Gail,
I graduated from my Ph.D. in December 2018 and I currently work in the construction industry. My current organization's forward-thinking view and growth mindset really motivated me to join.
In my experience and in my field (i.e. construction), advance degrees are valued by very few people in the industry. Experience seems to be more valuable to the majority. For this reason, it is your job to understand and provide an interesting value proposition to motivate an industry organization to make you an offer. That is, how do you plan to apply your advanced knowledge to produce a better product or service? Something I have found during this time in the industry is that implementation is much harder than planning, and during graduate school, we are more thinkers than doers.
I suggest that you do a lot of networking. This is what lead me to my job. Reach to professionals you admire, attend meetings from professional organizations, go to professional conferences, ask a lot of questions, and be humble. Everyone has something to teach you and you can always learn something new. With every person I talked, I began to understand how could I fit in the industry, how to create my value proposition, and which areas I needed to get better. I also found that many people were interested in my work and my ideas, which was very motivating.
I hope this helps. The mindset you will develop during graduate studies will take you far.
Keep growing!
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Carlos Zuluaga Ph.D., EI, A.M.ASCE
Ph.D. Student, Civil Engineering
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-24-2019 18:53
From: Gail Hayes
Subject: Exploring careers with Civil PhD outside of academia
Hi all,
This question might have been addressed already, but I'm relatively new here, so please just point me in the right direction if so.
I'm hoping to hear from practicing engineers in the field of stormwater or water resources in general who have a PhD in this field but who aren't working (at least not full-time) in academia...
I'm a doctoral student in civil engineering studying stormwater management and exploring career options outside of academia (I'm about 1.5 yr from graduating). My project is very application-oriented (i.e. not theoretical or modeling) as I'm analyzing the performances of several green stormwater infrastructure systems by monitoring volume and contaminant control. Stormwater is a strong interest of mine, but I'm open to careers in the broader realm of water resources engineering. I'm not categorically opposed to a career in research, I'm just not really into the university-type research with all that comes with it.
My goal in posting is to learn more about what's out there in terms of relevant careers outside of research in academia for an individual with a PhD in civil (water resources) engr and potentially how I can start preparing now. For those of you who have a PhD (or even can speak for someone who has been down this path) in this or a related area, what sort of work are you in now and how did you find it? What do you wish you knew when you were in grad school about transitioning out of the academic world?
I'm familiar with myIDP, but have found that many of those careers focused on the sciences rather than engineering. I've passed the FE, am a US citizen, and would like to earn my PE if that is relevant to your answer. Unfortunately, taking a summer to do an internship is not an option for me given the nature of my research.
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Gail Hayes EIT, S.M.ASCE
University of Virginia
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