Fresh From Academia to Industry- You WOn't Believe What HAppens Next!
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Dr. Jordan James Gosselin defended his thesis in physics at UC San Diego in May of 2016 where he co-authored papers in the fields of anti-matter, molecular, and plasma physics. Since graduating, Dr. Gosselin has worked in the defense industry as a systems engineer for a top defense contractor. Coming straight from academia and integrating into industry has provided both opportunity and challenge. In this talk we will address what is scary, what is not scary, and who will be scared of you. The format will be informal; so, bring your questions and concerns, and we hope to see you there
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Fresh From Academia to Industry- You WOn't Believe What HAppens Next!
- 1. Fresh From Academia to Industry You WOn’t Believe What HAppens Next Jordan James Gosselin, PhD @JJGThePhysicist
- 2. Who is this guy? BS, MS, PhD Physics, UC San Diego Former Vice-President of Academic Affairs in UC San Diego Graduate Student Association Co-founder of Physics Graduate Council Former Ranch Hand Current Systems Engineer at a Defense Contractor @JJGThePhysicist
- 3. What the @#%$ is a Systems Engineer? Look at a product in from a broad perspective What goes in, what comes out, why does the customer want it Do the pieces work together? Has the customer asked for what they actually want? Does the thing actually work once designed and assembled? Is how the product is designed satisfying why the customer needs it? @JJGThePhysicist
- 4. What are we talking about? My academy-to-industry transition experience Caveat: yours may differ Challenges faced early on Advantages gained through the doctoral process Soft skills – an attempt at a definition Free advice Remember: It’s worth what you pay for it @JJGThePhysicist
- 5. Challenges in Transition - Communication They will speak a different language AAA-Acronyms, acronyms, acronyms Product development cycle is a hydra Don’t poke holes, find solutions Sell the point, don’t confess the details Highly technical discussions confuse non-technical people Address their concerns, not your own Don’t hide the warts, but don’t focus on them Focus is always the bottom line, what is the impact of a roadblock? @JJGThePhysicist
- 6. Challenges in Transition - Execution Better is the enemy of good Attention to detail is less important than attention to results Get comfortable with < 99% confidence Bottom line > potential future impact, always @JJGThePhysicist
- 7. Challenges in Transition – Image People will try to pigeonhole you Lots of resume matching Need to advocate for yourself Need to develop an advocate @JJGThePhysicist
- 8. Advantages to Transition – Image People will assume a few things about an academic Poor communication skills No sense of proper attire No sense of deadlines Absolutely brilliant Easy to disprove the first three, and people will always assume the last @JJGThePhysicist
- 9. Advantages to Transition – Execution We are trained to: Think about the problem Sometimes obvious problems give surprising results Balance existing approaches and developing and testing your own approaches Pivot ideas from other areas into solutions for own application Simplify complexity to something approximate and manageable @JJGThePhysicist
- 10. Advantages to Transition – Communication We distill information to identify what’s applicable as a profession We handle large personalities, professionally, often We are very comfortable taking in large quantities of information rapidly @JJGThePhysicist
- 11. Soft Skills – What Are They? Communication It takes two, are they hearing what you are saying? Execution How do you do what you say you will do, and when will you do it? Image Are you showing people the version of yourself that communicates your abilities? @JJGThePhysicist
- 12. Your Soft Skills – Communication Teaching Complex ideas transferred to fresh minds Reshaping concepts to enhance understanding Presentations High information content, technical communications at conferences You must be persuasive Papers Succinct communication of years of work You must be persuasive @JJGThePhysicist
- 13. Your Soft Skills – Execution Qualifying Exam WTF? Large quantities of information Analyze requirements and expectations Justify results Advancement and Defense Find something no one has done before Make a plan and projected schedule Defend @JJGThePhysicist
- 14. Your Soft Skills – Image You have letters after your name. Use them. Patience and teaching is recognized Dress for the job you want @JJGThePhysicist
- 15. Free Advice Get involved with something you care about Demonstrates investment Practice your public speaking Absolutely everyone is terrified of it You only have to appear composed and eloquent Start your job search early Network, learn what’s out there Take advantage of all the resources available @JJGThePhysicist
- 16. Questions and Answers Thanks for listening What do you want to know? Ask me about it @JJGThePhysicist
Notas del editor
- Do the pieces work together? Do the specialized engineers have the requirements they need? Has the customer asked for what they actually want? Does the thing actually work once designed and assembled? Responsible for ensuring the how in how a product is made satisfies the why in why they product is made
- I’m here to talk to you frankly about my own experiences. They are my own. I am only 9 months into this experience. So, I’m not an expert, I’m not a career councilor. I’m just someone who was sitting where you are now, wondering what comes next. The bottom line message here is that “Industry” is not a terrifying giant. I have found that the people I work with are supportive and willing to provide guidance, my managers are all genuinely concerned about my career goals and how they can help me become a better employee, and the work itself is well-defined and easy to accomplish. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t absolutely terrified when I started. So, as the first half of this talk, I’m going to share with you the challenges I faced starting out so that you will be aware of them if you face the same. I’m going to share some general observations on how our training gives us a leg up over other people working in industry. The second half is going to be me sharing my perspectives on what can make you exceptionally employable. We all have a lot of knowledge and experience we can offer. So, what I’ll talk about is a buzz word that everyone hates, “soft-skills”. I’ll offer you my definition and some soft skills that I think the PhD experience awards you with. To wrap up I’ll offer you one slide’s worth of my own free advice. Remember it’s worth what you pay for it, and then we can open up for general discussion.
- First off, outside the ivory tower people speak a different language. That language is going to be highly specific to the field of industry, just like yours is in your research. Everyone uses acronyms that no one else uses. I remember when I went to my first plasma physics conference I had absolutely no idea what people meant when they used acronyms, and unfortunately all the acronyms used various mixtures of I, e t, b and g. It took me a full two years before I was sure what the difference between an ITG and an ITB was (spoiler, they’re related). Industry is no different. When I started it seemed like there was an unlimited number of unique acronyms and you would never hear the same two twice. Given enough time you start to pick it up. I had an enormous list in my cube for a long time. You will always here acronyms you don’t know so, I had to learn to speak up when I didn’t undedrstand what someone was saying. Second, the process of taking something from an idea to a developed produce is a labyrinth of hydras. Every time you think you have a piece of it figured out new pieces will pop up. In a larger company you will be responsible for only (thankfully) one piece of that hydra. This is different from your thesis project where you may be responsible for the project in it’s entirety from conception to completion. This different perspective is both a boon and a curse. It’s good to keep perspective on the whole thing but you cant handle all of it yourself. So, it is important to communicate with your supervisors and clearly define what your roll and deliverables are. I started off with an internal research and development project and I had a hell of a time with this. There were not enough hours budgeted to do a serious PhD style attack of the problem (only 20 hours a week and six months, barely time to do anything), and I spent the majority of the time just defining and redefining the scope of the project. I’ve gotten a lot better at asking and negotiating expectations right away, but it was a skill it took me a long time to learn. Don’t poke holes, find solutions. This is, in my opinion, a huge cultural difference between academia and industry. As academics and scientists we are trained to poke holes. It only takes one data point to disprove a hypothesis, right? Poke that hole, take away their grant money and give it to me. This doesn’t serve you well in industry. People want solutions and they want them fast and cheap. If you shoot down ideas without providing an alternative solution that solves the problems your’e just a nay-sayer. So, think carefully, and if you see an obvious downfall, ask if the other person considered it. When you have ideas don’t belabor the details. A highly technical conversation about a subject in a meeting will confuse and bore your audience. I have discovered that some people in the room are very curious about the details, but I once found myself explaining the mathematics behind search theory to a director of undersea warfare who could care less. What will it help me find was what he wanted to know. So, I am still learning how to address the concerns of the people I’m meeting with directly instead of telling them what I think is interesting. Finally, you shouldn’t hide issues with a project. I discovered they’re called risks now, and people want to know what level of risk they are. This is almost always a WAG (acronym for wild-ass guess, not to be confused with the more respected SWAG, scientific wild-ass guess). People always want to know what the impact is. Should we cut our losses and pull out? Do we need more talent? Figuring this out is probably the number one challenge I face when discussing a project, and I feel like mastery of this skill is something that will make you a standout to move up in the company should that by your aspiration. Responsible for ethically representing the interest of the shareholder
- Along the same lines, when executing a project it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to satisfy the requirements and get the job done. There will always be things about your project that you want to do better, or want to do over, but that’s why products have versions. You need a product that gets results and that satisfies a customer. I still struggle with this. I want to spend a lot of time revisiting my work and looking for improvement, but it’s not necessary and it doesn’t always produce value. Remembering to keep focused on the result is important. You’re expected to make fast decisions based on the best information available. This is entirely different than academia where you can take your time. This is another slow adjustment, but the same thing applies. No one cares about the details. Are you eighty percent sure this will work? Way more confidence than necessary, Is it a fifty-fifty? Maybe that’s okay too, let’s evaluate the time investment. Everything is a risk. The number one theme here is that human labor is the number one cost to the development of anything. So, any way you can do your job faster is better. You want to identify risks, monitor them, and move on. The bottom line will always be your top priority. Endless re-optimization doesn’t generate profit.
- People will develop their own opinions of you, and if they have nothing to go on but your background, that is what they will use. During my work on a R and D project, I had a meeting with a very senior individual. The goal of the meeting was to connect us into other work in the company so that we could leverage other r and d to our advantage. During the meeting she asked what I did in grad school (fusion energy), and offered that maybe we’d get into the energy industry. We will not. Our company makes sonar and sonar accessories, and the greater company focuses on sensors, communications, and situational awareness for battlefield equipment. While it was meant as a nice re-assurance, I wish I had taken the opportunity to express my interest in learning more about what we did in our industry. Most people will have a pre determined image of you. It will likely be rooted in what they’ve seen in the media. So, a challenge I’ve faced is a need to advocate for myself, “oh that’s interesting, I would like to learn more about it.” “I haven’t had a lot of experience with that, but this is my understanding” are phrases I am learning to use often. Finally, people only believe you as much as they know you. Starting out in a new company with a degree in physics, fusion, alternative energy (what are you a beatnick?) I had absolutely no report. Having someone who is familiar with you and your work and is willing to vouch for you is huge. I was fortunate to fall into a situation like this, and it has been enormously beneficial. When someone respected says: “Jordan can do this” it goes a long way, and you better hope to hell you do it.
- So hopefully, I haven’t scared you too much. To repeat myself, the entire transition is scary at first, but none of these obstacles are unsurmountable. So, to boost your confidence let’s talk about the what I think this whole PhD thing gained me. Academics have a stigma, physicsists even more so. We’re elitist, we don’t communicate well with non academics, we are totally immune to common fashion, have no sense of proper deadlines, and we are simply too extraordinarily brilliant to be bothered with the day-to-day tasks that everyone else is. Who recognizes this motley crew? The third head from the left is a give away because he looks exactly the same. With that exception, I chose this image to illustrate what a difference a set of clothes and a haircut makes. The other top three things on this list are just as easy to disprove. Communication is something that you literally do every day, we’ve all been TAs and had to communicate brand new ideas to un exposed minds. If you’re not good at, guess what, it’s a skill, you will get better with practice, and there are resources here on campus that will help you. For me, slacks and a collared shirt is all it takes. I noticed the difference here at campus. I worked in a large research group for six months, all shaggy with ripped jeans. One day I showed up in slacks and a button up, and an engineer, who I”d worked with several times, was all of a sudden more helpful and asked me if I was a postdoc. Pay attention to yourself; you’ll judge people based on how they’re dressed too. Get things done when you say you will. I’m legitimately terrible at this. So, I’ve learned to estimate the amount of time it will take me to accomplish something and multiply it by pi. It works well, I may have to bump it up to four. Finally, it takes a lot to shake the stigma of brilliance. My degree buys me the benefit of the doubt every single day, and it should because the group of us are brilliant. You may forget about this, but almost everybody does not have a PhD.
- Despite our attention to detail, we do have some significant advantages when it comes to executing a project. We are trained to think about the issue, and not necessarily accept the intuitive solution. Our work on thesis projects has taught us to go above and beyond the existing approaches to a problem and develop fresh solutions when necessary Something, especially useful is pivoting old ideas into new applications. I remember to complete my thesis in plasma physics I relied heavily on atmospheric science literature. Especially at the end. Pivoting old ideas to new applications is how big advancements are made. Apps are great as an example because their development cycle is so short. Uber, offered ride sharing, great idea, I use it non-stop. It’s how I got here today. Eat 24, now owned by yelp, took that idea, on demand service and pivoted it to food delivery. They are owned by Yelp now, and Uber is on board with uber eats. Task rabbit took the on-demand service model from uber and applied it to any task. Need your house cleaned, need some groceries, need an essay proofread, need a ride? NP, task rabbit got you. All these are pivoted ideas, we do this too, just in research. Finally, we know how to take a task and simplify it, I know this sounds like it contradicts what I said earlier about attention to detail, but it doesn’t. Engineers are trained to solve an exact problem approximately, physicists are trained to solve approximate problems exactly. Our attention to detail is derived from our demand for a closed form solution. It is our initial approximation of the problem, we approximate the cow as spherical in free fall, that helps up capture the essence of what we need to do. I’ve worked one modeling and simulation project for about 9 months, and now that I feel confident in the problem I feel like this is one of my largest contributions. I can provide push back to unnecessary labor for simulation points that don’t contribute to the overall outcome. And remember, man power is the most expensive.
- The primary job of a physicist is to break a problem down to it’s most basic driving forces, or the sources of free energy. This same problem solving skill is exactly what is necessary to tackle any project, whether it’s making a product, running a business, running a government, or coordinating a busy social calendar. You’re used to doing this to handle your research or teach a difficult concept, and this applies directly to explaining your project or product to your project manager, director, or VP. You will run into large personalities in industry; I have met some. They are not that scary. If you can handle the great hubris of a successful academic you can handle a big personality in industry. Abuse is handled by HR immediately, and they take it seriously. We often suffer worse in the academy, (as a “right of passage”). Finally, we can take in large quantities of information rapidly. We, again, do it as a profession. We do it in talks, conferences and lectures. This is something you have to do when you’re talking to customers, experts in a different field, and suppliers. We are used to following, paying attention, and asking questions
- Now that we have run through the slides based on my experiences, here are my definitions of the soft skills. Communication, execution and image. If you haven’t caught it by now those are the themes of my presentation. The reason I have been emphasizing them so strongly is that I genuinely believe they represent discerning factors in what makes you hirable. There are people with engineering degrees, there are people with physics degrees, there are people with any level of physical science degrees or business management, what makes you, as an individual the person I want to hire for my team. It’s the soft skills, that you have been developing all along: Communication are you saying what people think you are saying? Execution-How do you accomplish what you say you will, have you communicated this idea appropriately Image-Are you a person that communicates and executes. Why should we listen to you, what do you have to day, what have you had to say?
- Places your skills will help you: Communication-You teach undergrads complex physics, many of them learn it and continue on to medical school. You tell people who have never heard about our research before why it is important and this extends to papers as well. You must be persuasive. You have to convince people that you are the most knowledgable person in your field.[
- Breaks down into body language and delivery