How To Ask For A Job Referral

Most Ph.D. level jobs are filled through employee referrals. An employee referral means that someone that works at a company recommends you for the job. The problem is, as a Ph.D., if you've been in academia your whole life, you probably know very few people in industry. So, how can you start building up your industry network? How can you start getting referrals? Start by getting mini-referrals and then setting up informational interviews.

- A mini-referral is simply an introduction from somebody you know to someone you don’t know. Let's say that you're looking on LinkedIn and you see employees working at a company you’re interested in but you don’t know any of them directly. LinkedIn will show you if you have some shared connections with those employees. If you do, you can reach out to one of those shared connections and ask them for an introduction.

- The people you should target for informational interviews are other PhDs because they are going to be willing to give back. They know that you're a Ph.D. trying to get out of academia and will be more likely to help you.

For more job search tips including a complete industry resume guide exclusively for PhDs, get this FREE ebook:
cheekyscientist.com/complete-industry-resume-gu…