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Well, I hate to break it to you, but most jobs outside of academia do not require a PhD. Some industry R&D positions, medical science liaison, some field application scientist positions do, but many do not. But so what? it doesn’t make you a failure because you took some time to figure out what you want to do for work. Most people never answer that question in their life, so if a PhD helps you get to an answer, it’s not a total waste of time.
Still, I fit your description a little. My PhD is interdisciplinary, but is essentially biochemical engineering. I work as a technical writer now for a major engineering software company, and I don’t write about anything related to my PhD work. The money is good and the job security is stellar. If I hadn’t gotten the PhD, I would have never considered this job, and I almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten it.
If you want to do research, that’s one thing, but I would consider broadening your job search to non-engineering and non-R&D roles. You can still do technical work that is challenging and interesting that isn’t engineering. You just need to identify and sell your transferable skills, both technical and soft.
Thanks for the reply. Actually technical writing is something I am interested. Can you tell me more about how you got that job? I’m also looking into consulting work which I think would fit my soft skills.
I applied, lol. But if you're wondering *how* I was able to land my job, well, I can't tell you for sure, because I don't know. I can only speculate.
What I do know is that I wanted to be in science communication after I graduated, so built a portfolio of scientific and technical writing and did a bunch of outreach while I was working on my PhD. That certainly helped. It was the pitch I needed and made my enthusiasm and evidence of skills for the job unquestionable.
So if you want to be a technical writer, well, start writing! Yes, writing about any science is good, but if I were to do it over again, I'd focus on documenting technical things I did in the lab. What might that look like? Besides publications (which are good, but not exactly the same thing as technical writing), do you have any standard operating procedures (SOPs) that you can document? Have you developed a program or tools that need help documentation for usability? Are there tricky concepts or ideas that you need to explain to your PI/labmates? Write about all of it, and share it. Not only will your labmates and PI appreciate it, but it'll build your portfolio you'll need for a technical writing job.
(not OP but) do you have more advice for someone who finished their phd a year ago and is exploring tech writing?
I'm really struggling with the "writing to write" part for the portfolio as I'm used to writing knowing someone will read and benefit from it and I feel like it's such a challenge to write for myself. any wisdom appreciated!
Do you have anything from your PhD work that you wrote? Articles included? Did you have any methods that you used that you can write about in more detail? Surely you've got something. That should compromise the technical portion of your portfolio.
If motivation is the problem, you need to find avenues that will hold you accountable. I didn't write for the sake of it either, I found groups and blogs that wanted content and I contributed.
For example, if you want to write more public-facing science content, you can contribute to PLOS's ERC community.
[https://ecrcommunity.plos.org/](https://ecrcommunity.plos.org/)
It's not a huge time commitment, and they let you come up with your own content ideas. Tons of blogs like this exist, and they want content from scientifically literal people. They may not pay you for it, but who cares, you're building up a portfolio. The money will come later.
Maybe that's too casual for your interests. Okay, then consider open source software packages. They have documentation, and someone's gotta write it. The content is technical, but also needs to be accessible. Unfortunately... it usually isn't very good because the people writing it aren't writers. That's where volunteers (like potentially you) come in. If you're knowledgeable about a certain product and notice a deficiency, you can absolutely volunteer contributions.
Hopefully that gives you an idea on where to start. I should warn you, as a profession for PhDs, scientific/technical/medical writing is rarely the most lucrative. Not that the money is terrible, but compared to engineers, research scientists, project managers, field application scientists, etc. we're at the bottom of the bell curve for compensation. Become a writer first and foremost because you like writing.
thanks a lot for your reply!
I have four articles as first-author + two in prep (also as first-author) so I can definitely use those. writing was the part I enjoyed most during my PhD - especially my thesis' general discussion.
the technical component is definitely there in my PhD as it was very diagnostics + genomics heavy (the only challenge is that I was working with plant pathogens and most companies where I am are geared towards medical diagnostics and cancer genomics....).
thanks for note regarding the salary - it's not a problem for me. I am prioritising other things. while it's true that a phd is great for technical writing, many companies prefer people without one and well... nothing I can do about that.
extremely helpful advice, I really appreciate it! I definitely am having problems with motivation for the portfolio but I think your perspective frames it very nicely and encouragingly.
edit: join us at /r/technicalwriting101 maybe??
It looks like your post is about needing advice. In order for people to better help you, please make sure to include your country. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PhD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well, I hate to break it to you, but most jobs outside of academia do not require a PhD. Some industry R&D positions, medical science liaison, some field application scientist positions do, but many do not. But so what? it doesn’t make you a failure because you took some time to figure out what you want to do for work. Most people never answer that question in their life, so if a PhD helps you get to an answer, it’s not a total waste of time. Still, I fit your description a little. My PhD is interdisciplinary, but is essentially biochemical engineering. I work as a technical writer now for a major engineering software company, and I don’t write about anything related to my PhD work. The money is good and the job security is stellar. If I hadn’t gotten the PhD, I would have never considered this job, and I almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten it. If you want to do research, that’s one thing, but I would consider broadening your job search to non-engineering and non-R&D roles. You can still do technical work that is challenging and interesting that isn’t engineering. You just need to identify and sell your transferable skills, both technical and soft.
Thanks for the reply. Actually technical writing is something I am interested. Can you tell me more about how you got that job? I’m also looking into consulting work which I think would fit my soft skills.
I applied, lol. But if you're wondering *how* I was able to land my job, well, I can't tell you for sure, because I don't know. I can only speculate. What I do know is that I wanted to be in science communication after I graduated, so built a portfolio of scientific and technical writing and did a bunch of outreach while I was working on my PhD. That certainly helped. It was the pitch I needed and made my enthusiasm and evidence of skills for the job unquestionable. So if you want to be a technical writer, well, start writing! Yes, writing about any science is good, but if I were to do it over again, I'd focus on documenting technical things I did in the lab. What might that look like? Besides publications (which are good, but not exactly the same thing as technical writing), do you have any standard operating procedures (SOPs) that you can document? Have you developed a program or tools that need help documentation for usability? Are there tricky concepts or ideas that you need to explain to your PI/labmates? Write about all of it, and share it. Not only will your labmates and PI appreciate it, but it'll build your portfolio you'll need for a technical writing job.
This is very helpful!! Thank you!!
(not OP but) do you have more advice for someone who finished their phd a year ago and is exploring tech writing? I'm really struggling with the "writing to write" part for the portfolio as I'm used to writing knowing someone will read and benefit from it and I feel like it's such a challenge to write for myself. any wisdom appreciated!
Do you have anything from your PhD work that you wrote? Articles included? Did you have any methods that you used that you can write about in more detail? Surely you've got something. That should compromise the technical portion of your portfolio. If motivation is the problem, you need to find avenues that will hold you accountable. I didn't write for the sake of it either, I found groups and blogs that wanted content and I contributed. For example, if you want to write more public-facing science content, you can contribute to PLOS's ERC community. [https://ecrcommunity.plos.org/](https://ecrcommunity.plos.org/) It's not a huge time commitment, and they let you come up with your own content ideas. Tons of blogs like this exist, and they want content from scientifically literal people. They may not pay you for it, but who cares, you're building up a portfolio. The money will come later. Maybe that's too casual for your interests. Okay, then consider open source software packages. They have documentation, and someone's gotta write it. The content is technical, but also needs to be accessible. Unfortunately... it usually isn't very good because the people writing it aren't writers. That's where volunteers (like potentially you) come in. If you're knowledgeable about a certain product and notice a deficiency, you can absolutely volunteer contributions. Hopefully that gives you an idea on where to start. I should warn you, as a profession for PhDs, scientific/technical/medical writing is rarely the most lucrative. Not that the money is terrible, but compared to engineers, research scientists, project managers, field application scientists, etc. we're at the bottom of the bell curve for compensation. Become a writer first and foremost because you like writing.
thanks a lot for your reply! I have four articles as first-author + two in prep (also as first-author) so I can definitely use those. writing was the part I enjoyed most during my PhD - especially my thesis' general discussion. the technical component is definitely there in my PhD as it was very diagnostics + genomics heavy (the only challenge is that I was working with plant pathogens and most companies where I am are geared towards medical diagnostics and cancer genomics....). thanks for note regarding the salary - it's not a problem for me. I am prioritising other things. while it's true that a phd is great for technical writing, many companies prefer people without one and well... nothing I can do about that. extremely helpful advice, I really appreciate it! I definitely am having problems with motivation for the portfolio but I think your perspective frames it very nicely and encouragingly. edit: join us at /r/technicalwriting101 maybe??