Why Resume Does Not Contribute All That Much to Your Career Management.

At first, asking about the resume sounds legitimate. After all, the way you format your resume matters, as it influences your chances in the job market to land the job. 

But at the same time, it is a misfortunate question to ask. Why is this the case? Well, there is one issue that pops up here: Did you make sure that you are applying for the right job in the first place?

Some PhDs transition to white-collar jobs in the industry much smoother than others — often because they focused early on finding the right career fit. These are the people who spent at least 80% of their job search time on learning. 

Namely, in the transition process, they focus on learning about themselves, studying the general structure of the job market, and looking for a group of professionals who think and act alike. In other words, on looking for their flock. 

According to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology by Van Hooft and colleagues, job seekers who spend more effort on self- and environment-exploration, rather than jumping straight to applications, tend to land better-fitting jobs.

And after they had found the right flock, getting a job — either by applying for jobs or using networking — is only the remaining 20% of all the effort.

Career Management 1.0.1.: The Variety of Working Environments.

What is a “flock,” actually? Well, although every company and organization values strong working ethics, they have different cultures and organizations.

Some of them prefer flat management structures, while others are strictly hierarchical. Some of them promote almost unconstrained creativity, while others require adhering to strict procedures.

However, when you take a helicopter point of view of the job market, you can notice patterns. There are categories of environments which develop according to certain rules. In these environments, employees share personal values to some degree and are usually acknowledged and promoted for specific types of competencies and achievements, which is a strong argument for how to identify your career values first.

A well-suited environment can make a huge difference to your level of work satisfaction, and learning how to align career with personal values is a good place to start. This is why looking for your own flock is so important for your career path, and why career transition counseling for professionals can be so valuable.

You can find broad descriptions of the working cultures that have formed in the job market and their characteristic behaviors in the book “What is out There For Me? The Landscape of Post-PhD Career Tracks” by Natalia Bielczyk.

Let’s talk about the academic flock for once. In terms of working culture and mentality, academia is quite uniform.

The vast majority of researchers worldwide are liberals rather than conservatives. The academic working style has the same casual and non-procedural demeanor in every country.

Some values are generally appreciated in academia and promoted throughout the academic career, forming a kind of career development framework based on values. These are diligence, scientific rigor, high-quality technical writing, a strong working ethic, the ability to foresee the impact of your findings, and choosing the right projects accordingly. One could also argue about creativity as a crucial factor of success in academia, but opinions vary here.

Of course, differences exist among countries. However, in general, we are connected to the same global hive mind, well represented by the Academic Twitter community. For this reason, we often take many aspects of professional life for granted – which can lead to many surprises and disappointments — all the more reason to use self-navigation tools for career planning.