PostdocTransformation show for scienctists leaping into business
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Episode 0038 Shownotes
In this PostdocTransformation Show episode, Dr. Tina Persson shares her coaching expertise on leadership and self-awareness for scientists transitioning into the business world. Gain insights on personal development, the challenges of academia to industry shift, and the importance of adaptability in a fast-changing job market.
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[00:01:05] Meet Dr. Tina Persson: A Role Model for Postdoc Transformers
Eleonore: If you are a PostdocTransformer with people leadership aspirations, you are in for a treat in this PostdocTransformation show episode. I have the honor to interview one of my role models Dr. Tina Persson. And she is a global executive coach helping senior leaders, C level executives, and high potential leaders to achieve their goals. She is also a sought after speaker at international venues And she'll talk about that later for her expert leadership and team coaching. She is also adept at empowering researchers to pave their way to a smooth transition from the academic world to a fulfilling business driven career.
And this is why she really is a role model for many of us. But she has already moved on. She is not only the creator of two podcasts, the PhD career coaching podcast, and also the PhD career stories, which are linked in the show notes, but she's also now doing something else. And that is really inspirational for all of us.
So, I believe that she'll be talking about also upskilling. Future skills and adaptability. So without further ado, welcome to the stage. Welcome to the PostdocTransformation show. Dr. Tina Persson.
Dr. Tina Persson: Thank you so much for this absolutely wonderful introduction. I feel really, really flattered here by you, Eleonore. And thank you also for sharing with me that I'm sort of a role model that was very, very lovely of you.
Her bio:
Dr. Tina Persson is a visionary coach with a multifaceted background from both the university and the corporate world. She holds an ICF PCC certification as an Executive, Career & Leadership Coach, specializing in female leadership, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. These skills have played a crucial role in shaping her educational and coaching business.
Additionally, Dr. Persson is a highly sought-after speaker, frequently facilitating workshops and seminars for senior leaders, c-level executives, and high-potential individuals to help them achieve their goals. She is also an expert in leadership and team coaching facilitation.
Having spent nearly two decades in academia, Tina transitioned to the staffing industry, where she gained eight years of expertise as a Recruiter and Talent Sourcer. Leveraging her diverse experience, she empowers researchers to transition smoothly from academia to rewarding business-driven careers. Her guidance has helped hundreds of researchers worldwide launch their new careers successfully.
As a successful businesswoman with an unwavering entrepreneurial spirit, she proudly serves as the Founder of Passage2Pro AB and Aptahem AB, a biotech start-up featured in over 20 scientific publications. Furthermore, Dr. Persson is the inventor of 2 scientific patents and hosts the popular PhD Career Stories podcast. You can find this passionate professional working out at the CrossFit Gym when she isn't coaching.
[00:02:34] The Journey from Academia to Industry: Tina's Story
Dr. Tina Persson: And of course, it warms my heart because, 15 years ago that then I transitioned from assistant professor to the corporate world.
And it was far beyond an easy transition at the time being. I indeed went from assistant professor to a recruiter and head hunter, and I believe I was one of the first PhDs in my country in Sweden doing that sort of pivoting fairly steep pivoting because it is indeed a transformation of 180 degrees going from academia, governmental and to the corporate business oriented, basically selling people.
So, thank you a lot. It really warms my heart, I'm happy to be on your podcast and share what I have learned and whatever you'd like to learn from me. Thank you.
Eleonore: Absolutely our pleasure.
[00:03:25] Leadership and Self-Awareness: Key to Success in Business
Eleonore: So, I want to ask you about leadership. For an individual with big ambitions, good leadership is key to succeed in an organization. So, would you agree that leadership begins with the individual and then invites the people or is that another way to look at it? What do you think?
Dr. Tina Persson: Leadership must start with yourself. It's very difficult to lead people if you don't know how to lead yourself. I would put it this way, that what we train, if you now talk and focus a bit on the academic environment, what you're training in academia is a lot working with your own project, then we cross collaborate internationally, but we're still very focused on our own job because in the end we need to publish.
We need to create these results. That is good for my individualistic career. And you're also trying a lot of technical skills, so you measure yourself by the amount of articles that you publish. And we sort of in academia define ourselves with the amount of articles and citations. And then we show off on the stage.
Yeah. Then you go to the other side. And I usually tell my clients that you can have the best technical skills in the world. If you are not a people person in the sense that people like to work with you, that people don't refer you. and they don't want to have you in the team and you can't communicate efficiently, which I call feedback or take feedback with your manager, you will not be successful.
And it's very difficult in that situation to lead other people. So yes, you need to develop very quickly some sort of people skill and self awareness. And to that, and I will come back to that, I will define it with three things. We have an IQ defining our ability, then we have emotional intelligence, our ability to build social relationships, how social we are and then how we manage ourself. When I'm stressed, when I'm irritated, when I have, let's say, I'm not very resilient, how I react to negative emotions and setbacks, that's part of resilience. And that is part of emotional intelligence.
This you need to develop.
[00:05:49] Adaptability and Team Dynamics in the Corporate World
Dr. Tina Persson: But now, In this very fast changing world driven by AI, organizations, they change so fast. So now you also need to develop your AQ, which is adaptability. And we can come closer into what is adaptability. So yes, a postdoc, a person that's trained in academia need to put on more levels and technical skills to be successful.
Whether that is to become a future leader, manager, because leader and management goes hand in hand, or career pivoting for growing in your career.
[00:06:32] The Journey from Academia to Business: Insights and Advice
Eleonore: That's great, Tina, you have touched base with a lot of buzzwords that I really do think that are important these days. And in last episode, I also talked about resilience with Dr. Rima Dey. So, that really goes hand in hand with that episode that you are presenting. What do you think are some questions to raise more self awareness? Because that was one of the things that you mentioned that before we can lead others, we have to be self aware. So, do you think that academia is the best place to learn more about oneself, or do you think that scientists leaping into business should also find other places where they can hone those skills to become a better leader for the business place in the future.
Dr. Tina Persson: You said something really good here and I love to hear that because this is a reason with my podcast because I had a mission and vision with a podcast PhD career stories, I could have started that podcast myself and just be a host, you know, blah, blah, blah. But I wanted to have a team. And the idea behind having a volunteering team was that they train team building. In this team, they are introduced to different sorts of communication tools, how to store things, how to work, how to communicate, how to support each other, you know, work as a team, which means it is the team is one unit and they take collective responsibility over producing the podcasts. And I am not involved.
A group is individuals working together, but they don't take collective responsibility. And to transform this with a team took one to two years, because in the beginning they individually came to me and asked for help. And I always said, don't come to me, ask the team. So yes, I would say if you are sitting in academia today, I don't believe the academic environment is the best place to try and self awareness because it's not important there.
And now I'm going to say something that you can read. And I talked with a professor about this and we, we actually had a lot of fun because I can reflect back on myself. I can take myself as a very good example. I will storytell a little bit about it, but if you can be in academia, you read a lot of books about leadership.
You read a lot of books about emotional intelligence. You know, everything. But that's procrastination. You know the theory, but you don't apply it to yourself. Because in order to apply it, you have to be in an environment where you actually can train. So you can't just read and then you understand. It gives us all some sort of awareness of the, you know, what it is really on a theoretical level, but you have to start to apply it.
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Dr. Tina Persson: And I just say following that when I worked in academia, I was sort of a different person from what I am today because I was in my stress sort of Tina. I was a stressed Tina. So I was like, you know, always reacting, very reactive behavior, defending my opinions. And I couldn't really take in other people's opinions.
And I was frustrated and a little bit angry. And I was reading a lot of books. Thanks. But I didn't change because I needed tough feedback from industry, from managers and leaders in industry telling me that Tina, you are not very nice to work with. And honestly, the colleagues are complaining here because you are sitting isolated.
You need to learn to communicate. And do you know what? I'm going to share something very embarrassing here. When the manager told me that you need to communicate better, I didn't understand because I thought I was communicating because I was communicating as in academia. But in the corporate, communicating is giving and taking and asking for help.
Actually spontaneously take charge and responsibility over things and discuss with the people, is this something you're interested in? So I actually work on things that the team has agreed on is important, but I didn't understand that. very Because I was so unrealistic, so I couldn't see the bigger picture of where I am in the organization, my role as a professional in the organization.
And that is part of emotional intelligence to understand that. And this is what happened when I get clients and they have got the first job in the corporate. And then they call me as a Tina, something wrong with this job. I don't know. Yeah. And I listen carefully and I say, yeah, right now they are in this moment.
We need to develop self awareness that it's up to them to change. And that's a hard lesson to tie. But the good thing is it's coachable. You can train it. If you're open minded and if you are coachable, yeah, you need to be coachable and to be coachable Eleanor means you must be able to take feedback from your coach.
You must be able to listen to me when I say, and I give you, do you know what? Instead of defending yourself, you need to be open like that.
That's the moment you start to grow. So, long story short, leadership in academia is vastly different from self awareness, training in industry.
Eleonore: That was a beautiful answer in helping us understand the situation that a scientist fresh from university may face because one could think that people in academia are the same in business, but they are more diverse, right? So the first time leader must lead the people at hand. So that means that when you get promoted or when you get a new job that you have to deal with the people who are there, you cannot change them. You have to change, you have to adapt to the situation. You can ask yourself this: I have to deal with the people at hand in my team to reach the company's goals. So, what can I ask myself or what can I ask them to be able to lead them to our company's success?
Let's step back a little bit and say that for scientific people going direct from academia to, it's very rare they get a leading position immediately. The leading position they usually get is responsibility over projects.
Dr. Tina Persson: Yeah. And this is, you know, when I check big companies, they know that, and this is the reason that it's not fair to the person to take a scientist fresh from university and put them in a leading role because they don't have the network in the company. So, in order to be a good manager, you must build up your network. So, you understand and know who to talk to. Having these sort of network, so you are founded in the company. That is not done in one year.
It usually take two, three, four years. So, I have noticed on LinkedIn in average people that I have been coaching for bigger companies it takes in average three years before they step up to a more responsibility job.
So, you must have, and now I'm coming back to what you talked about: resilience, and why I say this is that the longer you stay in academia and the more titles you're building, the more articles you're building, it could be a feeling of when you take your first job that you are stepping down and that feeling you can feel, but you have to take it because you need to start here.
To learn to work in a completely different new setup and develop yourself in a tempo that's healthy for you. And that is part of Self awareness, communication, and of course, understanding the company, understand the broader ecosystem in that company. And for that, you need to build resilience.
[00:15:54] Building Resilience and Networking for Career Growth
Dr. Tina Persson: So, storytelling, big mistake, yeah, then I'll tell you what you should do.
But I had numerous clients, they come to me and say, you know, I went to my manager and I told my manager I was bored in the job and I wanted something else. And I said, okay, how long have you been in the company? Six months to a year, maybe two years. And I said, that's too short time. So if you are bored, You should instead communicate with your manager how you can orient yourself in the company and what positions in the future might be relevant for you.
Meanwhile, you still deliver so you build relationships. So, the focus should not be on your technical advancement. It should be on building relationships in the company. So you actually learn self awareness, learn the relationship building path, emotional intelligence, adaptability. So you develop that, building a network, and that should occupy you for the next years.
So, that you are a logical choice when the time come, they are looking for a person in a new position, everyone says, we have this Eleonore. She's really nice. She's on the meeting. She's very constructive. She's done a good job. She's ready to take the step. Be that guy, the good to go guy that people have in mind when they recruit you internally.
But for that, you need a lot of resilience and strategy. A bit of politic.
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[00:19:26] The Importance of Job Crafting and Team Building
Eleonore: May I also insert something because that is something that I would love in my lectures because I'm teaching also industrial and occupational psychology. I'm a psychologist. And what I always teach my bachelor and master students, I want them to understand the supply chain within a company for job rotation, job enrichment, job enlargement, so they should understand their position and then what they can do to improve the contributions of themselves as a team lead, as a team member of the whatever they are doing, but to understand the bigger picture and to strategize and to also prepare and position oneself for a better position within the career ladder and that means job crafting. So, that's the term that hopefully my students will recognize when they listen to this. It is job crafting.
Dr. Tina Persson: It's job crafting. Yeah. And you need to be smart as some people are very good in job crafting.
[00:20:25] The Importance of Adaptability and Team Dynamics in Leadership
Dr. Tina Persson: But coming back, I forgot, I deviated from another question that was, you know, to learn to work with adaptability or work with a team or creating a team is to lose control. So it's a sort of mixture that you are a manager and leader and these two need to go hand in hand because sometimes you must manage people simply, and then you need to be a leader, give the team responsibility. So, they take a collective responsibility means you must allow your team to have psychological safety. They must have trust and they must be able to, to fail without you then, you know, being completely angry at them or punishing them. And this is not done in a week. It's not done in half a year.
It's a process where the team feel, and they are building sort of a dynamic within themselves. So they take collective responsibility. So you basically can a little bit start to manage the team. You as a leader work for the team. And that's a big difference from being only a manager. And this is very difficult to express when it happens, but this is the reason why some teams works much better than other team. So a team that is very adaptable compared to a team that is not very adaptable. There can be many factors around that, but commonly it's a leadership question. Important factors for a team adaptability is first of all, the team must have a dynamic, you know, all people can't be the same.
You know, you need to have different characters in the team, you know, the optimistic guy, the negative guy, and all that. But then the team in general must have a big hope. They must believe in the manager. They must trust the manager. They must actually believe in the company. And maybe believe in the world, because if, if we don't have hope, yeah, and I look at you and me, you know, if we are sitting here having a coffee and both of them, we have no hope for the future.
Why should we adapt? It's no point. So, so we need to build hope. Super important. Then you need team resilience so that the team constantly come back from setbacks and that they are open enough within the team to take in opposite stance and explore new things and may be willing to completely unlearn what they do today to do something completely different.
Just to mention some of these factors important for hope. Then, of course, a team needs an environment, you know, that company support. How is the stress level? And we will not talk about mental health, but if you are stressed, which I was last evening, and what do I do when I'm stressed? I sent an email to the wrong professor because, you know, I'm clicking and yeah, you know, and I screwed it up because I'm too stressed.
I'm not very constructive. I'm not very creative. So this is, of course, also something, but we will not dig into that here today. So we keep it to, you know, the general terms of, of an adaptable team. And the manager of such a team is super important.
Eleonore: Absolutely. And the concepts of leadership in terms of transformational versus transactional are the keywords for my own students. And that also determines which industries there are that are suitable for you.
[00:24:04] Choosing the Right Industry and the Future of Work
Eleonore: Because I would also say it's not just the world because that's maybe too big, but the industry, you should be hopeful that this is the right industry for embark your new career.
So you don't want to, you don't want to join a big ship that is sinking into the near future. instead you want to be. Stepping into a new world that really gives you hope
exactly. because it gives out because I'm interested. And this is so, this is good. This is really, I like this because now what I hear is that when you come usually from a postdoc career. That is that you're looking for security. Yeah. So you have is security. Yeah. I want a secure job. So you need to start to think what is a secure job.
Dr. Tina Persson: But the thing is that if you may be join an industry that seems to be secure today, might not be the future industry. And I take one example like Spotify, you know, Spotify is a Swedish company. And I remember when they started actually in a little box in Stockholm, no one wanted to work for them. Because who wants to work for this little unsecured company?
No one. But now everyone wants to work for Spotify. And this is, again, and now we are talking about that some people, you know, you should be ahead of your time to read newspapers, stay tuned with what's going on in the world at the moment. We know that maybe 400 million people will lose their jobs. In classical industry, 40 percent of the workforce will have to upskill into new industries.
So a postdoc that read newspapers, try to figure out what's going on, what industry is growing. You should join there, even though the job may look unsecured because you secure your career by adding skills for the future, not adding a mindset and skills for the past. And unfortunately, when you have that security in yourself, you go for the last, you go for the secured past job.
Because you think that's a safe way, and I can do what I call a cliffhanger. I'm hanging on to the past instead of looking, Wow, I joined that team, weird people, you know, because in the next two years, they might be 100 people. And that when you took that job, your career will be boom, straight up. Yeah,
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Eleonore: Absolutely agreed. I haven't shared probably with you that when I did my PhD in neuroscience, after I did my diploma in psychology, I also leaped out into the IT industry. And everyone was thinking like, what and why that huge leap and you had nothing to offer to them. And basically it was just English and common sense that I was offering to the IT industry. But I had the best and steepest learning curve I could have ever imagined. At the end of the day, I was working for Accenture, the global consulting company. And I was in IT strategy because I was able to see what is possible. So, and that really was the best thing that I could do. And also now can give back to my own students. I'm a professor of industrial and occupational psychology, so I'm not teaching digitalization and IT strategy, but everything that I have learned in that world still drives my own business today and the way I teach. And I really think that you as a scientist leaping into business. You have to lead yourself into the future and not just, you know, follow others where they are going.
They're all going to ux, I'm going to UX. They're all doing medical I'm going to, no, you have to understand what you bring to the table. And that's the self awareness that you were talking about.
And now I'd love to sort of like switch gears to what are the things that you do?
How can PostdocTransformers work with you ? I've seen you speaking on stages in Orlando, in Stockholm. So you're Swedish, but you seem to be all over the place. What's cooking in your kitchen, so to speak?
Yeah, I was cooking and I came over here. I'm sitting in the kitchen here, you know, yeah, I live in a very small room flat, uh, in, in south part of Sweden in Malmo. And I'm placed myself here in this small flat because it's close to the airport. So I can very easily go to Germany, France or Spain or Portugal, United States.
Work with Tina on your leadership career!
Dr. Tina Persson: Well, United States is a bit further away, but to Europe at least. So yes, I'm Swedish, but most of my clients are coming from UK, Germany is a big base for me, but my clients are coming from all over the world at the moment because in the end it doesn't matter when I career coach people.
If you are looking for a job in United States, UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, everything is digital today. The strategy of looking for a job and working with yourself is global and universal. I am a coach. I work with people either in a group setting, which we call workshops and I use all my experience and background to help people to transform.
I am a transformation coach. Whether it is in your career, you feel stuck in your career, nothing happened. I feel lost. I don't know where to go. That's what I work with. Or leaders that got stuck. Leaders and team people that got bad feedback from 360. So the company says that Tina, you have to skill this leader because they got really, really, really bad feedback from the 360. Thank you. But we believe in the person. So, let's start a journey because everything about leadership can be learned.
It's very few people that are natural born leaders. They are so few. They hardly exist, but they do exist, they want to be leaders because they love people and I always say love people because if you're going to be a leader and a great manager, Eleonore, you must love people because leading people is always connected to a lot of problems.
So you must love to solve people problems and see other people growing because that's for me in coaching, we can have tough discussions, but when my clients sign a contract or they advance in the career, I feel, Oh God, that's the best thing that can happen to me. Or I can see a leader shining, getting, you know, their self respect back and they feel more confident and I can see them on stage.
Wow. And one person that has been growing in my team is both Rui Cruz, who takes more and more responsibility. Now stepping back, but still part of the team because he feel responsibility. And Elizabeth and Cleo and all the other people that I have, I've forgot some of the names I can share them later, but they start to do things that's so far off the comfort zone, like Elizabeth being a host like you.
And she did that. That warms my heart. Yeah, that's why I do this job. So I am a coach. So collaborating with you would be lovely. It's just coaching or if you know any sort of inspiration of things that we can share knowledge about the future. So you and I make the people in academia ready for the future.
Tina calls for a change in higher education
Dr. Tina Persson: There's one thing that is a big mission for me. And I have a keynote at Max Planck about that education need to change. The whole academic system need to change and be dressed for the future. I don't know how yet, but it needs to be done because it can't be, if I had children, send my children to university.
They study hard. They pay a lot of money. In United States, you pay for it. In Europe, And then when they leave, they have mental health issues and they are not attractive on the market. Can't be.
If I had children, Eleonore, I wouldn't advise them to do a PhD today, if they want to, I would of course support them, but I wouldn't advise them.
I would tell them to go straight to industry and then they could take courses and upskill by using digital Yale and Rockefeller, MIT courses while they are working.
Eleonore: Absolutely agree. I do have two children, and I already said that once my eldest is old enough, I will teach her everything I know. She doesn't have to do a PhD, unless she wants to become a professor, which is, you know, WHY?
That's a rabbit hole. You don't want to send your own child through you and I have been through that. I don't want either of them, him as well, to have this heartbreak. And I absolutely agree that, we need change in education and that is not just in Germany. Many leaders, the managing directors that I'm interviewing in the future of work of industry X, Y, Z, they don't think that a PhD is needed for the kind of jobs that they have at hand to lead their industry, their company, whatever, into the future.
So, what are the things that you think other than adaptability are needed to be successful in the. I mean, in the future for an individual, the PostdocTransformer, the scientist who listens to this podcast. Is there anything that you want to sort of like share before we wrap up?
Tina's advice for you
Dr. Tina Persson: Think if you're in academia now and you're sitting there, you're working on your PhD or you're doing your postdoc or your assistant professor. I warmly advise you to look beyond and try to be more open minded, curious and imagine, broaden up a little bit what's happening outside of the context where I am at the moment.
So, you get the broader perspective of things. When we are in academia, we tend to think we know everything. Yeah, but there is so much more to it. So this is the advice I would give for any PhD and postdoc. Try to look beyond, and it includes being curious, reading articles that maybe doesn't really apply to you yet.
Read newspapers, listen to TED talks, listen to other people, what they have done in their careers and lift your eyes beyond the horizon. That's my advice. And the second advice is work with yourself. I just read today, and this today is the 9th of February, an article in a blog on LinkedIn written by an influencer.
And he said, adaptability, but working with yourself, you know, in the future, people will be more and more recruited on the personal traits, because in the end, you can be really good and have the best technical tools. But if you're not the person people like to work with, you're going to make your career very, very tough.
Then there are exceptions, but they usually require different leadership.
This third and last one is, and this is, I say, because I coach so many people that are PhDs and postdocs still do that. That is, you have to make up your mind. If you decide to go for a professorship, You have to focus on that because that's so few that are gonna succeed.
To be a professor, you must stay focused. If you don't go for full professorship, you must focus on leaving. Don't try to do both. It doesn't work. You will just be like a boat on the ocean without a sail. you will circle around on the ocean and gap around and you will feel after five, six years, very, very, very confused.
That's my advice.
Eleonore: Thank you so much. And the best word for my own students is oscillation (from biopsychology). Okay, so living oscillation. That's this is really not a great state of mind to be oscillating between two options. So, make up your mind and focus on that 100 percent because I totally agree to become a professor is tough and it depends on a huge portion of luck.
Okay. But if you're not determined, if you're not putting a hundred percent into that, then you'll be less competitive because there will be people who have more time at their hands. They have less responsibilities and whatever. So if you don't focus, you don't get anything in academia.
Dr. Tina Persson: That was just so summarized so very well what I think, but there is another thing I get a lot of questions around. I like to have work life balance when you pursue an academic career. And I, as a coach, then say the following and listen carefully.
It's perfectly fine to have work life balance. You can work 10 hours a week, but you're going to compete with people working 80 to 100.
Eleoore: So Dr. Tina Persson, I already said that you have your own podcast, which I absolutely recommend to all my listeners. And which one of the episodes is the most controversial or most inspiring? Or what can you recommend listening to right away, once we have finished this episode.
Dr. Tina Persson: There is one that I really love and that's because it's a former client of mine. Her name is Gry Wester. She was a lecturer in London and her transformation took a while and she's sharing very openly about a transformation that it wasn't always very easy. But that is one of my favorite podcast episodes from that sense that it really shows how much work she put in to change her mindset. And she's very open about that. That is why I always recommend that specific podcast with my clients.
Eleonore: Perfect. And we'll make sure to link to that episode in your show notes.
Dr. Tina Persson: That's wonderful. And for anyone interested in adaptability, I have a newsletter on LinkedIn. I have a blog on my webpage. So, just follow me. You can subscribe on my newsletter and then you will be updated with all the articles because I'm going to share a lot of information here in the future because it's happening so much.
So, stay tuned on my channel.
So, we are at the end of this episode, and I would love to have you, PostdocTransformers, to contribute to season four. We have a PostdocTransformation show newsletter where we inform about upcoming episodes, or we 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!
PostdocTransformation Show mug (buy 1 or get 3 for FREE)
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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!
