become more competitive for hiring because the market for hiring people with research Masters/PhDs is fucked.
Pardon this belated reply — I really appreciate your answer, it's given me good dose of clarity as I was thinking about signing up for a masters at UniMelb. I'll start applying for more technical roles hey.
And I'm after junior research assistant related roles at uni, research institute or hospital. Like, someone gives me a topic and I write them a lit review, provide summaries or annotated bibs etc. Academic writing is my strength. I know some opportunities exist. I recently fumbled an interview because I didn't provide nuance with respect to the specific statistical tests I'd applied on datasets in my grad projects. They were kind enough to provide this feedback to me, it was valuable.
May I ask, if you're in this line of work, did you break into the field? Did you start off in a technical role?
No worries. I'm currently a PhD student.
I haven't really broken into the field. I do write but don't consider it a strength, I do consider my verbal communication skills to be my strength.
I've just seen enough from the PhD students around me who are all struggling. We don't see much hope in terms of employment. There are many generations of Masters/PhD students ahead of you who have just graduated and are looking for roles.
Not to say you shouldn't do it, just know that it isn't a guarantee that it'll help you stand out. But you will gain new skills (hopefully) which could help you find a job.
I've seen some more technical roles come up where having a PhD would maybe make people consider you overqualified.
A mate studying their 2nd PhD applied for a job last year, had specific first-author publications for each of the selection criteria — didn't even get shortlisted. After this mind-blowing anecdote and hearing reiterations of this story ad nauseum, I decided against pursuing further study. Always baffled me the whole overqualification trope — as if the extensive planning, managing, budgeting and executing a PhD project isn't exactly the type of skills needed for the workplace.
Appreciate the insight again friend, all the best to ya and good luck with the remainder of your doctorate.