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My friend has recently finished her PhD, and is now looking for a job, probably outside of academia. In the mean while, she is planning to apply for a temporary, simple admin job to make ends meet while she looks for a better job. Since the admin job does not require a PhD (or even a Bachelor's degree), she is planning to omit her PhD from her resume. However, doing that will result in a gap in her resume. Hence, she plans to write that she has 4 years of working experience, working as researcher in a laboratory (nothing to indicate that she has a PhD). My question is: is this ethical? Can you "convert" a PhD education to work experience in your resume?

cheersmate
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Jean Diharo
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    I think this question is more suitable for https://workplace.stackexchange.com/. But I do not think that presenting a PhD as work experience is unethical: in many countries a PhD is (also offically) seen as work. – Louic Jun 08 '21 at 05:40
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    "working as researcher in a laboratory" Employers are not stupid. They will suspect immediately that this was a PhD position, in particular once they know who owns this laboratory. My assumption would be that this person failed the PhD. –  Jun 08 '21 at 05:52
  • https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/40854/can-i-hide-my-bachelor-and-master-degrees-in-cv-when-i-apply-for-a-phd-position – Anonymous Physicist Jun 08 '21 at 06:08
  • @Roland This is a possibility. However, my friend does not mind if the employer will think she failed her PhD, as she is only applying for a simple admin position (and she will only be working there temporarily). – Jean Diharo Jun 08 '21 at 07:04
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    @Roland It is very unlikely that an employes for an "admin job oustide academia" will assume that lab work equals a PhD (even in academia most informed people know that plenty of lab workers do not have PhDs), and it is even more unlikely that they know who owns the laboratory. – Louic Jun 08 '21 at 07:04
  • @Louic I guess that depends on locality. Where I am, you can't just put "researcher in laboratory" on your CV. You have to provide details like the employer. And if that employer is a university ... Also, there is no position "lab worker". You are a researcher or a technician. And researchers in academia are usually PhD students if not a PhD. –  Jun 08 '21 at 07:27
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    Your friend should expect that her/his "creativity" when writing the CV will come out eventually. Employers don't like to be lied to, this includes lies by omission. Regardless, of ethical consideration, your friend should expect repercussions eventually if she/he gets the job. – Maarten Buis Jun 08 '21 at 07:46
  • @MaartenBuis A "lie by omission" would imply that the fact that she tried to do a PhD would be relevant for the employer. It's not obvious why that's the case. Employers should hire people for their skills and personality, not for their earlier life plans. – lighthouse keeper Jun 08 '21 at 07:59
  • What is her reasoning for omitting the PhD? Is she afraid of being "overqualified", of looking uncommitted? – henning Jun 08 '21 at 08:06
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    @henning my friend says she often gets the question on why she does a PhD, and she is tired of answering them. – Jean Diharo Jun 08 '21 at 08:12
  • @MaartenBuis & Roland as well I really don't think the employer would mind if after a while it turned out that she had a PhD, but has done a good job in the meantime. It seems to be a lowlevel job with few requirements, so the change that she would be outright rejected because of being overqualified is IMHO much more real than an employer being mad about something that isn't relevant for her doing her job at all. Imagine someone would seek temporary employment at a restaurant, omitting that they have a masters degree. Would anyone care if the find out - NO. – Sursula Jun 08 '21 at 10:33
  • @Sursula We don't know the country, that makes answering the question hard. I am sure that in your country you are right. However, that does not mean your are right for the country the OP is in. I can imagine many situations where this situation would be a highly problematic, and the OP's friend would suffer repercussions. It is up to the OP's friend to carefully weigh the risks in her/his community. – Maarten Buis Jun 08 '21 at 13:36
  • What does temporary mean here? An actual temporary job where both employee and employer expect it last a limited time, or taking a permanent position with the intention of ditching it ASAP? – Jack Aidley Jun 08 '21 at 15:47
  • @JackAidley the job description mentions that they are offering a temporary position of 6 months, hence both my friend and the hiring manager understand that it is a limited-time position. However, they also mention that there is a chance to extend beyond the 6 months. – Jean Diharo Jun 09 '21 at 01:18
  • Thanks everyone for your replies and joining this discussion. It seems that the answer to this question is dependent on the country and its culture. How do you find out about the hiring culture of a country? – Jean Diharo Jun 09 '21 at 01:20

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I would say it's perfectly reasonable to omit some information. I looked through hundreds of resumes and conducted dozens of interviews. Every person has a diverse set of interests and experiences and you need to mention only the relevant ones. I would say it is even helpful. To exaggerate, if you try to work as a software engineer, you don't need to mention the student summer job as a boy scout leader. As of the Ph.D. - the goal is to teach you to make the research by practicing it. If she managed to finish the Ph.d., she is definitely published some works, so, she did do some research work successfully.

If she would say she has the Ph.D. when she's not, then it's another story and would be totally unethical. But in described case everything's totally fine.

Kirill Fedyanin
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  • Thanks for your reply! I guess I did not phase my question clearly, my friend wrote her PhD under the working experience section in the resume, instead of the education section. Strictly speaking, she was not 'employed' by the university, she was a student there. Will this be fine? – Jean Diharo Jun 10 '21 at 01:43
  • See, there are two sides -- practical and legal. Legally the mileage may vary, as if she didn't formally have an assistant or researcher position, in some cases/countries it wouldn't count as a work experience. Practically, the CV is not a legal document, it's a way of communicating your previous work history to a future partner. And as the work of post-doc and good PhD student is very similar, it's a minor detail for the employer from the other fields. – Kirill Fedyanin Jun 10 '21 at 12:05
  • And as @Louic mentioned before, the PhD in many countries (i.e. Germany, Norway, Netherlands) is considered a full-time job in the first place. Bottom line -- I don't see a big problem here if your friend believe it would fit as a job experience better. – Kirill Fedyanin Jun 10 '21 at 12:05