PhD Paths

Helping future, current, and past PhD students find the many career opportunities available to them outside of academia.

Founder

Stanford University

Stanford CareerEd is the main career center on campus, supporting all students, postdocs, and recent alumni with their career journeys. As the first PhD student member of Stanford's CareerEd PhD/Postdocs team, I support PhD students and postdocs in their pursuit of meaningful, purposeful work across all industries. I direct one-on-one career coaching each week, focused specifically on reviewing PhD and postdoc resumes, CVs, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles.

First PhD Student Career Coach for PhDs & Postdocs

Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2024)
Stanford Community Impact Award (2023)

Neurosciences PhD Candidate

The Civilian

Working with researchers to make their academic publications more accessible through the creation of lay summaries

Chief Executive Officer

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Research Technician

Florida State University

Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Instructor

Biology I & II TA

research experience in areas such as behavioral neuroscience, social neuroscience, human psychology, and clinical neuroscience

Research Assistant

Center for Molecular Neurobiology, Hamburg

Sharing my adventures and insights as I embark on a few different things: 

💼 Career Resources for PhDs: Helping PhDs discover careers outside academia, through PhD Paths.

🧠 PhD Life: Studying neurotransmitter interactions at Stanford University.

🔨 Entrepreneurship: Building multiple businesses during my PhD.

Look forward to connecting with folks interested in any or all of the above!

Advisor: “This should take you a week.”
Me, 3 months later: “Define week.”

The PhD adventure is a humbling one 😅

Ashley Moses

Neurosciences PhD Candidate at Stanford University | Founder of PhD Paths

Dear PhD student, 
You are... 

crushing it 
juggling a lot 
doing your best 
working really hard 
attempting a big thing 
tackling new challenges 
managing different projects 
finding your work/life balance 


I see you. Keep being awesome.

🚨 STEM PhDs: $60–$140/hr AI Opportunity! 🚨

Mercor is hiring final-year or graduate STEM PhDs to help evaluate and improve AI language models (LLMs).

💡 𝗪𝗛𝗬:
- Work remotely or contract-based
- Leverage your analytical and scientific expertise in a fast-growing AI field
- Make some extra income
- Pay: $60–$140 per hour

📌 𝗪𝗛𝗢:
- Chemistry, Biology, Math, or Stats PhDs (final-year students or graduates)
- Strong analytical skills
- Interest in AI and machine learning

🔗 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄.

♻️ Repost to help reach more PhDs!

After 25 years in academia, he left.


► Family needs
► Financial pressures
► Stress of securing grants
► Missing cutting-edge science

With a lot of self-reflection, he took the leap.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”


This story proves you can reinvent yourself at any stage of your career.

Go build that door.

---------------
Check out this week’s PhD Paths newsletter for the full story 💡

What academia says vs. what academia actually means:


🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “This paper just needs minor revisions.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “Please rewrite the entire manuscript.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “Your talk sparked good discussion.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “They ripped it apart, but you held on tightly.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “The seminar will be about 45 minutes with time for questions.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “Bring your lunch. This is about to be 3 hours.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “You’re almost ready to publish this.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “You only need 7 more experiments.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “That’s a really interesting result.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “I don’t believe you.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “This grant has a good chance.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “It has a 5% funding rate.”

🏛️ 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗮: “This experiment is straightforward.”
💯 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “Good luck troubleshooting for 6 months.”


Navigating the language of academia is… an adventure 😅

What would you add to the list?

I ask ChatGPT what a PhD student was. This is what it said... 


In practice, a PhD student is a: 

▶ 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿-𝗶𝗻-𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 — designing and carrying out original research to answer new questions in their field. 

▶ 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 — taking advanced courses, reading widely, and mastering theory and methods. 

▶ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿 — aiming to produce new knowledge, usually published in academic journals or presented at conferences. 

▶ 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿/𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿 — supporting undergraduate teaching or supervising junior researchers. 

▶ 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁 — building the expertise needed to work in academia, industry, government, or beyond. 

At its core: A PhD student isn’t just learning existing knowledge. They’re creating new knowledge that no one else has produced before. 


What do you think of this definition? Anything you'd add?

When job searching, it’s easy to focus on what you don’t want.

❌ Long hours
❌ Limited funding
❌ Poor supervisors 
❌ Toxic environments

But one of my favorite pieces of advice from a recent PhD Paths interview was this:

✨ 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘆 ✨

Think back to your PhD.

What did you love most?
🍎 Teaching?
✍🏻 Writing?
🧪 Benchwork?
🎤 Presenting?

Look for career paths that align with those passions.

Don’t just run away from the bad - run toward the good :)

When it comes to applying for industry jobs, I hear this advice a lot: 

𝗔𝗶𝗺 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 — 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸.

For those with experience applying for jobs or hiring PhDs in industry: is this really true?

I know many PhDs (myself included) worry they’re unqualified or don’t have enough experience to apply. Do you agree with this advice?

_______________
💌 P.S. Join 6,600+ readers for the weekly PhD Paths newsletter featuring advice from PhDs who have successfully transitioned to industry!

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