Learn the basics for a career transition from research into business &
get to know companies which hire people with a doctor title!
Episode 0011 Shownotes
The best reasons to come back to academia after you have thrived in business
In this episode you'll learn why and how you could boomerang back to academia, by becoming a professor at an applied university based on your valuable experience in the corporate world or as an entrepreneur.
Here's a throwback to 2008. When I left academia after my PhD in neuroscience, and regarding my personal reasons you can go back to the episode 0002, where I share how I capitalized on my PhD as a mom, a professor and a business owner. I remember vividly how I was grieving and how my mind was occupied with my near future because I chose to leap out of science and into business.
Above all, I was anxious to give up my identity as a scientist, and maybe you are now at a similar junction, where you can decide whether you want to stay in academia and go for a professorship or whether you say no, you will leave academia, just like me 2008.
So, stay with me, because I will share with you something that my mentor had also shared with me, and I was not able to digest. So, save this episode for when you will need it later.
There is also another type of audience for this episode and that is someone who is from my business community, contemplating about coming back to academia. And I can tell you, I understand this. I was you: I left academia. I was successful in business. And yes, I longed to become a professor, that was something that I had started and had not finished by leaping into business, and I wanted to finish that.
So, in 2013, I started lecturing at an applied university, to gain back that feeling of teaching young and curious minds, the ones who want to change the future, who want to contribute to a better future.
So hopefully, this episode will give you a new perspective and some ammunition for your own reflections on whether you want to return to academia or not.
So, usually, the way back to university is complicated without continued research experience. So, unless you've done industry research that has a relevance for the academic setting at a university, on a scientific scale regarding academic peer/reviewed publishing you are probably not competitive anymore.
Instead, your successful business experience qualifies you for a professorship at an applied university. And I don't know about you, but maybe you have some misconceptions about university versus an applied university. I urge you to rethink it from a more thorough perspective, because both university types have their own validation and their own reasons depending on the type of students they tend to attract and the graduates they want to develop for whatever reason.
1) Your POV
So, what is your why? Why do you want to leave your current job, your professional experience and identity? Why do you want to leap again, but now this time back into academia? Is it that you want to finish what you started? I mean, did you always want to become a professor?
And you want to know whether you have what it takes to become a professor? Do you have a realistic picture of the work as a professor?
Do you want to give back to the future generations, and share your own experience and your lessons so that the next generations don't have to go through through your mistakes?
What will you win with a professorship? Do you want to gain status ? Gain intellectual freedom? More sovereignty about your time or what is it that you want to win?
Conversely, what will or can you lose by becoming a professor? Remember, whatever you have established in your professional life might become less available for you.
To work as a professor at an applied university is quite controllable and combinable with other activities of your life.
So, once you have established which modules you want to teach based on your professional and academic expertise, then you will see how many students you will have and then you already know how many exams you will have to prepare for which dates and how many of exams you will have to grade.
In the episode, I mentioned colloquia as the final exam, but while I am editing this text, I realize, this is negligible in the process of contemplating about coming back or not. If the applied university means well, you wouldn’t have to supervise bachelor and master students in their final steps from your day one, because you should build a relationship with them first during your lectures.
So, everything is quite controllable or forecastable per semester, and then you always have the semester breaks which aren't really a break because then you also have to grade and to prepare the next semester. But essentially, with a bit routine, you will be having a controllable workload, which you can easily prepare and handle.
One caveat is, it's very easy to sound like a broken record. So, how can you curate fresh ideas to your students, and how can you yourself be inspired for a fresh didactic approach. Essentially, it's a purpose driven job.
It usually has a family friendly schedule, as the semester unfolds in parallel to schools. And depending on the university, you will probably have daytime, vs. nighttime or even weekend modules. So, it's quite easy to pick and choose modules that will fit to your own family schedule.
Hey, do you want me to share my stage with you? Be a guest in our weekly PostdocTransformation show!
If relevant for my bachelor and master students in real life (industrial & occupational psychology), share your expertise in one of my online lectures (email me)!
This will help you to voice your serious interest to boomerang back to academia!
Imagine how you would apply to an applied university with a link to your own episode sharing your professional knowledge & experience in a practice-oriented style! Talking about outstanding, LOL.
2) The POV of your future students
Now let's talk about the point of view of your future students. I have to say that they're probably not able to choose you. But you should think about them as your ideal customer avatar. You need to think about what you can bring to their table.
Obviously what makes you attractive in their eyes is your practical experience. You can and should be a role model for their social learning, because they usually lack the practical experience or they do have practical experience but they want to learn at the applied university to make things better than they have currently experienced in their day jobs.
Speaking of their day jobs, they're also interested in your business connections or industry network. They're interested in gaining access to better jobs. Then you will be highly valuable for your future students.
You always have to ask yourself, do you know, what your future students need? Are you able and willing to relate to them to inspire and to lead them into their future of work and life? They need and deserve a diverse faculty that represents them, because what they see they can also be.
How do you know who your potential students are? Well, that depends on the point of view of a university of applied science.
3) The POV of the applied university
Well, they need professionally experienced faculty members who are intrinsically motivated. They want to attract faculty members who stay for a longer term as they plan two semesters ahead, despite the fact that probably the salary is less compared to similar jobs in the corporate world. If you have been successful in business and have enough money, then you can afford to pursue your intrinsic motivation. While salary is usually subject to negotiation, applied universities don't have the budget to really be competitive for you.
But instead, most of my colleagues have an ancillary activity permit, which you need to negotiate before you sign the contract. So, most of us have a side hustle to compensate the financial losses as compared to our salaries in the corporate world.
The requirements for an aspiring professor are quite high. So, they usually have to hold a PhD and they have to be successful in the business world, be it employed as an expert, leader or bing an entrepreneur or small business owner.
And while definition of successful varies, they need to have shareable and share worthy experience. They also need to integrate within the faculty. And what does it mean? Well, applied universities want high quality teaching abilities. And that teaching ability needs to be practice oriented. So, not so much academic and theory driven, but instead it should be professionally supportive, with the goal of educating students bachelor and also master students for their professional work life. Definitely not so much for a scientific career towards a PhD. From my experience as someone who has served on the committee to appoint new professors, lecturers who are a bad fit, tend to fail delivering compelling, inspiring educational lectures. They aren't able to pick up the students where they are and guide them where they want to go in their professional day to day jobs. The students of an applied university need to apply the lecture content to their professional challenges. And that's why it's so important that the faculty themselves have relevant experience and skills of the future of work, see also episode 0004.
And what I see also nowadays, is a change in the requirements of new professors at applied universities. That is something you know, we need to be able to deliver our messages online as well. So, yes, we still need to be someone who's inspiring, who's a thought leader in the classroom, but we also need to be able to convey that message online in a zoom conference in a video conference, WebEx or whatever it is. So, we have to be able to lead in breakout sessions or whatever. We need to be able to utilize gamification, because online attention is different and hard to sustain. And the behavior of students is also different. And we're talking here about lecture durations of two or three more hours, so to speak, and that's hard for classrooms that are you know, as big as in the hundreds. So, that's not a monologue, but instead you have to be able to capture their attention and to guide them for the course of your module so they can prepare for your exam.
So, taken together, the best reasons to come back to academia after your have thrived in business, are quite individual and need to be a win for all parties. You need to start from your own point of view. And then if you are clear that you want to boomerang back to academia, then you need to know what your boundaries are, what you are able and want to give to your future students, and then you need to find a nearby university that will accommodate this to your needs.
Because remember, you will leave money on the table most probably. So, make sure that you negotiate a package that will make you happy in the long run. And it's probably the case when money is not your incentive anymore, because you have established yourself in business. Maybe you have already paid your dues. And now it's more like you can do whatever you want. picking up the unfinished slack that you left academia. And that's a whole different mindset!
So, remember when you were a PhD, or a postdoc, even you probably had the feeling of being subjected to whatever the university would be offering to you and you would have to be thankful. But instead, now it's a different story altogether. These applied universities want and need you for their students. Their students will be grateful for everything that you will offer. You now can choose what to give at your own terms.
All right, this was a short episode and if you do have more questions, make sure to email me because I also coach individual aspiring professors. I don't have this service on my website because it's very individually driven in how I can support you.
But I have years of experience as a professor at an applied University. So, I was appointed in 2014 when I was practically in my seventh month with my first child, and at the same time, I negotiated this contract so that I can have my own business since then.
So, if you don’t need my services, I wish you nevertheless all the right reasons for you to boomerang back to academia after you have thrived in business. This is also a part of your PostdocTransformation. So, remember, you will manage your PostdocTransformation, if you invest strategically into your doctorate according to your vision of life.
And that also extends to you investing into your business and professional experience according to your vision of life.
Because if you are very strategic with that, you can also check out the minimal required years of business experience that you need to become appointed as a professor at an applied university. And once you have reached that, then you can apply to become a professor at a very young age. And then you don't have to waste a lot of years in business, if your plan was to become a professor at an applied university anyway.
Thanks for listening,
Eleonore & Team PostdocTransformation
PostdocTransformation Show mug (buy 1 or get 3 for FREE)
Yeah, you are a grateful listener of our PostdocTransformer Show!
Do you want to support us in our mission to support underserved, underrepresented and underprivileged early career scientists in leaping into business?
Well, then get 3 mugs for free (we cover the costs and shipping), and you place them at your grad school and/or lab kitchen for your PhD peers. Just enter "3mugs" and "freeshipping" and you'll get a 100% discount. Thank you for investing your time into our PostdocTransformation!
