With the encouragement of a few friends outside of academia, I sent out my resume to a few places in the NYC area to “test the water” about two weeks ago. I was quite happy to see a number of positive responses from big companies - the first interview even came within two days!
I have been interviewing almost on a daily basis ever since. I have to say that they came rather unexpectedly as I am juggling with a million other things at work and as I am wrapping up my thesis. In the process, I realize how interview skill is just a completely different beast than everything I have been trained at grad school. In fact, we were never trained to do interviews, other than being told that “Every talk is a job talk.” In some sense, interviewing at companies depends a lot on how you brand yourself and demonstrate your value-add to the company.
I did not realize how much energy interviewing can take since they are only typically 30 min to 1 hour each, but the fact that I have to constantly turn on a different mindset (than as an academic) is nontrivial!
I suppose, just like other skills I have picked up during grad school, acing interviews will come with experience and practice!