Hi,
I'm interested in the topic of transition from academia to corporate or entrepreneurship, and would like to know from people who made this career shift>
1. What were their motivations to shift?
2. What was their approach ?
3. What was their experience with the job search in start-ups, multinationals etc.
4. what are the biggest challenges you've faced, especially at the start on moved to corporate?
Thanks
2 Apply for advertised jobs, network, write blind applications to selected companies, try to bypass HR.
3 Difficult. I made the mistake of going back and forwards between academia and industry, ended up not being attractive to either. Go as early as possible and then put career first.
4 Many managers will be less well "qualified" than you. You need to convince them that you are not some useless nerd. It helps to choose a company that is tech orientated and employs a lot of degree qualified people.
1 - My wife wanted to stay in Switzerland after my university contract ended. So, I had to find a job. If there's a need, there's way...literally.
2 - I took all the support the university offers. Student organizations (bachelor & masters level) invite professionals to talk with students. That's a really good way to meet people from "outside" that talk about working conditions, salaries, opportunities, etc. Job fairs organized by universities: I found my job in ETH's Polymesse. Couching offered in the university on how to fine tune your CV and handle interviews, etc. Finally, free language courses at the university.
3 - Did not bother to look for jobs in start-ups. As 3rd country national that requires a residence permit asked by the employer, I could not risk dealing with people even less experienced than me. I was looking after stability, so went straight to multinationals. After 5 years I have a few complains, but it works overall.
Important point, I sent like 30 targeted applications with customized CV, and just got 2 answers. 1 thanks for your application, 1 invitation to interview. So, be ready for this.
4 - They dropped a lot of responsibility on me on my first week. I was in charge of 2 internal software tools, project management, sales. I cannot complain because that's what I was looking for, but I think I've enjoyed the period a bit more if it could have been slower.
2. Networking. A friend had been approached for a position which he declined. It was not related to my studies in any way, it was boring AML/KYC paper pushing at a large bank, but I took it cause I needed the money and you gotta start from somewhere. Plus it got extended for another 3 months and this 'fake banking' experience looked cool for the next application which was a pure R&D engineering position.
3. As I said, I found my first job via a friend, who had declined this position and got me in touch with the hiring manager. For a period of time after I had gotten my first engineering position, I was thinking about working on the technical side of a bank here is Switzerland (structuring, risk, algorithmic trading) but with no success. I sent in a lot of applications, in two cases I reached till the final round but in the end they preferred someone with a more solid background. It is really hard to convince someone to hire you if you come from a different background, nobody is willing to take such a risk if they don't know you.
4. Nothing in particular. But then again, I did my Ph.D. because I wanted to do some research, it is not that I wanted to be a Professor or something. But on the other hand, I know a few people that didn't want to be in Academia, but the only thing they were offered after the end of the Ph.D. was a post-doc and then another one and then another one and they are now stuck in a system which does not lead to a professorship but nobody else wants to hire them because they are doing something very specialized, so they are in a difficult spot.
2) Had worked in industry before the PhD. During academia time, did some projects for free for some ONGs, Caritas
3) Multinationals first, not only in the exact domain, then landed on a consultant position working in a project with the experience/knowledge learned from the projects done for ONGs, Caritas
4) Local language, even job desc only mentioned EN