Download Rectoly and get your 14-day trial to get the best experience in reading research papers into one single column. https://rectoly.com/

Rectoly on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rectoly

The first 20 listeners will get the full version of Rectoly for free: https://rectoly.com/phdlounge

Students and Graduates!

Desmond Felix is a researcher and final‑year doctoral candidate in History at Goldsmiths, University of London, whose work explores the formation of Black British ethnic identity in contemporary cultural contexts. His research blends qualitative and ethnographic methods to examine how identity is constructed and experienced across UK communities.

Desmond has presented at major academic conferences, delivered the 2024 Black History Month Lecture at CIEE London, and teaches across institutions including IFSA, New City College, Roehampton, and Oxford Summer Courses. He is committed to research-led teaching, community engagement, and expanding public understanding of Black British history and culture.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desmond-felix-6b69612a/

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Students and Graduates!

Takaki Takemura is an IT Engineer who studied Chinese at Aichi University in Japan at the Faculty of Modern Chinese Studies. He is the founder and developer of Rectoly, a reading app for research papers that works with Zotero and Mendeley. Rectoly helps students and researchers to turn two-column research papers into one-column text, pin figures and hand writing notes beside the texts, translate into another language and search across all your notes on any device. You can try Rectoly for a 14-day trial which you can find the offer below by clicking on its website or you could get the full version for free if you're one of the first 20 listeners.

Website: https://rectoly.com

Listener offer: https://rectoly.com/phdlounge

X: @quietbuilds_jp

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rectoly

RedNote (Xiaohongshu): https://xhslink.cn/m/3waYVxNoB3B

Email: support@rectoly.com

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Students and Graduates!

The “PhD skill gap” gets repeated so often that it starts to feel like fact, but I don’t buy it. What I see is a communication gap: brilliant researchers describing real, employable work in language that employers can’t quickly understand. Drawing on a Nature article and my own experience as a PhD applying for roles and collecting feedback, I break down why so many of us underestimate what we already bring to the table.

We talk about the transferable skills a doctorate quietly trains every day: research and writing, project management, critical thinking, presenting, and communicating complex ideas to different audiences. I also unpack why the academic CV and the industry CV play by different rules, and why clarity matters more than completeness when you’ve only got two pages. If your CV is packed with jargon, you can be a perfect candidate and still get overlooked.
From there, we get practical about job search strategy. I treat job hunting like a research project: get clear on the roles you want, research organisations properly, track applications, and apply with intent rather than volume. I also share why generic rejection emails are often about process and risk, not your worth, and why improving a few high-impact lines can beat rewriting the whole document. If you’re feeling stuck, you’re not alone and you’re not unqualified.
If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more PhDs can find it. What’s the one skill you find hardest to explain on your CV?

Thank you all for tuning in, share it with a friend, and it's been a pleasure!

Bibliography:

Hoffer, E. (2026). Seeking an industry role after your PhD? Make sure your CV reflects that. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01855-4\

Roy, D., Jiménez López, M.D. & García Álvarez, M.E. Hires-PhD: a transversal skills framework for diversifying PhD employability. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12, 18 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04257-x

Lortie, J., PhD. (2026, April 8). A PhD opens more career doors than researchers think. The Scientist. https://www.the-scientist.com/a-phd-opens-more-career-doors-than-researchers-think-74328

Sinche, M., Layton, R. L., Brandt, P. D., O’Connell, A. B., Hall, J. D., Freeman, A. M., Harrell, J. R., Cook, J. G., & Brennwald, P. J. (2017). An evidence-based evaluation of transferrable skills and job satisfaction for science PhDs. PLoS ONE, 12(9), e0185023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185023