Transitioning from a Vanderbilt PhD student directly to industry can feel like trying to understand a black box that just does not respond to anything. It is a long process of framing your academic experience for industry and looking for roles that you fit into, only to apply to jobs with little-to-no feedback on whether you “got it right”. Then, even after you get a job, it may be a confusing whirlwind of figuring out how to actually apply your skills from grad school to an industry environment that is often changing rapidly. I’ll speak on my experience in landing my first job in industry and navigating how to apply my skills from academia to a new landscape. There isn’t a sure-fire way to succeed in this transition (and I don’t really know if I have “succeeded”!). However, having some insight into the often mysterious process and what it is like in industry may be helpful in guiding your decisions now as a student and later if you decide to make this jump.