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Post by PhDmajority on Jan 26, 2015 0:37:06 GMT -5
I'd love to hear about sociology PhD placement in non-academic / alt-ac positions for 2014/2015. General position type is fine but curious about companies or locations if people want to share. I figure this would get lost in the Hires thread so posting here. Thanks!
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Post by plenty on Jan 26, 2015 12:01:25 GMT -5
I know plenty of people who got non-academic positions. Some of these were in for profit policy evaluation firms (Mathematica, ICF International, etc), non-profits (anything from YMCA to big international ones) and so on. So the good news is that these positions exist. The bad news is that pretty much everyone I know at these places had started working there at least part time prior to getting a full time job. One thing that I suggest is to keep an eye at the American Evaluation Association's jobs page, as they have plenty of policy related listings: www.eval.org/p/cm/ld/fid=113And one thing to keep in mind when going the non-academic route: they will generally care more about your methods than your substantive area of expertise. Another area where I've seen people get hired a lot is institutional research and planning for universities. Higheredjobs has some of those positions: www.higheredjobs.com/admin/search.cfm?JobCat=31
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Post by thanks on Jan 26, 2015 18:55:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the above post. Would also be interested to see people post their or others' hiring successes here for 2014/15 outside of academia, as the positions sought are not as defined (and rarely posted in this forum), and most PhD's on the market won't be getting TT positions.
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Post by done with it on Jan 26, 2015 19:31:29 GMT -5
I'm a quantitative sociologist. I recently got an offer for a data scientist position at a big tech company. Awesome pay, great benefits, smart colleagues, great location. I haven't signed the papers yet but I plan to soon.
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Post by plenty on Jan 27, 2015 0:04:53 GMT -5
The reason these positions are rarely posted in this (or any other) forum is because non-academic positions tend to move much faster and be advertised much more locally than academic ones (if it is an open position at all). It is not uncommon to have 1 or two weeks between position advertised and filled.
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Post by Guest2 on Jan 27, 2015 16:37:31 GMT -5
I'm a quantitative sociologist. I recently got an offer for a data scientist position at a big tech company. Awesome pay, great benefits, smart colleagues, great location. I haven't signed the papers yet but I plan to soon. I am also a quantitative sociologist and am interested in data scientist positions. I'd love to hear more about how you positioned yourself for these jobs and what it seems like they were looking for if you're willing to share some info. Thanks
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Post by thisisit on Jan 27, 2015 18:25:48 GMT -5
Guest2-I'm "done with it" from above.
I'm happy to share my experience.
I really did not think that I was qualified for one of these positions. I have little experience with the tech industry, I do not know SQL, and have no experience with programming. I looked around for jobs on Angel List (https://angel.co/) and at the big tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.) but I came away from those searches feeling disillusioned and unqualified. In the process, I ran across a job posting posted on an online board from my undergrad institution. I emailed the alum that posted the job and we had a back and forth about who they were looking for and whether I was qualified. I made very clear that I was coming from an academic background and did not know SQL among other things. My contact assured me that those skills are easy enough to learn and that they are looking for smart interesting people. This exchange led to a phone interview. The tech phone interview is a completely different can of worms that basically consists of three questions: 1) Why are you interested in this job and working at this company? 2) A probability/stats question and 3) An open ended question about how you would evaluate a problem. I found out the next day that they wanted me to come out for an in person interview. The next week I was out there interviewing in person. Again, this experience is very very different from an academic interview. It of course varies depending on the company but my interview was a day of probability brain teasers and open ended evaluation questions with each of the members of my potential team. But the purpose of this is for them to get a sense of how you think, how you attack a problem, when you ask for help, how you use that help, etc. It is a bit jarring to spend a day interviewing and yet never get asked you about your experience. However, in some sense, you are demonstrating that experience in the way that you answer their questions. The day after I got home from the interview I found out that I had an offer from them.
In lots of ways, I was just really lucky. I lucked into a company and group in the company who liked to hire PhDs from outside of the tech world. They value many of the skills we've honed as sociologists and feel that we can learn all of the other things without too much trouble.
In other ways, however, I think I did a lot of things that put me in a better position to get a position like this. 1. I initially used my personal networks to get the attention of those doing the hiring. Networks matter and they help you get your foot in the door. 2. I had a compelling story for why I wanted to make the move out of academia and into the tech world. 3. I did a lot of research going into both the phone interview and the in-person interview about what to expect. 4. I reviewed probability and stats basics before both the phone interview and the in person interview 5. I treated the process as a learning experience. I honestly wasn't sure that this was a job I was interested in so I went in with a lot of questions and with the notion that I would see what it was like. That took a lot of pressure out of the situation and let me be more relaxed.
I don't really want to completely out myself here (though people who know me I'm sure recognize that this is me) but I set up an account and you are welcome PM me if you want to know the specifics of my situation. I am more than happy to share.
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Post by PhDmajority on Jan 28, 2015 12:17:21 GMT -5
OP here. This is really interesting, thanks to those who have posted so far.
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Post by Any others? on Feb 2, 2015 0:31:16 GMT -5
Any other success stories or suggestions in this regard would be great!
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Post by Consultant on Mar 13, 2015 3:19:13 GMT -5
I agree with "plenty" above - there actually are lots of opportunities out there. I took a position at a profit evaluation, and I got it based on my methods skills - my content area has little to do with the topical areas in which I work now. But the methodological skills you have translate into transferable monitoring and evaluation skills in the consulting world, and a lot of the teaching skills you have translate in to training, technical assistance, and curriculum development. When I started last fall I got the same salary as the best-paid academic job among the members in my cohort, and six months in I already received a raise.
One tip I would give when looking at consulting gigs is to search for positions that only require a master's (and may state a PhD is preferred). Often employers are looking for someone with work experience on top of their highest degree, so those positions that require a PhD will usually want your PhD plus 5 or more years of work experience. The master's level jobs will likely also want that experience, but you can leverage your dissertation work for that. I had a lot of success describing my dissertation research in project management and evaluation terms, and they counted it as work experience. Doesn't mean your PhD doesn't count, just means you have to reframe the work you did on non-academic terms.
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Post by Interesting on Mar 13, 2015 8:31:04 GMT -5
I agree with "plenty" above - there actually are lots of opportunities out there. I took a position at a profit evaluation, and I got it based on my methods skills - my content area has little to do with the topical areas in which I work now. But the methodological skills you have translate into transferable monitoring and evaluation skills in the consulting world, and a lot of the teaching skills you have translate in to training, technical assistance, and curriculum development. When I started last fall I got the same salary as the best-paid academic job among the members in my cohort, and six months in I already received a raise. One tip I would give when looking at consulting gigs is to search for positions that only require a master's (and may state a PhD is preferred). Often employers are looking for someone with work experience on top of their highest degree, so those positions that require a PhD will usually want your PhD plus 5 or more years of work experience. The master's level jobs will likely also want that experience, but you can leverage your dissertation work for that. I had a lot of success describing my dissertation research in project management and evaluation terms, and they counted it as work experience. Doesn't mean your PhD doesn't count, just means you have to reframe the work you did on non-academic terms. This is really interesting to me as I've been looking into consultancies while I figure out whether academia is in my future plans. Did you have other M&E experience outside skills gained in your PhD? I've always wondered about this when looking at TORs for consultancies that request M&E experience - whether I might be able to translate my academic experience into what they are looking for.
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Post by Consultant on Mar 29, 2015 12:35:38 GMT -5
I agree with "plenty" above - there actually are lots of opportunities out there. I took a position at a profit evaluation, and I got it based on my methods skills - my content area has little to do with the topical areas in which I work now. But the methodological skills you have translate into transferable monitoring and evaluation skills in the consulting world, and a lot of the teaching skills you have translate in to training, technical assistance, and curriculum development. When I started last fall I got the same salary as the best-paid academic job among the members in my cohort, and six months in I already received a raise. One tip I would give when looking at consulting gigs is to search for positions that only require a master's (and may state a PhD is preferred). Often employers are looking for someone with work experience on top of their highest degree, so those positions that require a PhD will usually want your PhD plus 5 or more years of work experience. The master's level jobs will likely also want that experience, but you can leverage your dissertation work for that. I had a lot of success describing my dissertation research in project management and evaluation terms, and they counted it as work experience. Doesn't mean your PhD doesn't count, just means you have to reframe the work you did on non-academic terms. This is really interesting to me as I've been looking into consultancies while I figure out whether academia is in my future plans. Did you have other M&E experience outside skills gained in your PhD? I've always wondered about this when looking at TORs for consultancies that request M&E experience - whether I might be able to translate my academic experience into what they are looking for. Yes and no...During my PhD, I did 3 research projects (dissertation, MA thesis, and side analysis gig) where the sample and context for the study was a specific organization. They were all "research" rather than "M&E" in the sense that I had a theoretical focus, but easy to pitch as M&E because all involved some focus on organizational policies and outcomes. So it wasn't necessarily that I had M&E experience outside my PhD, it's that I focused on how the research I did during my PhD could be viewed as a form of M&E. An exercise in framing, you could say.
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Post by Resume on Mar 31, 2015 8:59:20 GMT -5
Consultant, thank you for posting, this is helpful advice.
How did you represent your doctoral time and your dissertation on your resume? One of the problems I struggle with is figuring out how to represent my educational experience and not have a big gap on my resume for all the time I was in grad school. Usually I list it as a job itself with the name Doctoral Candidate, but I'm worried this doesn't look right to employers.
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Educational Researcher
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Post by Educational Researcher on Mar 31, 2015 18:53:32 GMT -5
Sociologists can often jump into research jobs that emphasize the educational effectiveness of teaching and student services. These staff jobs are often year-round and you often devise atheoretical studies that lack much rigor. But you can get paid well enough, people respect your skills, and the workload is lighter than being a professor.
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Post by IR Jobs on Apr 1, 2015 14:25:46 GMT -5
I have two former students who work in Institutional Research at other universities. They help to coordinate the self-study/re-accreditation, analyze data, write reports, construct surveys, and evaluate programs on their respective campuses. One works for a multi-branch community college system and makes a very enviable salary. It is not a bad life- university holidays, good retirement/benefits, and opportunities to do some adjunct teaching for extra $$$.
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