<p>I notice some of you are fortunate enough to have experienced working in both the industry and academia. I’d like to start a thread where one can kindly share some perspectives on skills acquired in academia that are useful (or perhaps, valued) in the industry. </p>
<p>Some specific technical skills are obviously transferable across different fields, however, listing them with brief explanations may help those who are currently seeking for a career change, in the process of deciding whether to continue their education (by attending graduate school or further postdoctoral training), those who are preparing for job interview, and more. </p>
<p>General experience and/or specific examples will help us who lack direct experience in either academia or the industry. </p>
<p>I am telling this from my personal experience. I have just transitioned from academia to industry and so far, I have seen Excel being intensively used almost everywhere.</p>
<p>I’ve done some limited work in industry (mostly internships) so I can only comment that way, not with full-time work, but</p>
<p>-Definitely agree with the Excel. Really the entire Microsoft Office suite, but Excel is something a lot of PhD students don’t learn but should if they want to go to industry. Especially making tables and charts.</p>
<p>-Presentation skills, especially for a more industry focused audience. In academia we talk about the process more than we talk about the results; they don’t want that in industry. They want to know the point very quickly and why they should listen. Also get used to talking about broader audiences about your work - they don’t understand the jargon and conventions, so break it down.</p>
<p>-Teamwork. Academics are often silos; we work independently and often autonomously. In corporate people have bosses and most of the work you do is in teams. You may be assigned one piece of it and have to come together to collaborate. Learn to work on teams and play nice with others.</p>
<p>-Quantitative and analytical skills. Statistics is a big one especially in the social sciences. If you intend to look for industry jobs, develop your quantitative skills, particularly data mining and survey development. Longitudinal design and analysis is getting big now, too. If you can earn an MS in statistics concurrently with your PhD or postdoc, do that.</p>