Out of Academia: Phase 1 — Investigation

Landing a permanent research position in academia is tough. There simply aren’t enough permanent posts in academia to accommodate all the talented researchers who want one. The competition is fierce and future funding concerns will only exacerbate this issue.

Some researchers already know they want to leave academia at the end of their current contract. Some are unsure. Whilst others have their heart set on establishing a research lab of their own one day. But even if an academic career is your preferred option, dealing with the ‘what else?’ question is important, should a permanent academic job fail to materialise. 

In my opinion, early career researchers should prepare for all eventualities. There’s a real possibility that you will eventually have to forge a professional career outside of academia. The key is to be ready for that moment. The earlier you start planning, the better prepared you’ll be for when (or if) it arrives.

There are absolutely tonnes of opportunities out there for professionals with your skills. So you’ve every chance that if you prepare correctly, an exciting career lies ahead of you outside of academia.

I’m not suggesting that this transition is easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. If you employ the right approach, you can find a fulfilling new career and successfully execute the steps needed to get there.

In the last post, I outlined a 3-phase career transition process to guide you in successfully transitioning out of academia: 

  • Phase 1: Investigation – Clarify what it is you want for your next career step
  • Phase 2: Networking – Research your options and significantly shorten your job search time
  • Phase 3: Implementation – Prepare a competitive application and conduct a multi-strategy job search 

Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss each of the phases of this process in turn. Today I’ll start with the first phase; Investigation.

Phase 1: Investigation

In this first phase, you’ll discover the post-academic (post-ac) opportunities out there and crucially evaluate those best suited to your own working life.

This phase can be broken down into an 8-step process to help you clarify your next career move:

  1. Cage Confidence Gremlins

All of us have that little voice in our head that says ‘yes but…,’ when we consider something new. It’s that ancient part of your brain speaking. The one that keeps you safe from risk, but it can also hold you back.

‘Yes but…I’m too old, I only have academic experience, my knowledge of the non-academic job market is limited, I have too many family and financial commitments to start again, I don’t want to make the wrong decision, I don’t interview well, I’ll be seen as a failure, I’m scared of rejection’ etc., etc., etc. The list can be quite extensive.

Playing into this will ensure you stick to what you know – the classic academic apprenticeship model (undergrad, postgrad, postdoc, PI…). But (as outlined last time) this is not the correct path for the majority of academic researchers. The long-term practice of encouraging early career researchers through this system, despite limited permanent career options, has created a bottleneck at the postdoc stage.

Given the economic uncertainty we face going forward, many predict this problem will only worsen. Protect your own interests by taking matters into your own hands, and prepare for a post-ac career (either because you want this or in case you end up needing it).

In this day and age, most careers need to reboot from time-to-time (helpful read – The Squiggly Career). It’s perfectly accepted that professionals move from sector-to-sector, employer-to-employer, location-to-location, ditching the traditional career ladder in favour of designing their own bespoke career opportunities.

There is no harm in investigating your options. The key is to take an open-mind and just start exploring

  1. Explore Preferences

Begin with thinking about where you most enjoy spending your time in academia: 

  • Working alone: Lab work, writing, analysing data, reading, planning, having time to reflect, reviewing, administrative tasks, social media activities
  • Working with colleagues: Accessing ideas, providing ideas, brainstorming, providing encouragement, helping out on other projects, troubleshooting with others, conference organising
  • Working 1-to-1: Persuasive communication, influencing, coaching, mentoring junior lab members, individual teaching, managing others, motivating
  • Meetings: Sharing information at lab meetings, making collective decisions as a group, participating in organisational structure meetings, agenda and planning meetings
  • Networking: Making new contacts, meeting new people, conference attendance, workshop participation, attending seminars, establishing new collaborations
  • Large audience work: Public speaking, giving talks, informing larger groups, training others, lecturing, running lab classes, outreach activities, public relations

Identifying those activities you enjoy the most, will help you to understand when you’re working at your best. If you had the choice, which activities would you like to substantially increase in your working week?

Repeat the process to identify where you least enjoy spending time. Which of these activities would you like to decrease?

For me, this exercise clarified that when working alone as an academic I mostly preferred writing, reading and reflecting as oppose to lab work. When working with colleagues I really enjoyed exchanging ideas, and managing my lab group. This highlighted that roles that would enable me to spend much of my working week writing, interacting with other team members and taking on managerial responsibilities, would fit best with the way I prefer to work (I now work as a medical writer).

  1. Define Values 

I find ‘values’ is an overused term. It’s often used by organisations to describe their own behaviours (or at least their publicly perceived behaviours).

On a personal level our own values are not just statements, they’re principles by which we live out our lives on a daily basis.

A good way to identify them is to note the qualities you admire in role models you respect (e.g. ethical, encouraging, honest), and the behaviours you find unattractive in others (e.g. arrogant, judgemental, lazy).

It’s worth taking the time to clarify them in your own mind for purposes of the job search. Aligning your values with those of potential employers, will increase your chances of securing fulfilment in the workplace.

Part of your company research (see below) should include an effort to determine if employers live out their stated values in practice, or if they’re merely spin. A disconnect between your values and those of your employer can lead to undesirable workplace challenges. 

  1. Identify Skills 

Knowing your skills and articulating them well in applications is going to be your ticket to landing post-ac employment.

As academic researchers, skills connected to knowledge generation (research, data analysis etc.) are highly desirable to employers. These are the obvious transferable skills you’ve developed during your scientific work.

But think of other skills you’ve developed around imagination (identifying novel ideas to test, experimental design etc.), planning (research project management, meeting organisation etc.), growth (generating new concepts in your research field, exploring the intellectual property of your research etc.), influencing (managing a research team, persuasive communication in your research field etc.), and developing others (teaching, mentoring junior lab members etc.).

For each skill, think of a great example that can demonstrate your competence. Skills don’t transfer on their own, you need to explain the relevance of what you’ve done to a potential employer.

  1. Online assessments

Numerous free online tools can further help you in steps 2-to-4 of this process. Tools such as myIDP and ImaginePhD are particularly useful as they’re geared towards academic users. But there are plenty of others that can provide a broader perspective (e.g. MyFuture+ and O*NET). These tools will enable you explore your preferences, values and skills further.

They can also help with the next step of this process – identifying careers that are a good fit with your preferences.

  1. Generate ideas

Online assessments can provide you with some ideas, but don’t necessary limit yourself just to those.

What other careers have you heard of that have sparked an interest? Who in your network can provide ideas? Internet searches and job sites can also generate ideas – sometimes left field ones that might be worth considering. Remain open-minded for now and keep your options broad. Some of these ideas don’t necessarily need to be directly related to your scientific training.

Aim for at least 5-10 ideas, ideally more (10-20 if you can), for further exploration.

  1. Industry research

How are the industries doing for each of the ideas on your list? What are the market forecasts (difficult to know right now, but you can predict which sectors are likely to struggle in the coming months)? Who are the top players, who’s disrupting, who’s the emerging talent? This understanding will help you pivot to where jobs are likely to be in the future.

Alongside web searches, social media (in particular LinkedIn and Twitter) can be used to find this information.

Identify those industries you have a natural curiosity towards. Which of your ideas from step 6 are inspiring you to keep reading and find out more?

Once you’ve identified sectors of interest, follow thought leaders and influencers in those industries. This gives you sector insights, trends and most importantly of all, the language insiders use in those sectors. Understanding this language is crucial for the next parts of the transition process.

For example, to understand where the pharma sector is moving, I rely on a range of news sources. Sites like FiercePharma, Lifescience Leader, PharmaTimes, PharmaTech Talk and Statnews, keep me up to date with pharma and biotech trends. They help me understand what are the hot topics right now and those on the horizon.

These are written with the language my colleagues and clients use on a daily basis. This is something you’re not exposed to in academia, so you need to find it externally. This is key to generating applications that are relevant to potential employers.

  1. Informational Interviews

This step is related to step 7 of the process (industry research). Desk research will take you a long way in understanding your industries of choice, but talking to people will take you a lot further.

The concept of informational interviewing is simple:

  • Identify someone who knows something about your work sector of interest
  • Ask for a short meeting (this will likely have to be remotely for now)
  • Explain briefly why you’re interested
  • Ask about their role, organisation and the sector they work in
  • Gather the names of other people you can talk to
  • Thank them for their time and help
  • Follow-up and keep them informed on your progress

When conducting informational interviews, put the job search on hold. This is all about research and information gathering for your sector of interest.

Informational interviews are NOT about selling yourself, looking for a referral, or getting the inside scoop on jobs. In fact, it’s not about you at all. It’s about the person you’re interviewing. The aim is to gather more data about the sector you’re considering, workplace culture, industry trends, their career path, company challenges etc.

It should be low pressure for the interviewee. Make the conversation easy for them. Make it all about them. People find it effortless to talk about themselves and the work they do. If the conversation is easy, they’ll be far more inclined to pass you on to someone else to talk to.

Be sure to have an up-to-date LinkedIn page ready before reaching out. People will most likely take look at your profile before speaking to you. So, have a professional profile ready before you start any informational interviewing.

If networking is not something that comes naturally to you, hold off on this step for now (work on steps 1-7 of the investigation phase initially). I’ll be deep diving into networking next time, and getting the most out of this essential activity for successfully transitioning out of academia… 

In Summary 

  • Most academic researchers will eventually need to establish a career outside of academia 
  • The first part of the process in making a successful career transition is the ‘Investigation Phase’ 
  • The Investigation Phase can be broken down into 8 steps: 
  1. Cage confidence gremlins: Dealing with self-limiting beliefs will free you to act 
  1. Explore preferences: Establish when you’re working at your best and use this to identify careers that fit 
  1. Define values: Align your values with those of potential employers 
  1. Identify skills: Demonstrate your transferable skills with examples 
  1. Online assessments: Free online tools can help you explore steps 2-to-4 in more detail 
  1. Generate ideas: Taking an open-minded approach, list out 5-20 career ideas to research 
  1. Industry research: Identify those careers that look most promising in terms of job prospects, plus your own interests, preferences and values 
  1. Informational interviews: Conduct low-key interviews with industry insiders to learn more about working in sectors of interest

Next time: Phase 2 of the career transition process: Networking. Connect with people in an authentic manner to gradually build a support network for your career, and form relationships with people who can make a difference.

‘Til then, stay safe, stay connected and speak soon!

Vicky (BB founder)

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