Research is the core part of a PhD: it’s what you’ll be training to do, it’s what you’ll be doing, and it’s what you’ll need to do in order to end up with a successful thesis. You’re going to become very, very good at it.
The problem is, research is so central to the academic focus of a PhD that it’s easy to assume these skills aren’t transferrable.
After all, research is what scholars and students do in the laboratory, or the library, isn’t it?
Other people don’t sit for hours, meticulously setting up experiments and trying not to spill their coffee in the petri dishes, do they?
Other people don’t pore over the shelves in the dusty recesses of a library, trying not to spill their coffee on books no one else has heard of, do they?
And other people don’t drink that much coffee, do they?
You’d probably be surprised about the coffee, but it’s true to say that the majority of jobs don’t involve substantial amounts of time spent in laboratories and libraries, thinking deep thoughts. Unless you’re a lab technician, or a librarian, perhaps.
This misses the point though.
Research is about taking on a question that needs to be answered, identifying the information that might be needed to answer that question, choosing the best methodology to gather and analyse that information, and having the ability to present your results usefully and effectively to an appropriate audience.
These aren’t necessarily academic skills and it isn’t just academics who use them.
Putting together a business plan requires research skills. Designing and developing a new product requires research skills. Deciding upon political and social policy requires research skills. Identifying new markets and audiences requires research skills. Writing for a website like this requires research skills.
Your doctorate is going to provide you with excellent transferable research skills.