A post about what kind of skills you can get, no matter whether you are enjoying or struggling, on your PhD journey.
Normally, employers from the non-academic background (industrial and government organizations), they will not have a clue about what does a PhD mean and different sort of skills that you get after completing the degree.
That means that you will need to know your armours and get prepared for your next move, whether as a Post-doc somewhere fancy with lots of pressure or a consultant in a world-class company so that you can enjoy your weekend with your family members and friends. It is now the time to think about this question therefore when the right time comes you will be more confident and relaxed.
Basically, most of the skills can be grouped into two types: generic and specialised. Generic skills, which applies to everyone, for example, communication skills, problem solving, team working, manage conflicts and organize your research and life in a balanced way.
Specialised skills can be discipline specific or relate to your research degree only. For instance, my research related skills including micro-CT scanning using different scanners, operate 3D printer and produce printouts, 3D visualization using Drishti (open sourced software), and phylogenetic analysis using TNT etc…
I also learned to develop a hypothesis, design my research, communicate with peers in international conferences/ workshops/ meet ups and engage with the public using social as well as the mass media. Since I am at my first year, there are always more to be learned and developed, but that does not stop me from thinking about what skills can I get out from the end of my degree.
To help you think about your skill sets and get prepared for your next move. The easiest approach is just starting thinking about a recent task that you completed and figure out what sort of skills you used to make it happen.
After that, you may find yourself ends up with far more skills than I do. There is no harm to try to understand yourself better and in that way, you can start building new skills.
Let us research on ourselves, as a starting point towards being a good researcher, and most importantly, to become a resilient person in many aspects. We should keep developing ourselves all the time. If you stop, you will step into your comfort zone and that is the danger.
END
I hope you guys enjoy reading this post.
“Now, it is the time to get on your bed and sleep” said by Ernu.
Good night and all the best!