The presentation reveals those key skills which PhD students/researchers acquire (sometimes unbeknowingly) during their period of study. The presentation highlights the explosive growth of the ‘PhD market’ especially in China and looks at two basic scenarios – those graduands who will continue in research and perhaps a majority who will not. Attention is drawn to the Vitae Organisation researcher development framework and in particular the Employability Lens for careers outside academia. The skills (knowledge, behaviour & attitude) which are highlighted in the lens are possibly better expressed in the form of an outer circle of key transferrable skills which all PhD students should be capable acquiring during their PhD studies. However it is the inner circle of complex interactive and intellectual skills which will be those most sought after by future employers and these will be the skills that that will take graduates the furthest in careers outside academia. Ray Wallace has coined the term ‘EPIMERIC’ for these skills. Not everyone will have these skills and attention should be given by graduate schools to investigating how students might acquire these skills during their studies. One suggestion is a secondment to industry/commerce for a short period. The transformation of undergraduate students taking internships as part of their degree programmes is well documented.

1. The PhD Graduand – the
hidden talents that lie within
Dr Ray Wallace CAS
cvas.org.uk

2. Why should we turn our
attention to hidden talents?
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7. These recent reports provide some very interesting facts
Some general salient points:
• The number of doctorates being obtained worldwide is
rapidly increasing
• The huge increase in doctoral candidates means there is
now a much more diverse PhD graduate population
than in even the recent past
• Globally, at least in some disciplines, universities are
producing too many PhD graduates

8. These recent reports provide some very interesting facts
Some general salient points:
• PhD graduate jobs may not meet candidates expectations
• In some cases people having a PhD are seen as over-qualified
or as being likely to be deficient in some of the generic
attributes necessary for a good employee
• In the UK, almost 80 percent of people achieving PhDs in
science will eventually find careers outside science

9. These recent reports provide some very interesting facts
Some salient points appertaining to China:
• China is the world leader in producing PhDs
• Each qualified Chinese professor has to supervise 5.77
doctorate candidates, much higher than the average ratio
internationally
• Unemployment in China among new postgraduates has been
rising for the past seven or so years and was higher than for
undergraduates in the three years to 2012

10. Graduation Day
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12. Graduation Day + 1
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The reality
of finding a
job sets in

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17. ….. but doctoral graduands have so much
more to offer
……. but do they all realise?
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Deciding Factor Employment Market
Research Career
Requires
• Tenacity
• High Competence
Non-Research Career
Requires
• Broader Vision
• Adaptability

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Research Training assumes a
prominence
Training for a Research Career
Hidden Skills assume a
prominence
Training for a Broader Rôle

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Taught or
acquired
through self
development?
Supervisor or
graduate
school led?

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TENSIONS

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Communication
Skills
Emotional
Intelligence
People
Management
Intellectual
Insight
Managing
Ambiguity
Enterprise Skills
Responsiveness
to Change
Influence &
Leadership
Commercial
Awareness

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Communication
Skills

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Communication
Skills
Computer Skills
Reading &
Speed Reading
Core Practical Skills

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Communication
Skills
Critical
Thinking
Independent
......Working
Self-confidence Self-drive
Self Skills

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Communication
Skills
Reasoning Skills
Analysing Innovation
Problem
Solving
Synthesising

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Communication
Skills
Organisational Skills
Perseverance Prioritisation
Time
Management
Working to
Deadlines

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Communication
Skills
Collaboration Engagement
Networking Team Working
Cooperational Skills

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Emotional
Intelligence
People
Management
Intellectual
Insight
Managing
Ambiguity
Enterprise Skills
Responsiveness
to Change
Influence &
Leadership
Commercial
Awareness
EPIMERIC#
#Epimeric – having the qualities of
epimers (either of two isomers
differing in the configuration about a
single asymmetric carbon atom in a
compound containing other
asymmetric carbon atoms)
Identical yet
not

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Developing these complex interactive and
intellectual skills I would argue is the key
goal in producing highly marketable non-
research orientated graduands who will
play important rôles in society at large

37. CAS
© Ray Wallace 2014