Acquired Skills

Businesses are demanding, and during a seminar they put together a list of what skills they would like their managers to have.

Many skills are developed at a high level by the PhD, others less so. What’s worse, especially in France, is that PhDs are often suspected of being individualistic and disconnected from the business world.

The job interview is often frustrating: very little time is spent on this project, the fruit of three years of suffering: no one calls into question the training acquired through this process. The major part of the interview focuses on the rest: communication, leadership, personal balance, team work, etc.

The following list, provided by businesses, enumerates the skills necessary for jobs. These skills are also necessary, though in different doses, in academia:

Knowledge and Know-How

•    Sector-specific knowledge (initial education and PhD + professional experience)
•    Problem Solving Methodology
•    Ability to find pertinent information (belonging to a knowledge network)

Potential

•    Capacity to learn
•    Will to evolve

Adapted Behaviors

•    Autonomy: ability to be organized and handle a problem alone
•    Communication:
   -    Ability to communicate ideas clearly
   -    Feeling at ease with different types of people (colleagues and clients)
   -    Ability to persuade
•    Teamwork: ability to work interdependently and set common objectives
•    Leadership: ability to meet goals based on your ideas and methods
•    Analysis: ability to ask detailed questions and provide constructive criticism
•    Initiative: not afraid to take risks
•    Rigor: methods
•    Ability to synthesize information
•    Opportunism: ability to take advantage of opportunities to obtain results
•    Ability to learn from mistakes and experience
•    Ability to transmit and share knowledge and know-how
•    Time management: ability to work in a dynamic environment while respecting deadlines; ability to work under pressure
•    Personal Ambition: motivated to develop your career
•    Creativity: ability to find imaginative and innovative solutions
•    Perseverance: ability to pursue work to its ends in spite of difficulties
•    Patience: the desire to learn from and listen to others
•    Thinking about costs and profits for companies
•    Balanced personality: having interests and activities outside work which help to deal with stress