Todd
Pihl

Academics to Business – The Tough Transition

Over the next few months, my colleagues and I are going to be writing about the transition from being an academic scientist to working in the commercial sector.  In some cases, we'll talk about it from the standpoint of a postdoc looking for their first  position in the commercial sector a...


Todd
Pihl

Is Your Dog In Your Network?

When I'm out talking to grad students and postdocs about the ins and outs of making the jump to the business world, one of the discussions that always gets going is about networking.  Networking is clearly one of those topics that generates a lot of interest, misinformation, and fear.  So ...


Todd
Pihl

Insanity

  Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein   Excuse me, but I feel the need to do a touch of ranting.  Over the last month, I've been spending a fair amount of time with postdocs who are out trying to navigate the...


Todd
Pihl

Communications is more than just talk

“The flight will be delayed while several of the seats on the plane are replaced. Believe me, we REALLY want this to happen.” It is highly likely that this is about the last thing you want to hear when you are waiting to board a plane. Of course you also might think this is about the last thi...


Todd
Pihl

The Great Wall of Experience

As a number of the bloggers here have noticed, one of the biggest obstacles that postdocs face in moving into the commercial world is the dreaded “3-5 years of business experience” requirement seen in so many ads.  Many times, it seems as if there are no entry-level positions at all!&nb...


Todd
Pihl

Are you a toxic academic?

In my last blog, I talked a little bit about the article in the December 2010 issue of The Economist and now I'd like to talk a little bit about one of the unpleasant ramifications of the problem that article highlighted.  The numbers are daunting in that between 2005 and 2009 there were 100,00...


Todd
Pihl

Are you a disposable academic?

If you haven't seen it already, the December  2010 issue of The Economist has an article entitled “The disposable academic”  that is worth your time to read.  While many of you will find it a rather depressing article, it is a hard-nosed look at the realities of the academic car...


Todd
Pihl

Terrific Broth

I promise this won't devolve into a microbiology lesson.  However, I do want to use TB (Terrific Broth) to illustrate why companies hire PhDs to begin with.  What comes as a shock to most academics is that it has nothing to do with their knowledge of “Terrific Broth,” or any other...


Todd
Pihl

Change Happens

As we write about how to make the transition from academia to the business world, it would probably be useful to know some background about us and why we have a unique perspective on this.  For starters, I have an academic background very similar to many of you.  I got a B.A. in biology fr...


View My Stats