I've just completed my PhD as well. My research was all computational and consisted mainly of molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning. However, I did a lot of quantum chemistry work (QMC, DFT) as well and have taken QM classes — quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, density functional theory. Any other knowledge that would be relevant for quantum computing I've learned on my own (Nielsen and Chuang, etc.)

I'd really like to work for one of the quantum computing companies (Rigetti, etc.) or research groups (QuAIL), but I'm not really sure how to proceed in applying to these places given that my background isn't exactly quantum computing research. Since you have experience in this area, would you have any tips on how to apply to one of these groups? My current line of thought is to just apply directly via their websites, and if I don't hear anything back, begin contributing to the relevant Github quantum computing projects as proof of capability. Would you have any suggestions for a better approach?