Have you ever felt ‘decision paralysis’? With so many choices and not sure which way to go? Hesitant to put all your eggs on a single basket?  Well, you are not alone!

In this week’s episode we discuss how to define your career path when you leave the ivory tower. Academia has a defined career path, but that may not be the case once you leave it.

There isn’t a unique answer to these questions, but we discuss the importance of taking breaks to analyze and reflect about these things.

Not making a decision is also making a decision – @ladyscientist

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We’ve noticed that a lot of new people have subscribed to the Recovering Academic podcast. Here’s your chance to listen to our very first episode when we started on our path to recovery.

Keep an eye on this space for our next episode!

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In this week of the Recovering Academic podcast we talk with Dr. Dennis Eckmeier, his journey outside academia and his actual advocacy projects, including the Science for Progress podcast and its twitter rotating twitter account @SfPRocur.

This was a joint podcast between the Recovering Academic and the Science for Progress podcasts, so we all discuss our reasons for leaving academia and realized Amanda was the only one of us that never did any experiments in the dark!

There’s always the transition period, but after you decide that you’re going to do it, it feels good. @Doctor_PMS

One of the challenges Dennis is facing is that, although advocacy is supposed to be for free, he is still trying to find alternatives of how he can proceed with this and make money with it.

Some people make it sound like networking is like another skill, is like learning to act, but I’ve learned that it’s not like that @DennisEckmeier

The goal of the Science for Progress podcast is to explain how academia works to people that are not academics. What is sort of the opposite of our recovering academic podcast that tries to show what PhDs can do outside academia.

You can contact Dennis through his webpage or his Twitter account: @DennisEckmeier

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Marcha pela ciencia // March for science Lisbon
• EAT CHEESE LIVE FOREVER
• This Is Why The 2018 Nobel Prize In Physics, For Lasers, Is So Important
• Science Magazine article: Sunshine outside the ivory tower
• Science for Progress podcast: The Journal Impact Factor: how (not) to evaluate researchers – with Björn Brembs

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Image by Richard Stephenson

Adaptation. It’s not just a macroevolutionary term. It applies to all of us in our transitions, too. In this episode, we discuss how we’ve adapted to life outside of academia.

What changes around you? What changes do you have to make? Do you have to wear sunglasses to handle all that sunshine? A lot of things do change, but most of those changes are for the better.

One of the hazards in transitioning is a more sedentary lifestyle and needing to learn new life skills.

“Moving to a big city means figuring out new life skills… like navigating without a car.” @IHStreet

We also talk about how it is difficult to make friends in new places and finding a new tribe. But making those new friends allow us to hear new viewpoints and break out of academia bubble.

“We’re not the owners of the truth.” – @Doctor_PMS

It can also push us to do new things outside of our comfort zones—which isn’t bad.

“I enjoyed the experience of talking to someone I don’t know. I was surprised!” @LadyScientist

Mentioned in This Episode

Metropolitan Brewing

Astronomy on Tap (in Chicago) You can also follow them on Twitter (@AoTchicago)

You can Invite the Recovering Academic to a conference, and we’ll do a live show tailored to your group! Contact us at show@recoveringacademic.net or DM us on Twitter.

Google form to apply for our ROCUR account (@RecoveringAcad)

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Dear listeners,

Our Recovering Academic Podcast is two years old! Special thanks to all our listeners. We could never have done it without you. When we decided to start the podcast, we never thought that we would have such a warm welcome and audience. We just passed the 40,000 downloads mark in July, as we start recording Season 3 of the podcast. In this next season, we plan to continue with a mix of topic discussions between the ‘Recovering Trio’, and interviews with other Recovering Academics to tell you their transition stories. Let us know if you have any suggestions of discussion topics or interviewees. We have an ongoing list of possible topics, but we are always open to suggestions. Let us know what YOU want us to talk about. Now is the time!

We also started to get a lot of followers in our Twitter account (1,751 as of this writing). We tried for a while to alternate between us and each one of us would take care of the account for some days/week, but that became somewhat difficult. Life happens, and we ended up taking a summer ‘break’ on our Twitter account as well. However, one of the main goals of the podcast is to make you know that you are not alone, that there’s sunshine outside the ivory tower, and that there’s a lot of people out there to reach out to. We also started interviews in Season 2 as a way to bring more exposure of PhDs that successfully transitioned away from academia. We wanted you to hear their history, their uncertainties, and how they succeeded. But we want to bring more people in touch with you, and in a more interactive manner.

That’s why we are going to transform our @RecoveringAcad twitter account into a Rotating Curator (ROCUR) account until the end of the year as an experiment. Like other ROCUR accounts, someone will be given full access to the @RecoveringAcad twitter account and will tweet about their experience within academia and beyond the ivory tower. We are seeking curators who are PhDs or soon-to-be PhDs that left or/are planning to leave academia. Let us know through this Google Form if you would like to be a curator! Don’t feel pressured to tweet 24/7 during that week. Do it at least a few times that week and share whatever you are comfortable sharing. Your three Recovering Academic hosts will curate the first three weeks to show the diverse ways of curating and plan to have our first guest curator in the early fall.

We don’t want to impose many rules, but we hope that we can trust the curator common-sense and avoid problems. The three of us will try to keep a close eye into the account, but and we will generally trust the curator. But if you see something that doesn’t seem quite right, or if you feel offended in any way, please tweet to either one of us (@ladyscientist, @Doctor_PMS, @IHStreet) and let us know.

Flowers blooming in the snow.

Out of the snow and into Spring! Could there be a better metaphor

This is the last episode of our Second season! And it’s packed!

We answer listener question about balancing work and family in the private sector and the best advice we received that helped us during our career transitions, including applying anyway if you only meet some of the listed qualifications and the usefulness of informational interviews.

We also check in with each other about our status and how we’re feeling about Recovering Academics a year, a year and a half, and three years out of academia.

“I watched a frog jump into a lake, and suddenly, I got it!” – Ian on how realizations occur when you’re out doing other things.

We talk about design thinking (have you listened to this episode of Hidden Brain?), when creative ideas land in a sudden moment.

And last, we also announce a new initiative to launch ahead of series 3. We’re turning our @RecovAcad account into a rocur account for fellow recovering academics to talk about their lives beyond the ivory tower and where they’ve found sunshine where they are.

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Today InBabyAttachMode joins our hosts to discuss her transition story.

Everything Was Now Open – InBabyAttachMode

We know InBabyAttachMode (who we affectionately refer to as IBAM) from twitter and her Scientopia blog. She discusses her transition to industry in a Scientist position. She talks about her work in public-private collaborations and variation in job duties—even with the same job title.

IBAM also shares how leaving academia can lead to a wide-open world and how she found her way. Finding her own voice and navigating this new world presented new—but not insurmountable—challenges. In the end, IBAM found a better work-life balance and the light outside of the ivory tower.

You can find IBAM on twitter @InBabyAttachMode or on her blog at Scientopia.

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In this episode, Chemjobber joins the Recovering Academic co-hosts to discuss his transition and his blog.

Quantifying the Chemistry Job Market Since 2008

Chemjobber now works in industrial chemistry. He started his job search in March of 2008 and started his blog nine months later in December 2008. His blog aims to help chemists find jobs in a tough market. Also, he works towards a quantitative understanding of the quality of the chemistry job market.

He discusses his transition story and motivations for moving away from the academy. In his discipline, Chemistry, does present industry as a viable (and reasonable) alternative.

Also, Chemjobber reveals the secret behind his avatar!

You can find Chemjobber on twitter @Chemjobber and on his blog at Chemjobber.

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