Sitemap

A PhD Examined: The Job Hunt

Looking for a Job After Graduation

Joe Riad
7 min readJan 19, 2025

As the end of your PhD program nears, you’ll likely be focused on writing your dissertation. Unfortunately, it’s at this time that you’ll also be thinking about looking for a job. Both of these tasks require a great deal of attention and a lot of work.

One piece of advice that I’ve found to be valuable is to aim not to graduate before you have secured a job offer. This is practically an imperative if you’re an international student and would like to get some job experience in the US.

With those two very big commitments pulling on your attention, you will need to approach the job hunt in a structured way to maximize your opportunities for landing a good job, while still giving your dissertation the focus it deserves.

Photo by on

My Experience

As I have mentioned in previous articles, I graduated during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a very uncertain time and doubly so for fresh graduates looking to get hired full-time. My experience in job hunting at the time consisted of a single interview for a big tech company, right before the pandemic. I had left a good impression on them but hadn’t gotten an offer because I wasn’t graduating soon enough for their needs.

To combat this uncertainty, I took the approach of applying everywhere that seemed to fit my talents. I contacted all my friends who had jobs in companies I was targeting and asked them to recommend me for hiring. I also applied to several open positions every day via LinkedIn or directly on company websites.

With all these positions I was applying for, I had many different versions of my resume depending on the job posting I was targeting. I had to keep track of which version I sent where so that I could properly answer questions about it during interviews. I also kept track of things like the job description and requirements in the original posting, the people I had spoken to at that company, and the topics we discussed on different occasions. This is yet another point where my habit of taking notes in a trustworthy personal wiki paid off handsomely.

At the end of a grueling 2 months, I had interviewed for 3 positions and accepted an offer with one of them. The interview experience itself was quite interesting as the length, medium, and type of questions varied widely from company to company based on their expectations for the role.

Photo by on

Advice for the Job Search

Before I start pontificating on how you should conduct your job search, please keep two things in mind:

  1. My experience in the job search was highly atypical as I mentioned above. Hopefully, you’ll be graduating in a more favorable job market.
  2. The tech field has some cyclic qualities to its market, which reflects on hiring. So the approach of applying to many jobs all at once, while helpful to guard against uncertainty, may not be suitable for your field.

These things being said, I have been on the other side of the process as well and have helped interview job candidates under more “typical” conditions so I can offer more broad advice based on that.

The first piece of advice is of course to treat job interviews like an expanded version of internship interviews. So the advice from my article on internships still applies. Go on a lot of interviews and start by scheduling interviews for companies you have less interest in. This helps you gain experience and confidence for later interviews. You should be well prepared for the interviews and brush up on any technical knowledge relevant to the role you’re applying for. Also make sure to do your due diligence on the company and give genuine reasons why you are interested in a role within it.

Many interviewers will let you ask them questions near the end of the interview process. Make sure to have some intelligent and meaningful questions prepared. For example, you can ask about things the company does to support employees grow professionally and learn more technical knowledge on the job. In general, it’s not advisable to ask about your prospective salary as that will come later on in the process if you’re accepted. Asking about it to your technical interviewer (who will likely not be handling money negotiations anyway) may come across as inappropriate or unprofessional.

Photo by on

Don’t underestimate any chance to apply for a job. When I first started applying to jobs, I was very skeptical that anyone will see a resume I posted through LinkedIn. Fortunately for me, I ignored that pessimism and kept applying through LinkedIn anyway and that’s how I got my current job.

This is also the time to leverage your professional network. But please don’t mistake your LinkedIn contacts for your professional network. As someone who is currently in a position to recommend candidates for hiring, I often get requests from students attaching their resumes and asking me to recommend them for hire. I have to explain that, just because we’re connected on LinkedIn, I’m not in a position to recommend them since I haven’t worked with them directly in any personal or professional capacity. Make sure to build genuine connections and only seek hiring help from people who are in a position to give you a good personalized recommendation.

During the whole job search process, no matter how frustrating it gets, make sure to maintain professional behavior and be courteous and honest with everybody you speak to. You never know what will happen. You may end up working with this person later on, or having them interview you at a completely different company later down the line. Make a serious effort never to sour professional relationships.

As I mentioned before, it’s important to keep close track of which information you sent to which company. It’s normal to leave some information off your resume when it’s not relevant to a role you’re applying for, but it’s a really bad look if a recruiter is asking you about information on your resume and you’re not sure what the resume they’re looking at looks like. This can make you seem uninterested at best and disorganized at worst. Also be aware that it may be acceptable to apply to different roles on different teams within the same company. If you do so, just make sure to be honest and transparent about it and avoid wasting anyone’s time. No one looks kindly on that.

You should start the process with some realistic expectations for salary and perks (stock plans, profit share,…) so that when you start getting job offers, you can negotiate in a reasonable manner. Don’t be afraid to negotiate if you think your skills are being undervalued, but also realize that the base salary you’re offered will tend to grow quickly as you demonstrate your ability to the company over time. This means that you shouldn’t be too fixated on a particular number for the salary as the final deciding factor for whether to accept a job offer.

One final piece of advice is to expect that the process can last several months. You should plan your graduation timeline accordingly. This is especially important if you’re an international student and need to maintain legal visa status. Consult regularly with your international student office to make sure you’re following the correct regulations and timeline.

Photo by on

Concluding Thoughts

The job search process can be stressful enough on its own, but what adds to its stress is that you’re typically working on your dissertation alongside it. It’s important to be aware of your timeline and needs and make sure to devote enough time and take an organized approach to the process. Happy hunting!

No responses yet