The podcast features PhDs who’ve successfully transitioned into industry, along with deans of doctoral education, hiring managers, and recruiters. We explore how PhD holders can find fulfilling careers outside of academia and make the shift smoothly. Each episode dives into personal journeys, practical tips, and the resources available to support your transition, offering invaluable insights for anyone looking to take their skills beyond academic research and into the professional world.
Tune in and discover your next step!
Why recruiters can't see a PhD's skills on a CV with Alona Bärtschi
Your CV shows more training than almost anyone else in the pile. So why is nothing coming back?
In this episode of PostPhDirections, I sit down with Alona Bärtschi, who spent over 15 years in talent acquisition, including leading early careers recruiting across EMEA at Google, and now heads the Career Center for four Swiss research institutes: PSI, Empa, Eawag and WSL. When she moved from industry into academia, what surprised her most was how much researchers undervalue their own skills, like the researcher with an outstanding CV who sat in her office convinced they had nothing to offer industry.
Alona's view from both sides of the table makes one thing clear: most PhDs don't have a skill gap, they have a communication gap. And communicating your value is a skill you can learn.
We talk about:
What a recruiter checks in the first 15 seconds of reading your CV
Why you should list everything from your PhD, then keep only what's relevant to the role
Why PhDs sell against themselves, and how to add estimated results without feeling dishonest
Why junior roles and internships often get no response, and when to switch to plan B
Why networking is a seed you plant mid-PhD, not a message you send in your final month
If you're a PhD or postdoc sending applications into silence, this conversation shows you what the person on the other side is really looking for.
Connect with Alona Bärtschi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alonabaertschi/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alonabaertschi/)
Learn more about Alma.Me and our Job Accelerator Program: www.alma.me (http://www.alma.me/)
Follow Elena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-/)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenahoffer_phd (https://www.instagram.com/elenahoffer_phd)
TikTok: @eli_the_scientist
If you found this helpful, share it with a fellow researcher who's underselling their PhD, and please leave us a review. It's the easiest way to help other PhDs find this podcast. 💙
11 Sept 2026
Why Aiming Too Low Is Costing You the Job and the Salary with Dr. Crystal Kitanovski
Are you applying to junior roles because you think you need to prove yourself before you can aim higher?
In this episode of PostPhDirections, I sit down with Crystal "CC" Kitanovski, a chemistry PhD who is now Principal Data Scientist at Shield Legal, where she leads data science and builds AI systems from the ground up. Her path was anything but linear, and it took 1,014 applications before it worked. Around application 250, she asked herself a very PhD question: if I spent five years becoming an expert in one thing, surely there are experts in job searching too. That question led her to Alma.me, where she became only the second person through our Job Accelerator Program.
CC's story is a reminder that struggling with the transition isn't a sign you're unqualified. It's the normal experience almost nobody says out loud.
We talk about:
Why she applied to L1 and L2 roles as a PhD, and why hiring managers found that confusing rather than humble
How calling herself a data scientist felt like lying, and what finally reframed it as accurate
Why she never talked herself out of imposter syndrome, and what actually shifted once she was doing the job
Why "we don't speak corporate" is a language problem, not an intelligence problem
The most underrated PhD transferable skill, which has nothing to do with programming: total desensitization to failure
If the job search is wearing on you mentally, emotionally, and physically, this conversation will tell you the truth about how hard it is, and remind you there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train.
Connect with CC on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/crystalkitanovski
Learn more about Alma.me and our Job Accelerator Program: www.alma.me (http://www.alma.me/)
Follow Elena: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-/) | Instagram (@elenahoffer_phd) | TikTok (@eli_the_scientist)
If you found this helpful, share it with a fellow researcher who's convinced the rejections mean something about them, and please leave us a review. 💙
5 Sept 2026
Your Resume Is Hiding Your Best Skills (Here's How to Find Them)with Angela Priest
Does your resume make your work sound smaller than it actually was?
In this episode of PostPhDirections, I sit down with Angela Priest, co-founder and COO of Alma.me (https://www.alma.me). Angela has spent 20+ years on the hiring side of industry, building high-performing teams and designing the hiring processes companies use to fill them, and she has helped dozens of PhDs get hired. She knows how these decisions actually get made and how your application is really read. We talk about something we see constantly in our Job Accelerator Program: PhDs sending us resumes with the most important skills missing. Not because they don't have them, but because those skills are buried inside protocols and approaches that feel too obvious to mention. Angela walks through the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) as a way to pull that detail back out, and explains why the people reading your resume will never connect the dots for you if you don't spell them out.
The best part: you get a twofer. The same work that fixes your bullet points also prepares you for the interview.
We talk about:
Why recruiters don't infer your skills, and what that means for how you write
What Situation, Task, Action and Result actually look like for research work
Why your real skills are hidden in your methods and protocols, and how a thematic analysis of job descriptions helps you surface them
The mistake of treating the publication as your result, when the result is the finding inside the paper
How to build a bullet point that pairs a measurable (numerical or categorical) with a real impact, in about 192 characters
Why PhDs who have raised millions in funding or reached millions of people leave those numbers off entirely
Why colors, icons and graphics don't differentiate your resume, and what actually does
If you have ever looked at your own resume and thought "this doesn't sound like the work I did," this conversation will show you how to fix that in an afternoon.
Connect with Angela Priest on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-s-priest/).
Learn more about Alma.me and our Job Accelerator Program: www.alma.me If you want support making this transition, you can apply to work with us directly here (https://www.alma.me )
Follow Elena on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drelenahoffer/) or TikTok @eli_the_scientist
Who has been a guest on PostPhDirections
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Stacey Cohen
Dr Philipp Baaske
Kirsten Thornhill
Fernando Gomez-Baquero
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
45 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
48
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
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