The Alumni Talks – PhD Edition took place last Wednesday, June 16, in virtual format. The event was organised by TT@Técnico, in collaboration with Técnico PhD Student Club and with the support of Santander Universities. The PhD students had the opportunity to meet 3 alumni, to learn more about their professional paths and future opportunities.

This special edition was attended by the Physics alumna Lígia Amorim (Postdoctoral Scholar at Berkeley Lab), the Engineering and Management alumnus Francisco Silva Pinto (Researcher & Consultant in Engineering and Management) and the Information Security alumnus Renato Matias da Silva (Head of Advanced Analytics at Banco Santander), who didn’t finished his PhD.

The importance of having work experience in industry – namely through internships – during the PhD, how and when to approach the market, the differences between working in the business world or in academia, which skills are essential to do research in highly specialised teams, and what is the PhD graduate starting salary, were some of the topics covered during the session.

Three different paths that helped to clarify the participants’ doubts

“Actually, I’m an outlier because I started a PhD in information security, but I didn’t finish it. That’s why I don’t have a PhD degree”, said Renato Matias da Silva. According to the Técnico alumnus, at Santander, the time spent doing a PhD and a post-doc and the experience that results from that are taken into account and reflects in job opportunities offered by the bank. “Nowadays, I think that the organisations have greater openness to PhD holders. When I started my PhD, I felt that there was almost no connection between the academic world and the business world”, he stressed.

Lígia Amorim’s speech focused on research and challenges of working across borders. “If you want to pursue a career outside academia, you should align your research work with the company’s goals. Many skills we develop during a PhD are important to companies”, she said. The Técnico alumna believes that the main difference between the work she developed during her PhD and her current work, was, in fact, self-confidence and determination: “the main difference is that now I trust myself a little more”. “I think that one of the advantages of staying in academia is that we always have to learn new things, build new things”.

Francisco Silva Pinto highlighted the importance of Doctoral Students on the University-Industry Interface. “This was very important to me, because it allowed me to realise that there is a significant gap between the business world and the academic world, and if you walk on both sides you can build a bridge”.

The Vice president of Técnico for Operations and Enterprise Relationships, professor Pedro Amaral, closed the event and highlighted the relevance of this event in Técnico’s strategy, which aims to give greater emphasis to doctoral students’ employability. The professor recalled that these students “have been in contact with a high level of knowledge” and that it’s important to pass on this knowledge to companies and to the economy.