How relevant are your academic research skills to Facebook, the development of pharmaceutical products, or deciphering the infinite range of consumer choice and behavior?

Today’s market research utilizes everything from anthropology and linguistics to machine learning in an effort deciphering human behavior, and enterprises–private and public sector–employ a wide array of people across every imaginable specialty to get the work done.  This, of course, is nothing new.  InIncreasing demand for market research skills has been a theme we’ve highlighted in the past, and these trends in hiring continue to favor a level of research skills suited to graduate students and PhDs.

You can find a few useful data points on the general employment demand for jobs labelled under “market research” in a past post here.

As always, we encourage you to explore the SmartJobs page further and to extend your career search from some of the ideas presented here by contacting representatives of enterprises and industries to  knowledge of available options, and your network.  It’s never too early or late to start.

HSS

User Experience Researcher, Yext

STEM

Associate Director, Quantitative Insights and Strategy, Kelton Global

Senior User Experience Designer, Moody’s 

Senior Manager, NASH Market Development, Intercept Pharmaceuticals

Associate Director, Strategic Digital Analytics

Health Service Researcher, Mathematica

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com. 

We want to hear from you.

Does the prospect of working in the commercial world get you down?  Is your academic or life mission focused on changing the world, but not working for Google?  If so, perhaps a career in the non profit sector is for you.

There were over 1.56 million non-profit corporations registered in the US by 2015, a more than 10% increase from 2005. 75% of these corporations were public charities. In 2017 alone, private giving exceeded $400 billion.  Giving is often linked to solving problems–and the demand for PhDs and those with advanced degrees are an integral part of this work.

To learn more about the scope and size of the non-profit and charity sector, what sub-sectors are most active, and how funding trends point to new areas of development, you can reference the National Center for Charitable Statistics.

In terms of potential jobs and ideas, we look this week at a number of opportunities from career pathways to youth; working with at-risk communities and homeless services; managing programs for a wide range of causes and advocacy groups; researching and promoting rule of law around the world; or developing and managing programs for family programs, health, urban development, earthquake engineering, national parks, international rescue operations, and girls who code.  In other words, there are opportunities as diverse as the problems we face, and try to solve, every day.

HSS

STEM

Research Fellowship, Analysis of Cancer Surveillance, CDC 

Program Manager, Life Science Conferences, New York Academy of Sciences

Research Scientist, Reproductive Health and Family Formation Child Trends

Program Coordinator, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)

Senior Plant Scientists, Aero Farms

Program Manager, Life Science Conferences, New York Academy of Sciences

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com.  We want to hear from you.

The value of venture capital invested in a particular field is often a leading indicator of new company formation, future innovation, and employment.  In the life sciences, recent indicators suggest increasing career opportunities across many new and well-established institutions and corporations (see charts below).

PhD employment in this field is already significant, and growing.

More importantly, this STEM-driven field touches so many parts of the economy and society that a wide range of positions are available, from medical writers to marketing, research and lab opportunities, business roles, communication, intellectual property specialists, and teaching.

To learn more, check out the Bureau of Labor statistics site which provides a detailed overview of life science employment by geography, type of institution, average salary levels and other useful data, all providing a good starting point for any job research in the field.

We also collected a sample of diverse opportunities available to peruse below, as well as more life science jobs on our SmartJobs page.

HSS

Science Writer, Walensky Labs, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Marketing Manager, NanoView Biosciences

Director, Regulatory Affairs, Kezar Life Sciences

Director, IP Counsel, Biogen

VP, Strategic Partnerships, PathAI

STEM

Project Team Leader gRed, Genentech

Research Scientist, Translational Sciences, Cell and Molecular Biology, Broad Institute

Biological Data Scientist, Axle Informatics

Senior Medical Writer, Institute of Medical and Nursing Education (IMNE)

Cancer Epigenomics and Computational Analysis, Hodges Lab (Post-Doc)

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com.  We want to hear to you.

Domain expertise and excellent writing skills can be a powerful combination in the job market, as represented in this week’s cache of open positions.  Specifically, we found significant demand for technical writing skills related to public policy across a range of specialties, from forestry to fiscal policy to medical human rights issues (see below).  Private sector, foundations and policy shops need PhDs and other advanced degree holders to solve problems and support advocacy across a range of issues–and those with applied research and writing acumen are well placed for meaningful careers in this field.

To learn more, peruse some information here as well as links to medical, science and technical writing associations.  Or check out median salary and related data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics including future estimated hiring trends (above the national average).  Finally, reading through specific job postings might also provide you with a better sense of what potential employers are looking for and want to achieve (as well as clues to how you might fit with the job).

HSS

Senior Researcher, The Boston Consulting Group

Senior User Experience Researcher, The New York Times

UX Researcher, Ro

Technical Writer, Learning Capabilities and Technology

Technical Writer, Veeco Instruments

STEM

Post-doctoral, Machine Learning in Drug Design, Pfizer

Senior Researcher, Physicians for Human Rights

Senior Medicaid Researcher, Mathematica Policy Research

Program Manager, New York Academy of Sciences

Technical Writer, Medtronic

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact us at smartjobs@versatilephd.com.

We want to hear from you.

A few years ago an article in the Washington Post explained that there are more museums in the US than Starbucks and McDonalds combined. Many people, in disbelief, had to look it up. That statement is still true today.

According to the American Alliance of Museums, museums support more than 726,000 jobs, and for every direct museum job an additional job is supported elsewhere in the economy.  There are over 35,000 museums in the US supporting 850 million visits each year.  Researchers, curators, digital content specialists and executives are all well represented–including those with PhDs in the humanities and sciences.  Indeed, demand for museum employment is expected to outstrip demand for all occupations on average between 2016 and 2026 (see the chart below, you can read more here.)

Here is another perspective.  A quick search on the Department of Labor’s O*Net under “museums” lists several occupations, including:  Librarians, Curators, Historians, Art Therapists, Archivists, and Museum technicians and Conservators. If you click through any of these classifications a wide range of job titles, classifications and transferable skills are listed, providing possible clues for you in your employment discovery and search. One thing is clear: museums and libraries require a vast collection of knowledge and skills, from almost every field of study.

We have collected a sample cluster of jobs, and others posted on our site, to get started. We would also encourage you to use these examples as a point of reference for future searches in your field of interest. And if there are areas you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact us at smartjobs@versatilephd.com

HSS

Conservator, Smithsonian Institute

Slavic and European Studies Librarian, U Chicago

SVP, White House Historical Association

Senior Product Manager, Global Learning, Pearson

Research Assistant, European, Dallas Museum

Interactive Media Producer, Cortina Productions

Head of Teaching and Learning, Rare Books, Houghton Library

STEM

Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, Vertebrate Paleontology

Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, Natural History Museum, Dinosaur Institute

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

Our latest research reveals deep demand for PhD skills across the digital domain and cyberspace, from engineers to storytellers and editors.  But is it all a game?

This week we look at gaming, including AR/VR applications, and cybersecurity.  Today’s “video gaming world” has over 2.5 billion gamers worldwide and is approaching over $90 billion in annual sales (this and more mobile gaming statistics sourced by Khaled Shaalan); indeed, these impressive user demand numbers will continue to propel demand for new ideas and professionals with expertise for years to come. Moreover, the “gamification” of many industries suggests that we are still at the early stages of video and game design application, with new forays into digital health and wellness, aerospace, politics, technology, human resources and education, to name only a few.  Higher-order skills are needed across data science and engineering as well as in the humanities, such as social and consumer analysis, the writing of fiction and non-fiction, and design thinking, to name only a few areas.

Cybersecurity, which includes gaming, offers its own separate domain of career paths across private sector industries such as banking and industry and more generally within government institutions. If you are mission-driven, this may be a good fit.

We would encourage you to learn more about these digital industries: the space between working at Riot Games and contributing to US national security offers a wide range of choices.

HSS

Researcher, Unpublished R&D Product, Riot Games

Business Development Product Specialist, Google Play

Interactive Media Producer, Cortina

User Experience Researcher, Yext

Cybersecurity Assessment Analyst, Grant Thornton (Consulting)

STEM

Senior Software Engineer, Data Architecture, Pocket Gems

Digital AR/VR, Senior Engineer, Deloitte Studio

Sr Director, Enterprise Architecture Strategy, International Game Technology

Senior Specialist, Info Security, BNY Mellon

Engineer, Multiple Levels, Dept. of Homeland Security (Science and Tech Directorate)

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page.  Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

Working with human factors in decision-making research, user experience, design thinking, financial planning, patient recovery and therapy, and other applications increasingly require skills from a wide range of STEM, social science and humanities disciplines.  Indeed as technological change deepens, many more industries will be seek out the best minds to tackle human and psychological challenges.

To take just one example: demand for psychologists is expected to increase by 19% through 2024 according to Department of Labor figures, but in areas which may not be typical, such as art therapists, aviation psychologists, genetics counselors and traffic psychologists.  In a broader sense, a recent article by McKinsey explains the world of “Corporate Nudging” and its focus on improving customer and employee well-being, a theme which has already migrated to many US and international government agencies.  This trend is in the early stages and will accelerate with machine learning and the ability to harness and interpret larger data sets.

The upshot is that demand for higher-order skills dealing with human behavior–often with a PhD job requirement–exist in almost every industry on the planet.  Below are a few examples, together with a wider array of jobs located on this week’s SmartJobs page.  And for many jobs you don’t need to be a psychologist to apply.

HSS

Research Psychologist, US Department of Labor

Human Services Researcher, Mathematica

Director, UX Research and Innovation, Brilliant Experience

User Experience Researcher, State Farm Insurance

Research Manager, Center for Effective Philanthropy

STEM

Quantitative Research Scientists – Global TIES for Children

Neurorehabilitation Psychologist, Shepherd Center

Psychometrist, UCLA Health

Population Science and Cancer Control, UT Southwestern Medical

Sr Human Factors Engineer, Human Solutions (HSI)

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page. Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.