What is "Years of experience" for fresh PhD

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>When applying for jobs, often times they require you to fill in "Years of experience"</p>

<p>I will be fresh PhD graduate, and have done a 9-month co-op during my undergrad. So my question is what is the appropriate answer to put for my "years of experience"? </p>

<p>I think my 9-month co-op experience can be rounded up and count as 1 year experience. And I have heard that PhD's 5 years is equivalent to 5 years of working experience. During the 5 years, the first to second year I mainly focused on coursework, and later years is fully dedicated to my research project. So even though I have not worked any real permanent full time job, looks my answer could be from 0 all the way up to 6 (5+1).</p>

<p>Please advice. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>You could also add in any internships you did as an undergrad.</p>

<p>Saying you have a 6 years of experience could be a little dishonest, IMO, as would rounding up. You could say 9 months work experience, 5 years research experience (PhD), unless the form doesn’t allow you to go into such detail (an online form, for example).</p>

3

<p>hi thanks for responding, I just checked the website, the “Years of experience” question only has a drop-down selection from 0 to 20+, therefore I have to round up or round down.</p>

<p>Also since it is a simple selection mode, I do not get to specify work or research experience.</p>

4

<p>They generally mean work experience, in that case, seeing as how you will probably be able to tell them you have a PhD in the education section of the application.
So I would only put 1 year.</p>

5

<p>I’d post this in the ‘graduate school’ section of CC, or over on gradcafe, I feel like I’ve seen some posts/threads dealing with this issue before, but I can’t find them off hand</p>

6

<p>^Seconded. I really have no experience with grad school, so my opinions were just opinions.</p>

<p>Better yet, contact your career office for guidance.</p>

7

<p>thanks terenc and soccergirl, let me post in those sections!</p>

8

<p>I generally count my grad school experience toward work experience just incase it helps me get around the HR filters. For example, if I started characterizing materials 3 years ago in my lab, I might put that I have 3 years of experience as a materials scientist. The person doing the actual hiring will likely not look very closely at those responses and will, instead, focus on your resume and interview(s).</p>