Job fairs and networking events can be useful to get a better idea about the nature of companies and intended roles. If one is on the email list of the university career services, one is bound to receive regular notifications of job fairs. It is useful to at least get notified about possible openings and job events so that job seekers have all the possible options in front of them. After getting the notification, it is up to the recipient to either follow-up on the information or ignore it. Sometimes, there is no harm in dropping by and checking if there is something useful available or not.
The university had been advertising an ‘excellent opportunity for PhD students to meet with both multinationals and smaller companies’. Therefore I thought I might as well drop by and check what was happening. However, this particular event turned out to be a disappointment to say the least.
Firstly, there was only a handful of companies available. Moreover, only a fraction of them had the kind of profile which would welcome researchers with strong mathematical skills. It does not help my case either when I automatically ignore certain companies for ethical reasons. Anyway, what was most disappointing for many of us PhDs was that the companies present were offering only the regular entries that a fresh undergraduate would utilize. As an acquaintance of mine grumbled in a lower tone, “I don’t want to have four years of a PhD wasted.” Although the skills and expertise acquired during a challenging PhD can hardly be called a waste (there is normally a different growth rate for PhD entrants), the acquaintance did have a point. Interestingly, another friend of mine who has spent five years on his PhD in engineering is now looking for graduate internships in finance. So, every one has a different perspective.
I didn’t feel like sticking around for too long. The HR people present at the stalls could not give as good an insight into the jobs as someone from the particular role. I’m not sure whether it was my quest for an intellectually challenging job or the lack of options available at the event. Whatever the reason, I made an early exit. Networking events are not useful every time. However there is no harm in keeping up to date and being open to different options.
I think it is really useful and important to have a CANDID site to give advice to grad students. And I suppose the advice in these ‘articles’ is useful. BUT when I think back to my grad students days, I do not think that anything on this site today would have saved any of my colleagues who dropped out along the way so that after five years I was left as the sole graduate of my entering PhD class. I think what they lacked was attention to more basic issues:
1) perseverance (as important as aptitude);
2) greater attention to primary source material (whether that be ‘data’, texts, or whatever) over secondary, academic literature (including dominant ‘theories’);
3) a refusal to accept things at face value; and
4) consistent completion of assignments (which I know sounds so elementary as not worth mentioning, but it is).
Generally speaking, many PhD students lack 1), 2) and 3). Those, I believe, are the matters of which people need advice.