Learn the basics for a career transition from research into business &
get to know companies which hire people with a doctor title!
Episode 0020 Shownotes
Strategies for doing a PhD
Embarking on your PhDjourney? These are must-known strategies for doing your PhD: Identifying personal interests and goals, navigating with academia vs. business in mind, expanding your opportunities, prioritizing your health, informed decision-making.
Listen to Prof. Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels as she shares actionable tips for your PostdocTransformation.
Subscribe to our weekly show on your favorite podcast platforms: Why? Postdoc scientists & PhD students / candidates will learn the basics for their career transition from research into business & industries AND will get to know a company that hires early career scientists!
Enroll in your free email course for your career transition into business! Especially emails no 2 & 3 focus on creating a LinkedIn profile and using LinkedIn to network for your career transition!
Begin your PhD like a pro!
Is this you? "How do I strategize about a PhD?" Well, chances are you are [00:01:00] not because I see a lot of PhD students who start into the PhD and you know, just go with the flow. And then at the end of the PhD, don't know where to go, whether they want to stay in academia or whether they wanna go into industries or you know, who, who weren't, you know, observant or strategic.
From the get go and with this episode, I want to change that.
Before we dive in, if you're new to us, welcome to this show. We have a lot of free career transition resources on our website, and that is an example of the instant check of your readiness to leap into business or your free email course career transition into [00:02:00] business. So either way, check them out on our website and now let's dive into this show.
So, for me it is always a little bit of a miracle because I'm a very strategic person, but I learned that this is not the most familiar way for people who start a PhD, right? So because it's probably more scholastic when you do a bachelor and a master, then you probably have more handholding, and this is totally different to a PhD, right?
Conducting a PhD expects you to be in the driver's seat that you own your own research projects, that you decide whether that you go on, you want to go this way or this way. Whether you want to, say yes to side projects or whatever. And these side projects, they can always be nice exciting and interesting, but they can also be tearing you away from your [00:03:00] goals. And if you don't have a goal, if you don't have a strategic goal, then it's easy to say yes to a lot of things that will distract you or whatever. So, this is when you end up needing another year and prolonging the PhD or settling with less of your research results because you simply had used a lot of time for doing other projects not related to your research goals, for example.
So, I think strategy is really imminent, I know a lot of you have DMed me as bachelor students, master' students who are interested in planning the career. So a lot of you do this, but I see in reality a lot of my clients that might be biased obviously, but a lot of my clients weren't aware that they should have been more strategic from the get go, and this is the episode that hopefully will change that.
Identifying personal interests and goals
You have to identify your personal interests and goals currently, so not just once at the beginning of the PhD. Hopefully at least then, but you have to do this recurrently, for example, every year or so, in the middle at least of the PhD, you need to think about your personal interests and your goals in the sense of what do you wanna achieve in your life?
What is your vision of life? Do you see yourself in different cities, hopping from different cities in different countries, raising kids, far away from your family or whatever. So whatever that is, if maybe there aren't kids involved in your vision of life, or maybe you say, yeah, we are Globetrotters anyway, and it doesn't matter to you. Right? So you need to think about, is academia the place for you to work for life, or is it something where you say, [00:05:00] Hmm, it's enough for a couple of years, and then I wanna have a bigger box?
So, because a bigger box will be definitely in business, you'll have more opportunities and you'll have more safety nets. I mean, within academia you'll see it's an ivory tower. There's only one way up, and the air is getting thinner and thinner. People will drop out because there aren't many professor positions and the chances to get that are relatively slim . And that's why you need to become aware of your chances and opportunities on both sides of the decision making process, right? So if you wanna dig deeper into that, especially great if you are still at the beginning of the PhD.
Maybe you should also listen to episode number seven, reasons to stay in academia versus, episode number eight, reasons to leap into business, right? So, maybe you have some inspiration there.
Navigating with academia in mind
All [00:06:00] right, Number two, a, a like academia. So navigating the PhD journey with academia in mind, right?
So if you think that academia is great for you, then you need to understand the name of the game in academia. So, as of now, you need to, you need to publish a lot, right? So you need to publish in comparable and competitive pace and also productivity as in your discipline, right? It differs across disciplines, but check that: the name of the game in your discipline.
All right, so then you should also network and not only network within your peers in your graduate school, but also with postdocs or professors that are related to your research, that can be offline and online, so you need to check them out and find them and learn from them, get mentorship from them at conferences, at venues where [00:07:00] scientists meet and greet. Right.
So, the other point is also teaching. I would say that if you wanna stay there, one of the things that will help you to have a leg in academia is teaching.
It's not necessarily the best leg for a scientist because teaching takes a lot of time away from your research and your PhD years and the postdoc years especially are the years where you should double down on research. And that often, lets you think that teaching is maybe not the best time investment, but I can guarantee you this will hone your leadership skills, right? So, this is really important also in becoming a professor (curious to learn, what your future students would be grateful for? Listen to "The best reasons to come back to academia").
Navigating with business in mind
Next one up is two B. So two business, right? So, exploring business related opportunities is something that you should also keep in mind, especially if you're doing the PhD just to increase your job market chances.
And I would do a question mark on there. But if you pursue the PhD for that reason, then you have to build transferable skills for business companies. And it's maybe hard to say, yeah, in three years I want to apply to that company. But at least you should think of industries, right? So think today about the future of work. Think about the industries that are relevant for you, and try to bridge that already with finding industry collaborations or asking industry partners to give you an [00:11:00] internship within your PhD. You could do a sabbatical or whatever so that you can use a bit of your time within the PhD to get a foot into the door of industry, get a foot in the door of companies, right? Okay, so if you think, what are my transferable skills, what should I build and what are transferable skills that are relevant for these industries in the future of work, then you should also listen to another episode of mine, which is episode number one, how to leap into business, and the other one is number four the future of work for new PhD holders in business.
All right, so regardless whether you will do two A for academia or two B for business, you should also consider spending a couple of months in a different country for your research, for your teaching or your industry [00:12:00] collaboration.
Expanding your opportunities
And you should also network towards that from the get go, right? So, maybe you can do this in your second, your third year, preferably second year, because the first year is probably filled with coursework for your PhD. The second year is probably the year where, where you can expand this phase as well. And the last year is usually wrapping up, publishing, writing the thesis and stuff like that. So that's kind of hard to go abroad and stay there with a calm and collective mind. Right? So that's why I'm saying this is great for the middle part of a PhD.
And um, yeah, I did this [00:13:00] as well, so I stayed for a couple of months in Manchester, UK in the middle of my PhD, and I was quite strategic. Like I said, I'm a strategic person, but I made one mistake. I was quite strategic and I said I will become a professor, and I did everything I could within my control, but, Academia is nothing that you can control.
You will always have gatekeepers on the tenure track that will maybe play unfair, so to speak. So, you should always have a safety net, right? So the safety net is like you concentrate on your academic career, but you still have some options in business or the other way around. You are concentrating on doing your PhD towards a business career transition, but you still do a decent academically respected PhD. [00:14:00] So, if you ever want to go back, you can. Okay, these are the two differences. I wouldn't say it's either way, but instead it's like a 70, 30 percentage of weighting the PhD efforts according to your vision of life.
Prioritizing your health
Number four. I always see some PhD students who are working and hustling a lot, and I get the, the impression that they are working for principal investigators or professors who are also workaholics, and that's absolutely not necessary.
Okay, so you can become a professor and don't have to work your odds off, right? You can become a professor without being an workaholic, right? So, take care of yourself. The PhD years is like up to seven years and you can't do this as a workaholic.
So, okay, [00:15:00] maybe you are young enough, but your younger years in your life, you should use to , explore things, make friends, that you can't do if you are just in the lab or at university lecturing or whatever. You need to rest to perform at your best. So, academia is quite competitive and if you don't rest, you will deteriorate in the long run. And that's as a psychologist, something that I don't want you to do that because a burnout is not a badge of honor. it is just stupid to do this. A PhD, especially if it's in your younger years, should be used for your personal, but also for your professional development.
Without being healthy, you won't achieve anything. Right? So that's why I'm begging you to focus also on your health. Take care of yourself.
Informed decision-making
Now number five, which is also the closing point of this one.
It's an informed and recurrent decision making process. Okay, so let's dissect that. You need to inform yourself. Don't believe everything that people will tell you. A professor who has always stayed in academia has no idea how it is outside of academia. That goes without saying so don't believe what they say.
About, you know, misconceptions, well, maybe that aren't even aware that they are misconceptions or beliefs cliches or whatever, [00:17:00] don't take their word. Instead, find role models who went outside of academia and maybe are open to share their experience, right? So inform yourself.
Then you should also stress the recurrence of the decision making process. Okay, so do this every couple of years, like every two years or so, because it's important to acknowledge that you can also change throughout the process. In that journey, you will maybe see things that will make you aware that your decision before that one year ago, two years ago, wasn't the right thing for you in the future.
And that's totally okay, right? So you need to be open to change directions, but it should be a conscious, it should be an informed decision making of yours. Right. [00:18:00] You need to own your PostdocTransformation. No one else will. Okay? So not your professor, not your principal investigator, not your postdoc, not your parents, not your partner, not your husband, not your wife.
No one, no one will own that. If you don't own that, you'll be lost or guided to wherever. It might be enjoyable, but it doesn't have to be, and that's why you should own it.
And the last thing I wanna share with you is invest into your doctorate according to your vision of life. Yes, building transferable skills might be off the tangent, but maybe they will pay off later in your future. And that's why it's also to, it's also time to learn new things, new coding languages, new setups, whatever it is. So, try to work [00:20:00] interdisciplinary and see beyond the borders of your own research and these are things that will probably help you in the long run.
All right, so thanks for listening and I hope that you will watch our show and also listen to our show for the next episodes. And like I said, go back to the previous episodes. I think they have valuable insights for you, especially if you are a PhD student in your first year.
Until the next episode,
Cheers,
Eleonore & Team PostdocTransformation
Enroll in your free email course for your career transition into business! Especially emails no 2 & 3 focus on creating a LinkedIn profile and using LinkedIn to network for your career transition!
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!
