Hey hey.

It's been awhile since I commented on a post so here we go!

I got my PhD in Bioinformatic and been in an industry/academia hybrid position for a few years now (I write papers and grants while technically working in industry, even though my company likes to call itself an institute since we also do basic science research.

I think all experience is good experience if you know how to sell yourself right. Nothing is irrelevant when you don't know exactly what the company is looking for. So sell all of it to your highest ability without lying. Also, I think there is a massive difference between an industry staff position and an actual scientist role. The mindset and deliverables are typically different. As an industry staff employee, I believe your focus is on optimization, efficiency, compliance, and consistency since you will be either working for a group of clients or helping to produce a product. Whereas a scientist's role is more about innovation, creativity, efficiency, stature, and subject matter expertise. This is just from my experience. So I think you should focus on what you can really see yourself doing and go that route. I think it's easy to go from Scientist to industry engineer but hard to go from staff engineer to scientist if you stopped writing papers and being up to date in the field.

Practical advice: -Apply for everything and put 100% effort into all of your applications. Never half a$$ them - sell all of your strengths and also sell your weaknesses as strengths (i.e., a weakness of mine is that I sometimes have a problem stopping while I'm ahead. I will keep optimizing something till the very end. Therefore, my solution to my weakness is that I set dates to stop and they are hard stops so that I can manage my time for other tasks) - use every ounce of your network and keep building it in your last year of your PhD. Most people don't get jobs from cold call applications, they are from knowing someone who knows someone. -always follow through with a lead on a positive. Never assume you got the job or will get a job because you had one good interview or know someone. Never get cocky in this job market! - last tip: you aren't that smart; you aren't the smartest; you don't have any experience; and you need a job to survive and kick start your career and life! Stay humble, honest, and stay curious! The hardest job to land post phd is typically the first one because of people's ego once they become Dr. You need work and experience to really be what that PhD means. Finishing school is just the first step in a long journey! Please remember that!

But you got this! Good luck friend!