The average PhD -> industry job search timeline is 6 months to 2 years without mentorship. Some PhDs never land an industry job that pays what their skillset is worth.Through coaching, my PhD clients landed 6-figure industry roles between 24 and 168 days, with an average timeline of 2.5 months and an average pay increase of 84K.Two ways I can help you:

1️⃣ "I need help acing my upcoming interview"

Another day, another "Unfortunately, we decided to move forward with another candidate".1. It is not enough to showcase you have the core skills for the job.You need to excel at answering intentionally vague product questions and demonstrate business savvy, something that PhDs without extensive industry experience commonly struggle with.2. To make the interview process more difficult, there is a unique set of questions each FAANG company likes to ask. Interview at enough places, you will be able to spot Meta questions from Amazon questions; tech companies' questions from those at financial institutions like Chase and Amex; large and mid-sized companies' questions from those from agencies and startups.Some companies, like Amazon, like to ask more product-focused, tactical questions. Other companies, like Meta, ask questions that are more academic-flavored and strategic.It's not enough to look up questions on Glassdoor or YouTube. You need to master the specific criteria hiring managers use to assess your candidacy.3. By the time you walk into the interview room, you need to not only have the answers to "Tell me about a high-impact project you've done" and "How have you navigated divergent stakeholder perspectives" roll off of your tongue, but also position yourself as the "ideal fit", so that the hiring team cannot wait to extend you an offer over the other candidates.If the way you present your skills and communicate your experience sounds like someone who has worked in industry for 10 years and increased your org's bottom line time and time again, the likelihood of you being hired shoots up dramatically.Take it from my students who aced their interviews:

The best time to schedule your interview practice is before you start the interview process.Many PhDs wait to seek professional guidance until they have "made it past the recruiter/hiring manager/technical screen". In reality, a significant number do not make it past the early interview stages and end up squandering competitive opportunities.While it is critical to prepare for later-stage interviews (behavioral interview, skills interview, portfolio presentation, direction/product interview), it is equally important to prepare for the recruiter screen, hiring manager interview, and technical screen.I recommend starting your preparation at least 1–2 weeks before your scheduled interview date, so we have time to diagnose, practice, correct, and workshop your responses thoroughly.

• Book a 1:1 interview intensive

2️⃣ "I need help translating my academic skills and landing interviews"

The current industry market is competitive, saturated, and employer-favoring. PhDs can no longer luck into a high-paying industry role based solely on their educational credential.Job search has become a second job in itself that requires intentional strategies and consistent efforts. It's an overwhelming process, where PhDs bump into roadblocks after roadblocks:🚧 You are unclear on which career path to pursue that is the most suitable for your skillset.🚧 You keep applying but get no recruiter callback.🚧 You keep networking but can't get referrals that result in interviews.🚧 You are interviewing for company after company, but can't get the final offer.You feel directionless, overwhelmed, dejected, burned out.After helping hundreds of PhDs with their industry transition, I distilled the lessons into Career Clear, a 6-week live PhD-to-Industry career program:✅ LIVE curriculum that has landed multiple 6-figure FAANG offers✅ Workshopping, individualized feedback, small group coaching✅ Access to all session recordings, guides, and worksheets✅ Community support and accountability

After the program:🏆 You will hone in on a career path that suits your skillset, aligns with what you enjoy doing, and highlights your competitive advantage in a saturated market.🏆 You will have a step-by-step action plan to a successful job search, a tried-and-true roadmap that has landed multiple 6-figure industry offers.🏆 You will become fluent at “industry speak”, have a strong grasp of industry norms, and know how to market your skills to what employers understand and desire.🏆 You will build an authentic network that turbocharges your job search and amplifies job opportunities including referrals.Join Career Clear:
The June cycle has started. Submit an application below to join the waitlist. You will be notified of your application status when the next cycle opens.

• Join Career Clear

Case Studies

🏆 Rachele went from endless unsuccessful cold applications to a 6-figure UXR Microsoft offer in 3 months.Listen to her talk about the one networking strategy we used that made all the difference (2-minute clip):

🏆 After our intensive mock interview series, Hayley passed her FAANG technical screen + full loop (5 interviews + 1 research presentation) on her first try, concluding her job search with a 6-figure UXR Meta offer in just over 2 months:

🏆 Lily went from zero direction to revamping her application strategy, nabbing a Senior Researcher position in social impact that spoke true to her ethics.Lily knew in her heart of heart that she didn't want to go into big tech. But her initial application strategy was spraying and praying, hoping to land any position.We took a step back, identified her unfair advantage, and targeted her focus on a select few companies that matched her strength in the social impact space, a field that gives her true meaning and purpose.4 interviews poured in. She received an offer right away from the first company that interviewed her (3-minute clip):

🏆 Henry went from being laid off to scoring a full-time Research Scientist offer in 2 months.Henry was laid off from an unstable, underpaid contractor position. In an uber-competitive industry market, Henry kept submitting applications, but could not land an interview. When he finally got a recruiter call, he struggled to progress to the second round.As if the job search weren't difficult enough, Henry also faced a sudden family health crisis, which made the process even more isolating.A job search doesn't exist if the job seeker crumbles. We re-oriented Henry's career path as it aligned with his family and life goals. We targeted work environments that prioritized work-life balance. We then worked on Henry's interview skills and drilled his responses.Throughout the process, I encouraged Henry to leverage and translate his sought-after research expertise from his PhD. Rather than feeling lucky about getting any interview, Henry became the chooser. He became empowered to decide which job worked for him, not the other way around.Interviews rolled in. Henry scored a stable, full-time offer shortly after. It came with full benefits and allowed Henry time to caretake for his family (2-minute clip):

🏆 Lucia went from lacking intellectual fulfillment to taking her industry career to the next level.Lucia is an academic at heart, hungry for intellectual depth and scientific rigor. She is not content with a run-of-the-mill corporate 9-to-5. After her transition to industry, Lucia still wants to do cutting-edge work and make a name for herself.She is now thriving in a secure and stable 6-figure Principal Scientist position while being presented regularly with lucrative opportunities at the forefront of AI. Her inbox is filled with recruiters, founders, and academics vying for her talent. Jobs come to her, not the other way around:

Kaidi Wu, Ph.D.

• LinkedIn
• X
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Google Scholar
• TikTok
• Email

My Story

🎓 Three years ago, I turned down a 55K professorship offer to explore the world outside academia.I did what every other academic did: breaking into industry. 400+ applications and 60+ interview loops later, I nabbed 7 offers and accepted a 250K job at FAANG.It looked great on paper. But my perfect-on-paper resume belied a long and hard transition I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy: getting ghosted, rejection after rejection, offer retraction, discrimination, mass layoff, expiring visa.I was screaming into a void: What more can I do? Even when I did everything right, there was always a candidate who was a "better fit". My life fell into a permanent state of limbo. I felt dejected, powerless, exhausted.Coaches, workshops, trial and errors later, I finally cracked the code on how to stand out as the ideal candidate. In a competitive and saturated industry market, I was acing interviews and received competing offers, including Amazon, Meta, Toyota, Match, Alibaba, and many more.🎓 During my transition, I traversed the a multitude of industries, UX, data science, solopreneurship, content creation, comedy, Latin dance. If you look close enough, the same playbook applies in every field:Learn the behind-the-scene rules, steal the top players' 10,000 hours, streamline and fast-track your progress, win the game. When you have a tried-and-true roadmap, it becomes hard to fail. You attract opportunities to you, rather than contorting yourself to fit into a mold.🎓 Today, I stand in my own light. I'm no longer at a university, but I remain an academic at heart. I choose the best opportunities that come to me, not the other way around. I decide what I want to learn, who I want to work with, how, where, and when I work.Wealth is abundant. Paths are infinite. I am here to walk you through everything I searched so hard for during my transition, so you won't have to walk the path alone.