PostdocTransformation show for scienctists leaping into business  

Get to know companies which hire people with a doctor title!

Episode 0036 Shownotes

Career and family, 

life hack for students at university and gradschool, 

PostdocTransformation show with 

Prof. Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels 

In this episode of the PostdocTransformation show, you're encouraged to reflect on career and family. Having invested into your bachelor, master, doctorate, postdoc and /or even professorship, it’s a life hack to consider factors like shared responsibilities, career flexibility, communication, long-term planning, and building a support network as you leap into business or industries. We also offer a free email course for your career transition and an easy opportunity to contribute to our upcoming seasons. Learn from us in a voluntary podcasting business internship to boost your PostdocTransformation.

We interviewed inspiring role models, PhD career coaches, entrepreneurs and headhunters for your PostdocTransformation, check them all out!

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! 

Invest in your PostdocTransformation

Welcome to the seasonal show for scientists leaping into business. 

In every sponsored episode, we are happy to recommend employers of choice for you. 

Make sure to check your readiness to leap out of science with us for free. 

For your career transition, we offer customized career transition e-courses and memberships, also at graduate schools all over the world. Maybe yours too. 

And if your university isn't yet our customer, enroll in your free email course for career transition made simple. 

I'm your host, Professor Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels with my team who is rooting for you. 

And let's build your PostdocTransformation with this episode.

[00:01:05] Season 3 recap and upcoming seasons

Welcome PostdocTransformers, we are wrapping up season three full of inspiring guest interviews. We had so many experts, leaders and HR representatives, entrepreneurs that helped you also inspiring your PostdocTransformation with their own experience. 

And I want you to let us know in the comments or on social media, which guest was most insightful for you? And this would make me and our guests really, really happy. And also let us know who else we should invite because we are currently preparing season four for you.

[00:01:39] Career transition and family planning

So, this solo episode is based on Nobel Prize laureate, Professor Dr. Claudia Goldin's book, "Career and Family, Women's Century Long Journey Toward Equity". 

And I add a biopsychological perspective to that.

Chances are quite high that you are a PhD student, postdoc, or even professor in the age range 25 to 35. And that's usually the time to start a family or maybe you are already a parent.

And as you leap into business, or industries after completing your PhD or postdoc, there are many external and internal factors to consider. And you can check back on episodes where we focused on the future of work and your readiness to leap out of science and your fears to tame before you leap and red flags indicating your career in academia is at risk and all that.      

And once you have determined your readiness to leap and want to transition into business or industries, then you can enroll in your free email course with 10 actionable, bingeable email lessons until you start your job in business. You'll get 10 emails like this at zero cost. 

1) How to leap out of science. 

2) How to build your sustainable LinkedIn profile. 

3) How to read social media and network. 

4) How to research your favorite jobs and employers. 

5) How to do information interviews to get insights. 

6) How to create your customized applications with ChatGPT.

7) How to prepare your thesis from a business point of view. 

8) How to apply to your favorite employers. 

9) How to choose the right job offer. 

10) How to prepare for your new job

Enroll now for free.

[00:04:26] Parenting considerations for career transition

Now, in this episode, I want you to reflect on yourself and also on your partner or your spouse, the future parent of your child or children. And as a disclaimer, maybe you don't wanna have children, that's absolutely fine. And you can stop listening now right away. But if being a parent is part of your vision of life, I kindly suggest to use this episode as a flag test with your partner before you have a child together. Why? Because a child depends on you and your partner as parents.

If you are a solo parent, that's even more on you. Bear in mind that a child hasn't asked to be born. It's the parent's responsibility to care for the kid. And here are some factors to consider. 

Hey, PostdocTransformer, are you curious to ask professors, principal investigators, visiting scientists, postdocs, PhD students, and candidates some in depth life and career guiding questions? But it feels cringe, so you end up not asking ... 

Buy our [00:05:00] PostdocTransformation Card Game to have more fun and valuable insights in your journal club, lab, and mentoring meetings, lab rotations, during conferences, panels, and breaks at the Mensa.

In the first set of 40 cards you'll get 10 intriguing mentoring questions per career level. 10 for PhD students, 10 for postdocs and 10 for professors. 

We have a second set for parents, scientists, underprivileged and underrepresented and underserved scientists. Buy the card sets with our 25 % discount code "Show" (just enter "Show" during the Shopify checkout).

[00:05:18] Shared responsibility and flexibility in career choices as needed over time

1)  Shared responsibility as needed over time

As you transition into business and industries, which is a huge challenge, recognize the importance of shared responsibilities, both at work and at home.

Collaborate with your partner to balance greedy career demands, which require a lot of traveling, a lot of being on premise, at the company, not at home. On weekends, on the evenings, etc. And balance that with family obligations, like who picks up the kid, their hobbies, and whatever. And also tutoring their schoolwork if they need help.

Ensuring that neither one of you is disproportionately burdened for a couple of years. Also, balance your own and your partner's personal time so that you remain a couple. A loving couple beyond working and parenting. 

2)  Flexibility in career choices

Approach your career transition with flexibility. While you may have invested significant time and effort in your academic path, be open to exploring diverse career opportunities that align with your skills and interests in business. Flexibility in adjusting your career trajectory is crucial. There are remote, hybrid, full versus part time, shared positions, etc But be aware that if you are the one who is flexible you always are expected to be the flexible one.

So, if one of the partners has a greedy job, then you should also bear that in mind to commit to change after a couple of years to having a greedy job as well, if you want to pursue a career as well.

[00:08:05] Communication and long-term planning

3) Open and transparent communication

Discuss your career aspirations and family planning with your partner. https: otter. ai

You know, for greedy jobs, more money, more traveling, you know, they seldomly go away one day. That's always a little bit more, so if one partner gets more and more and more, it's hard to turn around to achieve couple equity if it never had been committed to.

4) Plan for the long term

It's a marathon, really. Consider why, when, and how to start a family. How career transitions align with family goals and make strategic decisions accordingly. There is never, really there is never the perfect time to become pregnant. Have you checked your fertility?

Why? Because becoming pregnant is also sometimes beyond your control. Fertility treatments are stressful. Time consuming and cost a lot of money. And I always recommend social egg freezing to my bachelor and master women students in their 20s when their eggs are young enough to be conserved for many years.

If you are a woman at that age range, look up this term, social egg freezing. I am not a gynecologist, but I am a professor who also teaches biopsychology, and I can tell you, it really, would be worth looking up if you are young enough. So, when you do social freezing, you can afford to postpone becoming pregnant. Otherwise you postpone until you are settled in your new career in business or until you find the perfect spouse blah blah blah only to find out that your eggs aren't good anymore.

From episode one and counting, I have proudly hosted all our Postdoc Transformation Show episodes on Podbean. As a former IT strategy consultant, I have high requirements on my tech stack and Podbean is my perfect fit for a podcast host. If you want to create your own individual podcast or one for, you know, internal upskilling and communications within a company, DM or email me Podbean so I can share my experience and consult you. You can also use my affiliate links for perks, launching your own podcast with Podbean.

[00:11:32] Building Support Networks

5) Support networks

Build a strong support network. Rely on mentors, professional networks, and when necessary, extended family support to manage your career and family responsibilities effectively. 

For those of you who are international PhD students, postdocs, I know that you've been probably leaving your home country to pursue a better future. If you want to raise a family in parallel to your greedy job in academia, then you also have to consider that maybe your parents aren't there for you locally.

So, these are things that you have to consider if you are an international early career scientist.

Also from my own experience, I can only recommend to you to surround yourself with same minded people only. Do not expect empathy from humans living in a traditional couple model. You don't have time to cope with their, at best, well intended, but not helpful advice from their traditional perspectives.

And by the way, often business networking happens on the evening, so take turns to become and remain visible at the workplace. If you want a solo episode on happiness with kids in career, DM me to get this in season four. 

And again, our inspiring guests in season three and upcoming season four are also parents and successful in their careers in business or academia, and some are even thriving entrepreneurs. So, listen to all of them and let them inspire a piece of your PostdocTransformation.

[00:15:10] Invitation for listener participation

So, we are at the end of season three, and I would love to have you, PostdocTransformers, to contribute to season four as well. So, I have a PostdocTransformation show newsletter where I inform about upcoming episodes, or I lay out the planning for the next seasons so that you are able to forecast who you want to ask as well as role models, or maybe you want to ask a couple of questions certain guest that is upcoming. 

Hey, do you want to boost your PostdocTransformation and gain practical business experience? Click below to apply for a podcasting business internship with us!

And did you know that we offer deep dive e-course workshops and memberships at graduate schools? Maybe also at yours in the future. Ask your graduate school coordinator, whether they want to book my services so that I can deliver them to you 24 seven, 365 on your mobile device. 

And even better, if you get us paid by your grad school, we will pay you 50 percent recurring sales commissions.

So, you will earn money with us as we help you and your PhD besties to [00:05:00] transition into business. We can build our PostdocTransformation together.

And now it's time to thank Company ABC who sponsors this episode of the PostdocTransformation Show. I will now be reading the company's answers to one of six bold [00:10:00] questions so that you can choose to apply. For example, number one, describe your most valuable experts versus leaders in your company.

Have they typically earned a doctor title? Number two, for whichever company roles or units do you encourage somebody with a doctor title to apply? Number three, how would you describe your organizational culture in which your most valuable experts and leaders thrive in? To nominate an employer of choice so that we can ask our own formative bold questions let us know via the click on the link.

If you are a company representative like in recruiting and employer branding. And now you want your company to be highlighted as an employer of choice for our audience. You can become a sponsor of a dedicated PostdocTansformation show episode. Just click the picture below and now back to the episode.    

If you are a or will become a service provider and you like what you see, we happily use ActiveCampaign for our website, forms and emails, as we can integrate it easily with our tech stack. We earn a small commision, if you become a paying customer. 

If you want to capitalize on your teaching skills and earn via your own e-courses, here's 1 month free on Thinkific, the platform we happily use (and integrate with ActiveCampaign).       

This PostdocTransformation show was brought to you by Prof. Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels

Have you ever wondered how to make your grad school stand out in the crowded landscape of academia? Do you aim to attract the best bachelor & master students from all over the world to learn from and work with your professors so that your research remains globally recognized and well funded? Do you wish to repel bad applications which aren't tailored towards your grad school's research [00:31:00] profile?

Now, let's talk about a powerful branding tool, podcasts. They're a game changer for higher education institutions. As a professor, active on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and a podcast host and producer of this postdoc transformation show, I'm here to encourage all the graduate school representatives to think beyond the conventional marketing mechanism.

Instead of being one of many vendors. At a time limited grad school fair, why not create a podcast that showcases your grad school as the ultimate destination for the world's best masters students share inspiring and encouraging stories of your top PhD students, high profile alumni, Thanks Your faculty and the incredible opportunities your grad school offers a podcast can be a window into your school's vibrant community.

It's cutting edge research and unique experiences. And in times of AI generated marketing material, a podcast with your [00:32:00] academic leaders. in real life is a very human and innovative way to attract prospective PhD students. You can inform them every day, everywhere, not just during the typical grad school application seasons.

This would prepare your best candidates for the application. Even better, you can support and make your current PhD students and postdocs visible for their next career steps in academia or business. Remember, successful graduates elevate your grad school's reputation. So, if you are a university chancellor, grad school dean, speaker, Consider this.

By launching a podcast for your grad school, you can elevate your grad school's brand and tell aspiring scientists and employers what makes your grad school the best choice with scalable, evergreen content. If you're interested, Forward this to your marketing representative and get our list of [00:33:00] 30 sample episode titles customizable for your grad school podcast.

As a seasoned professor and podcaster, I'm also happy to strategize about how you can launch your grad school podcast on Podbean, the podcast hosting platform we use for the PostdocTransformation Show supporting scientists leaping into business. 

For more information, click on the picture "Become a grad school of choice" below.

Thank you for reading our full transcript of this episode. 

For season 3 & 4 of the PostdocTransformation show, we will interview industry experts, leaders in the corporate world, but also companies serving early career scientists leaping into business. 

If you want to let us know who we should interview and bring into the show, please follow us on socials and also let us know via direct message. This way, you will also have a voice in our PostdocTransformation show. 

If you value our show, please share your favorite episodes with your PhD besties, share with us your career transition questions and suggest topics for future episodes. 

We also appreciate positive reviews and stories on all social platforms. 

Why? 

Because this show is for free, but we need sponsors to bring the show to you. So, please help us to help you on your PostdocTransformation.

All right, 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.

Please ask away your career transition questions (connect with Eleonore on your preferred social), as we aim to create future episodes for our audience. We appreciate every one of you!

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! 

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