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I am 30yo, with undergrad background in materials engineering. No prior work experience. My PhD was focused on using finite element analysis for stress analysis.

I have some Python programming experience, and will be working to improve it. I also used Matlab and some Fortran for my research.

I am planning to settle in Canada. I am a south-east Asian country native. I was thinking of targeting R&D jobs related my field and software development jobs.

But, R&D jobs in my field employing a PhD is scarce in Canada, and I know nothing about software development jobs and whether they would hire someone with a non-computer science background like me.

Is there any other jobs that I can be eligible in? And currently I will be working on a separate gig for a year. So, I will have 6-7 months to improve my skillsets.

I am quick learner. And I am open to any challenging role. What can I do to make my profile appealing?

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  • Everyone is a quick learner, open to challenges and wants to be appealing. That's job hunting in general, specially for Grads with no job experience (which you are). I would focus on the CAR and STAR interview techniques and think up example scenarios you can use.
    – Shadowzee
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 4:24
  • Your university likely has career advisors and even if they don't, you'll find a billion recruiters on Linkedin. Ask them for help presenting yourself.
    – Mars
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 6:57

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As an academic, your skills will be very appreciated by the industry (R&D roles)

What can I do to make my profile appealing?

Your conditions are not so harsh as you think. You are young and PhD in ICMEg (which is an engineering by itself, which means it has industrial utility). My only concern is that you will not be able to enter a leadership or management role at first i.e. you will have to work as a technical employee before scaling up into management roles if you will.

Personal Opinion: I am not sure how your lifestyle is ($$$) with your academic and parallel incomes, but considering you do not know where you are getting into, I would recommend you save some money and decrease costs so you don't get caught with surprises.

For this reason, I recommend you should not be scared of sending your curriculum as is to employers. You need to put all your skills and all of your academic work until now and expect for the results. If they are positive, good! If they are negative, try to engage a conversation asking what in your curriculum would have changed the results i.e. what skill missing would get you into the job?

Is there any other jobs that I can be eligible in? And currently I will be working on a separate gig for a year. So, I will have 6-7 months to improve my skillsets.

I do not work in your industry, so I do not know which skills you need. But recall my advice of sending you CV as is so you can gather feedback. In 1-2 months you will have enough feedback which you can use in the next 5 months to improve your skillset if needed.

Communication is key

How do you get to know which companies and roles would want an ICMEg?

You will have to speak with people! Send your CV and interests to other ICMEg academics, LinkedIn professionals, Internet Forums, HeadHunters website forms, family members, close and distant friends, etc...

You will be surprised by how quickly you can reach key-professionals that can help you with job hunting and clarify of what you can do in the industry!

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