PhD Leaves You Unprepared for Non-Academic Work

The truth is that a life science PhD leaves you poorly prepared to get a job doing anything else:

1) Grad programs put very little emphasis on developing writing skills – you maybe write 4-5 documents (proposal, 2-3 papers, plus thesis) over seven years of grad school, with very little feedback on quality of the writing itself.

2) Life science PhDs lack quantitative and computer skills – your physicist or comp sci peers will leave you in the dust when it comes to filling non-science ‘quant’ positions in industry.

3) Life sciences PhD programs are terrible at helping their students establish career-building networks of contacts outside of academia

It’s clear where the priority is – doing the lab work, so you and your PI can publish, so that you can attempt to compete for the increasingly scarce academic jobs.