From academia to industry

One of the interesting things about moving from academia to industry are the questions you get asked by current students. 

“How did you did it?” is one that pops up a lot…

Fellow analyst Elynor Liu and I had the awesome opportunity to speak to graduates and final year students at Macquarie University at the annual STEM Careers Forum as part of Careers Week. Being only recent movers from academia to industry, we had the advantage of being able to speak directly to some of the biggest surprises and challenges students were likely to face when entering the industry, as well as be able to directly answer student questions during networking.

There was a wide range of speakers from government, industry and research and non-research roles, with speakers ranging from 20 years veterans to recent grads like Ellie and myself. The two sessions of science and tech saw some 410 and 450 student attendees respectively – a great example of how keen students are to engage with industry, especially in the ever-growing STEM fields. In fact, the attendance this year was more than double the previous year.

My own presentation detailed some quick learnings I’d made around how graduates should leverage their soft skills AND their knowledge; after all, your 3+ years of study should have taught you more than just soft skills! I also highlighted that academia or industry, it all runs on coffee! So grads, reach out and talk to people, offer to buy them a coffee (or hot chocolate in my case 😉 ) and practice your face-to-face communication.

Thanks to the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Career and Employment Service at Macquarie University!

If you want to learn more about career opportunities here at Aginic, click here.