Hello everyone, i hope you are all doing great in your postgraduate studies. For those of you who might not have known me here, i withdrew from a biology PhD program in june 2018, after almost two years into my PhD program.

Job opportunities are scarce but for the interviews that i have got called up so far, i cant help to think that my failed PhD has got something to do with it, especially so when the interviewers decided to keep having follow up questions on it. I have probably reached a point where i feel that i should also consider making my replies to these as politically-correct as possible.

So below are my actual reasons for leaving:

1) The first project that i had for the first 6 months or so failed to take off. The subsequent project that i was made to come up with also failed 2 years into my program. I was fed up.

2) The reason why i wanted to join my PI's lab is because she is an expert of a protein that interests me. But when i came in, my PI told me that she wants to start on a new project and i will be the person to headstart it.

3) My PI lacked expertise on the work i was in. I was a lost puppy. When i did ask for guidance, she would seem annoyed (always busy holding important appointments)

4) Toxic lab environment. A lot of backstabbing and alienation.

So far in three months i have attended 4 interviews. I will only state the ones which i believe my failed PhD was the cause of the rejection

1st company (STEM): i mentioned about lack of guidance and ironically i was called in for second interview. I later declined it because i find that i dont have the chemistry-related lab expertise to perform well on the job. (is this a legit better reason to give- i was told to not state any negative aspects of my time there but for this situation, i went with my gut feeling).

4th company (research-related but more on corporate side): when asked why i quit my PhD program, i mentioned that i felt that pursuing a PhD was no longer a career goal of mine. It was a safe answer to give until the interviewer tried to dig deeper. She then went on to ask can you elaborate more on this? I screwed up by saying although i liked the research aspect of my work, i had to do other things such as teaching, nurturing students, marking and that i was overwhelmed. OVERWHELMED - this is where i screwed up but i had to expand on the spot why PhD was no longer part of my career goal. On hindsight i shouldnt have said that because the interviewer told me they are looking for someone with resilience.

For jobs not related to research, it will be just easy to state that research is no longer what i want to do. But for research related jobs, i may need to give a slightly different reason. I really need help on this part, hope i can get valuable feedback on this.

I might add that for the chief interviewer in the first company has a Masters degree and is a head researcher. So im guessing she probably knows the hardships involved in getting a postgrad degree. OR does it always pay to be honest??

The interviewer from the 4th company is a HR who acted like a know-it-all. Pretty judgemental but the immediate feedback she gave once the interview was over suggested i was in it - like for instance she reminded me to update them should i get any concrete offers from other jobs i applied for, and asking me what other positions i applied for etc. So i was pretty disappointed to get rejected after this initial HR screening phase.

Im someone who is not very good with words and im really not quick on my feet. I have several interviews coming up and i need to get this right! Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different outcome is insanity.

Ps: i thank all the valuable advise i have gotten in my previous thread. I have put all these in consideration by stating what skills i have gained during my PhD program. I just need to further refine how i answer this question.

As someone recently doing a round of job interviews, those questions are few and far between. If you can nail down the job requirements, show you are suited to the job, the whys don't matter as much.

Remember if you were still studying you wouldn't be available for the role you interview for. Explain you'd learnt as much as you could and wanted to move your career on and the job you interview is perfect.

Keep it short (but do elaborate a bit if asked so that it doesn't make them think you are hiding something) and keep it positive. Getting rejections doesn't mean that you are doing something wrong. My friend had 7 interviews and got a job, another friend had 15 interviews and got a job. Some have many more interviews. It doesn't mean they are doing things wrong. Actually it means that you are doing something right because they are getting asked to interview. It means that you are competitive.

You could even go back to the ones you were rejected from and ask them for specific feedback.

Just because you get the chance to interview doesn't mean you get the job, I've been beat out by people with more years experience. That actually counts in industry against people leaving academic research roles.

Try thinking about the dropped out of PhD thing differently... you'd be in exactly the same position now had you completed your PhD, that is - looking for a job. And believe me, you'd most probably be going through the same thing - rejection after rejection until... the one! Some people are lucky and get a job first or second time. For most people, it's a matter of being super resilient and just not giving up until they get a job. It is a struggle. Focusing on the fact that you left your PhD isn't that helpful. You're getting invited to interview, so that clearly isn't stopping you from being competitive. It's just a matter of patience and resilience.

All best!

Ps. I say "just" a matter of patience and resilience. I know how hard it can be and how hard it is on self-esteem etc. Like you say, just keep on trying, and you will be rewarded in the end.

iwan, you have only had 4 interviews. The cold, hard truth is that you haven't had enough interviews yet to be overly worrying about why you are being rejected. At the start of your career it is a numbers game. You are just going to have to power through this I'm afraid. My hit rate at your stage was about 7 interviews before being offered 1 of them so I'm in agreement with TQ. A friend of mine has just gone through 10 interviews before being offered 2.

Your post here also clears up the questions I had based on your other thread. You have had just one difficult set of questions about your PhD withdrawal and those sort of questions are not systemic in industry. From your last thread it sounded like this was something you were facing everywhere. On that front then it is good news.

As TQ say, you are going to need patience and resilience. There is no sugar coating it.

Thanks a lot to everyone here for giving me constant encouragement. I admit that i can be pretty pessimistic at times. I now have hope that its just a matter of time and in the meantime, i should just enjoy the process of it all. All the best with your postgraduate studies. Will keep you all updated with good news when it happens.

Ps: i will keep on giving advise in this forum to those in difficult situations during their postgrad studies as i feel i have a lot to offer having gone through a rough tide myself during my PhD candidacy.

Yes, or simply that you *realised that the job you wanted didn't actually require a doctorate...

*realised through your experience in the lab.