What skills are employers beyond academia looking for?

What skills are employers beyond academia looking for when hiring postdocs?

Prosper recently ran two ‘Employer Insight’ sessions, open to researchers across the sector. In April we sat down with Emily Fallon and Pam Reynolds, representatives of the Environment Agency. And in May we hosted Matt McGinley and Susan Jalicy of Inizio Medical – a Medical Communications company.

Our guests talked about the nature of their work, career pathways open to researchers within their organisations, and the sorts of skills they look for when recruiting postdocs (both Emily and Susan worked in academia prior to transitioning into their respective roles).

Both emphasised the importance of transferable skills – particularly ‘softer’ skills that postdocs often overlook – over the increasingly-specialist knowledge that often becomes the currency of a “traditional” academic career path.

So what are these transferable skills? Our guests highlighted some common themes and pieces of advice that we’ve listed below. You can watch the full sessions at the links at the top of this piece.

Our next Insight session is on the 10th June, 2pm. We'll be sitting down with Ely Sandler - Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Co-founder of Article Six - to explore careers at the intersection of academia and industry. You can find more info and register here.

Passion and confidence

Demonstrating passion is crucial.

What this translates to depends on the role and sector – but it needn’t align perfectly with your particular specialism within academia.

It could mean a broad passion for science or history, or research in general – a love of discovery or problem-solving.

An interest in the organisation’s objectives, the work it does in the wider world, and the desire to be part of that, is also a big plus.

Both sessions also highlighted the importance of confidence and personability – employers want to get a sense of you as a person, that you know the value you’d bring to the organisation and that you’re someone they can envision working with.

Communication skills

Both sessions strongly emphasised the importance of communication skills – particularly the ability to quickly assimilate complicated information and break it down for various non-technical audiences.

Postdocs often have more experience here than they realise, and that experience often comes from things other than publishing papers in specialist journals – whether it be designing engaging posters for conferences, or presenting findings to those outside their field.

In the Medical Communications industry there is, understandably, an added focus on writing skills. You don’t have to be Shakespeare, but the ability to convey key points in an engaging manner goes a long way – and any experience of this that you can showcase, even if it’s a personal blog, can give you an advantage.

Problem solving, independence and resilience

Both sets of guests made the point that their work environment can be hectic and fast-paced, with employees having to juggle shifting demands and deadlines.

They highlighted the importance of problem-solving skills, and the ability and confidence to effectively prioritise and troubleshoot. The capacity for independent self-learning (something postdocs typically have a lot of experience with!) was also emphasised.

Connected with this, Susan from Inizio underscored the importance of resilience:

Any experience of project management – breaking down a huge project into smaller tasks with deliverables and deadlines or managing a team – is also highly valuable and something worth advertising.

Programming skills

Emily from the Environment Agency highlighted experience with programming and datasets as a major plus for her line of work.

This is of course sector-and-discipline-dependent, but is an increasingly important skill across a wider range of organisations. It’s experience that many postdocs have – including outside of STEM fields – and even basic competency can help you stand out as a candidate.

Research the role – reach out

Both sets of guests emphasised the importance of researching the role and organisation you’re applying to in advance – and demonstrating this interest during the application and interview process.

Susan from Inizio Medical stressed how easy this in the online era, and pointed to sites like LinkedIn as valuable tools for making connections and asking questions (worthwhile even if you’re not sure you want to apply – just get in touch to find out more!)

Tailor your application to the role – make sure to advertise your skills

Commercial CVs are a very different beast to academic CVs. Matt and Susan from Inizio indicated that a good application should be maybe two pages maximum.

The classic ‘list of publications’ – a mainstay of academic CVs – should be an annex. The headline should be all about demonstrating your broader skillset, and how these skills are relevant to the role you’re applying for.

Matt from Inizio pointed to the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) method as an excellent framework for doing exactly this. Before you even consider specific applications, it’s worth creating your own catalogue of skill evidence via the STAR method. You can learn more about the STAR method on our Portal here.