Ideal contents of a reference letter for PhDs seeking industry jobs The majority of PhD holders do not stay on in academia, but rather move on to jobs in industry far away from the area of their PhDs. Given that the content of the PhD is not directly relevant (the common wisdom is that a PhD holder has &quot;learned how to learn&quot;), what should one include in reference letters for an academic applying for industry jobs? What qualities are those in industry looking for? Does the answer vary for newly minted PhDs vs more experienced researchers?
There are a lot of examples of recomendation letters in Internet for both, industry and academia. So, you can take any of them and present your skills and experience in the corresponding way.