What are mistakes PhD students make, which leaves them unemployed?

How can this

be avoided?

The end goal of the PhD process for most people is a series of job interviews. This confuses
some PhD students who thought the end goal was defending their dissertation.

By the third year of your PhD you should have a heart-to-heart with your advisor about
where you want to end up (and how feasible that is). You and your advisor should then
develop a plan that makes both your research and your publications interesting to the
people who might want to hire you. Targeted internships might be part of this process. And
you should definitely be networking when you attend conferences.

Religiously attend the departmental job talks. That’s going to be you in a few years, and you
might as well be profiting from the mistakes (and successes) made by those applicants.

Learn how to give an excellent job talk (and presentations in general). If that means joining
Toastmasters, do it. If that means taking acting classes in the theater department to get over
your stage fright, or vocal lessons so you’ll know you’ll be heard in the back of the room, do
it. There is lots of good advice on the internet on how to use powerpoint effectively. Don’t
just follow the rules; understand what the rules are trying to accomplish. Your talk should
not come across as “not bad for a new graduate.” Aim for “Goddam, if they’re that good,
why do they want to come here?”.

The other (much longer) part of the interview process is having face-to-face conversations
with a bunch of smart, friendly and skeptical people. You may have a dozen of these a day
for two days, all while wearing your best business casual. You need to come off as not only
competent, but as someone they’d want to work with for the next decade or so.

All of that is assuming you got the interview. Your research is what gets you to that point.
Piling up publication counts in mediocre venues doesn’t cut it. For the first four years of
your PhD, always be submitting to the best venues in your field. You’ll get a lot of rejections,
but the reviews will be invaluable.

If there is no feasible route to a job that utilizes your PhD, that’s fine. You should still be
thinking well ahead of time what your next move will be and how your current experiences
will help you get there.

Summing up: there isn’t anyone whose responsibility it is to get you your next job. It’s on
you. You can ask for help and advice, but you’re the person going to be standing in front of
the audience impressing them with what you’ve accomplished. Make sure how you treat the
rest of you PhD allows you to shine in that moment.