An interesting job with room to grow within the company! Hurray!!!
The job market for PhD’s transitioning out of academia is tough in general but particularly cut throat in the Pacific Northwest. Until today, I experienced 1 of 3 scenarios in my job search:
1. I’m exceedingly overqualified for the job I’m applying for. People either won’t even consider me, for a variety of reasons. A) They’re afraid I’ll leave as soon as a better job comes along, thus wasting the time they spend training me. B) They think there’s something wrong with me, because I left academia. C) They don’t want someone with more education/experience than they have working under them. D) They don’t want someone with a “fancy” degree coming in and trying to change things. Not that I’d do that, but people’s minds can be hard to change.
2. I’m a little under qualified. I lack 1 or 2 of the “Required Skills” but am otherwise a good candidate. These people won’t look at me either, although they at least don’t think there’s anything wrong with me. I’m reaching for the stars. They just don’t want to be my comet. Not when there are plenty of more experienced people that are also looking for jobs.
3. I’m perfectly qualified. I meet every criterion on their list, but someone with 10 years of experience applied for the same job, so they beat me out. These are the most heart breaking, because there’s nothing I can do about it. The interviewers like me, and I make the short list, but I lose out to people with tons of experience that are also in need of a job.
In the last 36 hours, I met 3 fantastic women that changed all that. First, the woman at Office Team that recommended me for this job. Then, the HR woman at the company I was hired at who thought I was good enough to pass on to her boss. Finally, the boss lady at a small company in PDX who supports professional development and is excited to have me on board! Can’t wait until Monday morning!!!
Posted by Dr. Sweatpants
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