Leveraging Your PhD: Why Employers Value Your Skills (2025)

Published on March 7, 2025

Takeaways from a panel presentation by Harvard Griffin GSAS alumni working outside academia.

Guest blog post by Rachel Rosenman (Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD Candidate in Music).

As our graduate career advisors at the Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success (MCS) like to say, there’s a lot you can be with a PhD! Harvard Griffin GSAS Dean Emma Dench also notes that, according to current statistical trends, around 50% of Harvard PhD alumni will ultimately work outside of traditional academic employment. The expansive possibilities for post-PhD careers can feel exciting––and, at the same time, challenging to navigate. Those who choose to shift away from academia after graduate school must think creatively as they explore new opportunities, build professional networks, pivot into new pathways, and translate their PhD skills into qualifications for jobs in other industries.

Thankfully, the experiences gained during our PhD work teach us to be inventive, resourceful, and persistent as researchers and teachers––and, indeed, hearing the stories of recent Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD alumni and their career paths outside of academia can provide valuable insight into how aspects of our PhD work can be put into practice in a variety of professional sectors.

MCS recently hosted this year’s edition of their annual event, “Leveraging Your PhD: Why Employers Value Your Skills,” a panel presentation featuring seven Harvard Griffin GSAS alumni speakers, now working in diverse career fields, who graduated from PhD programs in a variety of disciplines spanning the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. As the panelists shared their professional stories and reflections, they offered concrete examples of possible paths––and advice for current graduate students thinking about making career transitions away from academia after graduation.

This year’s panelists:

Leveraging Your PhD Panelists February 2025

Moderator: Dr. Michelle Soriano (Chiesi) PhD ’07, biochemistry & molecular pharmacology

Key takeaways from the event:

  1. Reflect on your skills––and what you’re looking for in a job.
    Self-reflection  can help both with identifying transferable skills and deciding what professional roles and industries could make for appealing next steps. Specifically, the panelists drew attention to the following:
    • Working on a PhD teaches us to learn new things efficiently: at times, we need to quickly become proficient in a new subject area, procedure, technology, or body of scholarly literature in order to make progress in our research or dissertation writing. This ability to independently and effectively grow and adapt our skills is very valuable in the professional world.
    • Through tasks like teaching, research, conference presentations, and applying for grants and fellowships, our PhD work teaches us to synthesize and communicate information to various audiences, and to convey its significance. These abilities are also very valuable and transferable to many professional roles.
    • You may be more of an expert than you think! Taking a doctoral-level course or undertaking a research project in a given topic can likely qualify you to claim “expertise” in that area in the professional world, even if that topic was not the primary focus of your doctoral thesis project. Through graduate coursework, academic “side projects,” and teaching undergraduate courses, PhDs gain highly specialized skills and knowledge in a range of domains that could be worth including in the professional narratives we present to employers.
    • It is worthwhile to reflect on both your abilities and your preferences: what kind of hours do you like to work? Where in the world would you like to live? What skills are your strengths, and what tasks energize you? What level of structure or flexibility at work would feel best? And what kinds of problems do you like to solve? Thinking through these questions can provide useful direction as you search for industries and roles that align well with your skills and values.
  2. Build a network––and don’t be afraid to ask for support.
    Networking is a crucial way to learn more about industries, roles, and organizations that might be of interest––and, eventually, to get connected to professional opportunities. The speakers acknowledged that networking can feel intimidating and offered some strategies and advice:
    • Approaching the networking process with a mindset of learning more and “making friends” can help us feel better about it. Seeking valuable personal connections, rather than superficial ones, feels more authentic––and offers greater benefits.
    • LinkedIn is a great tool for staying in touch with professional contacts, or for seeking out new connections via mutual contacts, college/university alumni groups, or other shared interests. Requesting brief “informational interview” conversations with new contacts can be a way to connect personally and learn more about professional fields. Job postings on LinkedIn also provide valuable examples of the skills and experiences that employers look for.
    • There are a lot of people who are happy to help! Many professionals are especially well disposed towards helping students learn more about getting started along career paths. In addition to requesting information, you can also ask for referrals to other people to talk to. Finally, if you are actively applying to positions, many companies offer “referral bonuses” to current employees who refer candidates that are eventually hired––so it doesn’t hurt to request a referral from someone you personally speak to if you’re interested in a role for which their company is hiring, and they may even have an incentive to help you out!
  3. Use the resources and connections you already have.
    It’s important to make good use of the resources and connections we already have at Harvard and from throughout our own lives. The panelists observed that:
    • The networks formed at Harvard through your various academic, teaching, and professional experiences here can help you, if you let people know what kinds of jobs you’re looking for. Specifically, if you tell colleagues and mentors on campus that you are seeking employment outside academia or in a particular sector, they may be able to connect you with people they know or opportunities they hear of in relevant fields.
    • Likewise, your MCS advisors, resources, and programs are valuable sources of support––and it’s never too early or too late to seek them out!
    • Finally, personal networks beyond Harvard can also potentially help you, if you share that you are seeking career transition information and opportunities. Friends from undergraduate institutions, social circles from group activities and hobbies, and extended family might all be able to help you make networking and job-search connections, if they know you’re actively seeking them.
  4. Keep an open mind––the professional world is always changing.
    Lastly, keep an open mind throughout the processes of reflection, exploration, and career transition:
    • The world and the professional landscapes of various sectors are constantly and quickly evolving. We may end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet!
    • You may learn surprising new information from talking with others about their professional paths and current roles. It is helpful to talk to many different people. You might find aspects of multiple career pathways that you’d like to combine as you forge your own way forward.
    • Think carefully and creatively about how to prove to employers that you have the skills they are looking for. You might take on a professional internship or freelance work project during your PhD years to gain experience, leverage networking connections who can vouch for your abilities, or simply pay attention to highlighting concrete examples from your PhD experience that demonstrate how you have used the skills that a potential job requires when you are applying.
    • Various industries adapt differently to new technological developments, cultural and consumer trends, and broader circumstances in the world. Some amount of uncertainty and unpredictability is inevitable.

In conclusion: While the panelists were candid about the challenges of job searching and career transitions out of academia, they ultimately remained optimistic about the potential for PhDs and their skills to be valuable and impactful in a variety of professional fields beyond the academy. They demonstrated how the resilience, creativity, independence, and adaptability gained in our graduate programs at Harvard can help us as we explore new paths, gather information, formulate our next steps, and craft thoughtful professional narratives highlighting the transferrable skills acquired and used throughout our PhD years.

By Gregg Rosenblum
Gregg Rosenblum Assistant Director, IT and Content Resources
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