PhD Career Stories (PhD Career Stories Team)

In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Rachel Kindt. After a PhD in Biology and a postdoctoral fellowship, Rachel dove headfirst into the biotech world, working her way from the lab bench to the corporate boardroom over her 20+ year career. Leveraging her scientific training and acquired - some might say improvised! - business savvy, she led drug development teams and built high-performing organizations. Rachel is known as a master facilitator, dedicated coach and mentor, and keen thought partner in scientific leadership. She is now coaching, consulting and co-authoring a book of career advice for scientists.

Rachel tells us about her exciting journey and career path that took her from a bench scientist, to leading a research collaboration, to being a leader and project manager in drug development. 

Project management is a focus topic in this interview. What is a project manager? What are the skills required for a project manager role? How to grow as a project manager and how long does it take to be good in this role? What managerial titles do we have today? And what is the difference between a project manager, a program manager and a team manager?

All these questions - and much more - are answered by Rachel. 

Finally, Rachel closes the episode sharing three tips for people applying for project manager roles:

• Learn the language of project management.

• Look at what you have done that is already project management.

• Focus on the people’s aspect of the work you have done versus the technical aspect.

Listen to this episode to get inspired by Rachel’s journey and her valuable tips for a successful project management career path.

Luca Forcucci is an artist and scholar of Swiss and Italian citizenships based in Berlin. His research observes the perceptive properties of sound, space and memory exploring the field of possibilities of the experience. In this context, he is interested in perception, subjectivity and consciousness. Since twenty years, the research observes also his own nomadic situation, as well as his work in various global contexts (Brazil, China, South Africa, Mozambique, USA, Europe and Switzerland). He considers the eyes and ears of the beholder in such contexts as integrally part of his thought. A great influence is the late American avant- garde composer and musician Pauline Oliveros and her concept of deep listening expanded to all what is humanly possible to listen to.

Forcucci achieved a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation from De Montfort University in U.K., and a MA in Sonic Arts from Queens University of Belfast. The research was also conducted at the University of the Arts of Berlin, INA/GRM (Institut National d’Audiovisuel / Groupe de Recherches Musicales) in Paris while investigating at Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mittérand. He is regularly invited to lecture in universities (University of Limerick, USP São Paulo, UFRJ Rio de Janeiro, URC California, UdK Berlin, ZhDK Zürich, EPFL Lausanne, SIVA Shanghai). He has an extensive background in architecture.

The artworks are presented worldwide on a regular basis (Festival Multiplicidade Rio de Janeiro, Red Bull Station São Paulo, 30th Biennale of Sao Paulo with Mobile Radio, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh, The Lab Gallery  San Francisco, Venice Biennale with Swatch Art Peace Hotel, MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts Rome, Rockbund Museum Shanghai, House for Electronic Arts Basel, Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle). The compositions are released on Universal, Crónica Electrónica in Porto and Subrosa in Bruxelles. Forcucci have been nominated in the arts at The World Technology Summit in New York, and was the first artist in lab in residency at the Brain Mind Institute at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
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• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
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The second episode of our new podcast “PhD Career Stories” features Maria Sjögren, the researcher who left academia to become a change agent and digital evangelist. In this “tips & tricks”-themed episode, we learn more on how we can take control of our online presence and manage our digital reputation.

In episode 17 we have Dr Amanda González-Bengtsson who is a Public Relations Manager at Stockholm University and her passion is to promote science and make it known in society and for stake holders.  

She tells the story of how she managed to get a lot of job offers after the PhD just by actually doing all those things that career advisors tells us to do. She hopes that all of you can benefit from listening to the podcast and that you will achieve great things in your life.

Dr. Déborah Rupert was born and raised in France where she did her undergraduate studies in physics. Her passion for blending physics and biology brought her to Sweden where she did her PhD in Biological Physics. During her PhD, she reached very close to burnout and informed her supervisor she wanted to quit science. After few months of recovery, she started the PhD again with a very different mindset and a wish to use her personal story to prevent other scientists from burning out.

Déborah decided to become a professional coach and designed a career switch strategy where she worked 80% as an application scientist in a tech company while training herself as a coach. Today, Deborah is a professional coach certified by the international coaching federation, ICF. She supports science innovators with knowledge and tools designed to take care of their mind and protect them from burnout. She is an active member of the international coaching federation where she acts as a coordinator of the west Sweden chapter and is part of the Swedish ICF research forum. 

Personal website: deborahrupert.com
Linkedin Profile: linkedin.com/in/deborahrupertphd
Instagram: deborahrupert.phd
International coaching federation: coachfederation.org

So this is my mission now, I’m trying to convey this message of personal self-care within academia, which is a closed bubble world where burnout is still a taboo and seen as a sign of academic failure. We have to learn to see beyond the cliché of the non-stop working and stressed researcher and realize that creativity arises from a place of peace of mind.

Dr. Deborah Rupert, Coach for Mindfulness in Research 

Dr Lina Tengdelius holds a MSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Materials Science with specialisation in Thin Film Physics from Linköping University, Sweden. She recently transitioned from academia to a role as a Consultant Manager at Dfind Science & Engineering. She works with recruiting people with a science background and reads a large number of CVs from PhDs every day.

Listen to her exciting story on how she landed her current position and what her experiences on “the other side” has taught her about the recruitment process. In this episode, Lina also shares her views on how to market yourself efficiently when looking for a job in the Life Science industry.

Tina helped me realize that the personality traits that I had considered to be problems for most of my life could be my greatest strengths, and that I should look for a job that suited my personality instead of adapting my personality to a job that didn’t really suit me.

- Dr Lina Tengdelius, Consultant Manager at Dfind Science & Engineering, Sweden

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
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Sometimes life hits you hard, and then you have to make new decisions you hadn’t imagined making.  Previous goals and ambitions can evaporate, especially after enduring something emotionally, psychologically, and/or spiritually harrowing.  Our guest Andrew McKee was tested by tragedy, on top of career confusion, when he entered an MD/PhD program but realized midway he wasn’t on the right track.  He decided to quit his PhD and embarked on a journey of experimentation and self-discovery.

Today, Andrew has 20+ years of experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and healthcare sectors. He is the CEO and founder of Headland Strategy Group, a consultancy firm with offices in the US and Asia and specialising in growth strategy for therapeutics and diagnostics companies. Andrew has previously worked for McKinsey and Company, Google, Genentech and holds biomedical engineering and MD degrees from Duke University. He also is a published writer and holds patents licensed to industry. He is a husband, a father of 3 children, and a professional saxophonist.

In today’s episode, our host Tina Persson welcomes Andrew McKee. They talk about how Andrew, even after quitting his PhD, made such an impressive career. They discuss music, art, entrepreneurship, and the importance of networking with people from different walks of life. He also gives insights into his life and about his life mentors who advised him to take a leap of faith.

On the cusp of a critical life decision, one of Andrew’s mentors “...encouraged me that if I take time to reflect and get still, I probably know more than I realise [about what I should do].”

If you want to learn more about Andrew’s successful journey, including different ideas for facing major life challenges, make sure to listen to this episode.

For the show transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/amckee

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Aoife O Dwyer was born and raised in Ireland where she did an undergraduate degree in Genetics and Cell Biology, followed by a PhD in Immunology. Two weeks after her PhD was awarded, Aoife moved to Melbourne, Australia in search of her first Medical Science Liaison job. Today, Aoife still works full time as a Senior Medical Science Liaison in Melbourne, Australia. In 2018, Aoife published "Medical Science Liaison - The Ultimate Step by Step Guide" and founded MSL Consultant to help PhD graduates transition from academia to a medical science liaison position in the pharmaceutical industry.

In this podcast Aoife tells about why she almost quitted her PhD and where she found  motivation to stay and finish it. She also shares with the listeners what challenges she encountered on her first MSL position.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
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In this episode, Dr. Sabine Englich shares her career story from the perspective of a coach and tells us about the essence of developing a satisfying career. Dr. Sabine had been a science manager in the Max Plank institute for over 20 years. After retirement, she started her coaching career and currently she is helping young PhDs to fulfill the transition from academic into the professional life.

To know more about Sabine’s story, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

In episode 18 of PhD Career Stories, Dr Umesh Gangishetti describes his transition from a PhD student working on Drosophila Embryogenesis to become a senior scientist conducting clinical studies on Alzheimer's disease.

In PhD Career Stories episode 12, we welcome our special guest Sarah Blackford, Academic and Science Career Consultant and author of Career planning for research bioscientists. In her “tips & tricks”-themed episode, we learn more on how we can get started with career planning.

Sarah Blackford is an academic career consultant with over 15 years' experience of delivering career support to PhD students and early career researchers. Qualified with a master's degree in career guidance in Higher Education, Sarah is a member of the Career Development Institute and a founding member of the network Careers Advisers supporting Researchers in Europe (CARE). She is the author of Career planning for research bioscientists and much of her advice and resources are available on her blog biosciencecareers.org.

This is the second episode of Dr. Ben Hartwig, in which he will talk about resilience and will share tips on how to stay resilient and how to deal with stress.

In his first podcast (#85) Hartwig shared his story and the lessons he learned during his PhD.  So if you have not listened to his first podcast, don’t hesitate to do so.

Ben is a German scientist, entrepreneur and actor. He studied genetics at the Max-Planck Institute in Cologne, specialized in Epigenetics and toured with Germany's biggest improv theater, Springmaus, for the past six years. He has performed, directed and created close to a thousand shows on five continents. Three years ago, he founded his own company Neuroblitz to combine science and applied improvisation in workshops, speeches and seminars.

In this episode, he shares four relevant tips.

The first tip is to surround ourselves with people who believe in us. The second one is to ask better questions. The third tip is to see the things for what they really are and the last one is Ecotherapy and to be our own doctor.

To learn more about Ben’s tips, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

Karin Bodewits studied Biology in the Netherlands and is a PhD graduate from the University of Edinburgh. She founded the career platform NaturalScience.Careers. She works as an author, speaker and seminar leader for a range of communication topics. She is the author of the novel ‘You Must Be Very Intelligent — The PhD Delusion’, published by Springer Nature. The novel is a humorous but tragic story about PhD life and it has been discussed by quite a few prominent magazines and newspapers, such as Times Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed and Chemistry World.

[…] none of the things I'm doing today, and I really love doing them, has ever been my big big dream. Point being - you don't have to have a dream!

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
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Dr Susanna Bächle is a scientist with a background in Immunology and Virology. Originally from Germany, she has lived, studied and worked in Germany, Australia, Sweden and the US. After graduating with a PhD in Medical Sciences from Karolinska Institutet she moved to Boston (US) to pursue a career at the interface of science and business. At the moment she works for Addgene, a scientific nonprofit organization that aims to accelerate science by facilitating sharing of materials and information. She is passionate about science, innovation, entrepreneurship and global health.”

To me a career path is not a line, it really is a zigzag, and often enough a random looking or even 'lucky' turn to a new job was determined by a meeting, a follow-up email, a networking event which seemed unimportant at the time but ultimately make up the many small necessary steps for shaping your own 'luck'.

- Dr Susanna Bächle, Outreach Scientist at Addgene

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

Dr Johanna Havemann works as a Trainer and Consultant in Science Communication for Universities and research institutions in Europe and Africa (access2perspectives.com). She obtained her PhD in 2009 from the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany. Her working experience covers NGOs, Science startups and international institutions including UNEP. Follow her tweets about #scicomm and other topics of interest at @johave.

Dr Amanda González-Bengtsson is a Public Relations Manager at Stockholm University and her passion is to promote science and make it known in society and to stakeholders. In episode 22 of PhD Career Stories, Amanda returns for a tips & tricks-themed podcast. In this episode, we learn more on how we can start preparing for a career after a PhD already in graduate school.

"You have only failed if you don’t keep trying."

- Dr Amanda González-Bengtsson, Public relations manager at Stockholm University

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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This is  the second episode of Fabian Taube, in which he will share five tips on how to survive outside of academia after an academic career.

 In his first podcast Fabian shared his story transforming from academia to a specialist in preventive medicine at the Swedish Armed Forces Center for Defense Medicine. So if you have not listen to his first podcast, don’t hesitate to do so.

 Bellow you find the title of these tips:

 1-Sort out the pros and cons before accepting a certain position.

2-Let the organization know your big advantage.

3-Make contact and collaborate.

4-Make yourself and your coworkers satisfied.

5- If you aim at becoming a leader you should first question your purpose of wanting to become a leader. 

To learn more about Fabian’s tips, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

For complete show notes and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. 

You can also find us on social media:

www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories

www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod

www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories

www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

Michalina Lewicka-Yammine's passion for Neuroscience evolved during her master degree at the Jagiellonian University and her exchange studies at Uppsala University which led her to a PhD degree at Karolinska Institute in Developmental Neuroscience. 

After graduation, her passion for marketing got her engaged with three startups and establishing her own consultancy firm. At Karolinska Institute she worked as a course leader and later as a project manager at the Alumni Office. 

Throughout that journey Michalina gained many new experiences as well as gave birth to two children, and found her way to balance between being a mother and delivering and performing at work. 

Nowadays, Michalina is raising two kids, running a freelance consultancy and has a full-time job as a product manager at Spiber Biomaterial - all powered by the stamina and resilience gained from motherhood.

Connect with Michalina on LinkedIn. 

I'm still having my own company and doing some small projects. On the side I’m working fifty percent for a biotech company and fifty percent on maternity leave. As I said, don't give up! Try it! And see if it's for you and if you don't like it, try something else and try from a different angle – try to find your balance and what suits you the most.

Dr. Michalina Lewicka-Yammine, mother, freelancer and product manager at Spiber Biomaterial.

Transcript

Welcome to PhD Career Stories, the podcast about career paths inside and outside academia. My name is Rui Cruz and I am very happy to introduce Michalina Lewicka-Yammine to you. 

Michalina works as a Product Manager specialist for a biotech company located in Sweden and in today's podcast she will tell you how she transitioned from her PhD in Developmental Neurosciences to the world of marketing.

During this process, Michalina started her own consulting company and worked in different startups, while at the same time she gave birth to two children. 

Michalina will share with us important insights on the demanding challenges of being a mother while having the need to deliver and perform at work. 

Michalina's story shows us that with resilience, stamina and support from people around you, it is possible to have a healthy balance between career development and motherhood. 

We hope that her story will be inspiring to you and that you enjoy this episode of PhD Career Stories! 

--

Hi my name is Michalina Lewicka-Yammine and I would like to share with you today my career story and how I got my PhD and why.

I'm coming from Poland and during my master thesis in Krakow I decided to go for a student exchange and that was basically my first step to start thinking about the research projects.

I have to say I really enjoyed my time in Uppsala (Sweden) after one year exchange I decided to stay and take an internship project at Uppsala University where I shared my passion for science with three really nice people and basically due to them, due to Dan and Daniel who were my supervisor and colleagues who were following me during the project, I re-discovered that I would like to do a masters degree to take a PhD.

I graduated in June and searched for a PhD position... Now I know that June and July in Sweden are not the best months to get in touch with anyone. In September I was pretty frustrated about it but then it's kind of be up  and start going and I had some interviews.

I was lucky and happy to secure a place in Ola Hermanson group at the department of Neuroscience in Karolinska Institute and that's how I started my ride and with the PhD life in December 2013 if I'm not wrong.

I have to say it has its ups and downs but I was really lucky I had a boss who let us experience science and really struggle ourselves, it was a bit more “lets you swim” approach if you need guidance he will try to help you but he will not really tell you what to do which makes me learn a lot and let me experience, troubleshoot and don't give up.

I acquired a lot of skills, really valuable skills, I had also great colleagues in my group and as well as the neighbouring groups who were really open for discussion for troubleshooting together. I was really lucky that I met people who were really inspiring.

We made a lot of cool things together we were involved in some association, PhD associations, we were teaching.  I enjoyed teaching a lot.

I made a PhD in development of neuroscience based on stem cell and biomaterials which was pretty cool because during that time there were people not only from karolinska institute but also from KTH which is a technical university as well as Linköping University so I had a bit of more discussion between scientists, researchers as well as engineers who are working with a different biomaterial which is really cool way to perceive the projects and communicate with people who talk all the same thing but in a different way.

 The big advantage will say was about to travel. My boss always send us for some conferences and had a really good network.

 Which allows me to build my own network which I found it really valuable later on and not only for your future career but also for choosing or finding your options deciding what would you like to do after the PhD.

As every PhD I had my ups and downs.

I have to say that I had some doubts like “Is it really for me?” but I'm one of these people who acts if I started I really want to finish it. I don’t like unfinished projects.

Overall I have to say it was really good time I learn a lot.

And it was definitely valuable even the down parts where project didn't work out and something went been totally wrong and you discovered it after few months of work and it's basically worth nothing differently teach I am kind of being more persistent to decide. Okay something didn't work but many other things went as planned.

It was very happy by the end. I would say the solution ends up really good

Meeting people from different backgrounds, different groups and different cultures help me not only to build up my friendships  but also my research and continue with my research.

It helped me to build my  social skills, networking skills and communicating science it was really important and still is really important for me I was involved in a nonprofit organization which helps communicating science to the general public'

we had several events around Stockham city to show them what really researchers do and how daily work works and how the research that is perceived at Karolinska institute could be implementing in their live because I think it's a pretty big gap between what we do as researchers and whqt general science knows about  research.

 It was a lot of fun, a lot of extra work which was not really counted as my PhD time but it was definitely a really valuable lessons, going for meetings with some kids to elderly people and talking about stem cell research about development in neuroscience to them.

 As by the end of my PhD time I wasn't really sure what I would like to do. I have seen one position that a professor who was presenting at Karolinska at one of the meetings, she said that they are searching for a postDoc and that sounds pretty cool.

I applied, I went for interviews in London and the plan was to move out in March, April to London to start a PostDoc there.

Overtime plan had to change and had to be changed because in January I discovered I'm pregnant and in one way it was really a blessing I was already married for over two years and we wanted to have kids. However discovering that you're pregnant while moving out to a different country that's your project doesn't really include maternity leave for the first year changing a country where you're not really cover  by the social benefits for the first year was a bit tough choice to do but for me being a mother was really important so I decided to stay in Sweden.

I continue for a short time in my old group of projects just two or three weeks before the due date I stopped working as a researcher.

 And I went on maternity leave but  then I decided that well to kind of keep an eye open and see what I can do that if really academia is a choice for me.

I was really lucky because my husband open a company at that point and they wanted to market a bit around and he asked me if I could help them to share some information on social media so I said looking into that taking some courses online searching for some tips in reading and I discovered that in fact marketing it's not such a far fetched form of neuroscience. In marketing you use a lot from neuroscience and knowledge that we obtained

Like high tracing  is really commonly used for advertising and following human brain and things and total behaviour changing this is all based on the research, purely neurobiology research.

 I really liked it and I started up by doing the marketing for xxxx and I had to say that it went very well.

 They get a pretty good coverage after being a year on the market as a company they were covered by a NewYork Times.

They get really good funding and it was a really cool way to work with a team at the same time being a mother.

I work mostly from home I basically did a lot of things on my phone while breastfeeding or having a walk with the kid.

I discovered that even though before I was really good multi tasking I had good time management and I was pretty adjustable in the sense of being able to adjust to the situation Being a mother teach you that in a different dimensions and so after my maternity leave mission to lay I continue working for a small start ups and helping with marketing and trying to find a way to revive markets research in which platform they could set up and work with.

I worked a bit too with a customer service support which is really good because it helps to see that stuff which for us is really clear and obvious they are might be not as easy to see for the other in the sense that maybe for me the bike is red but someone else see that the bike is lila or pink. Sometimes it's really hard to get on the same page with the customer and to understand them from a different perspective.

After working in a small company I decided to apply  and be a teacher back at Karolinska institute and teach a marketing course.

That was pretty cool experience I worked for two years having a marketing course and a project management course as well as a practical placement courses.

That was Master level courses

 It was again really resourceful, a good way to apply my knowledge and testing it out in a different field as I said before I like teaching during my PhD time and teaching by yourself, being in charge of the course about the budget and financing it's a totally different difficulty but you have to handle with.

 It was really interesting, however after a while decide to move out with in Karolinska and go to Alumni office and try to see how we could get the alumni more involved and more visible for the benefits of Karolinska and it was again a really cool team, a really good experience.

Learning the structures of a big organization such ad Karolinska It was really beneficial for me to see how many different coins have to get together so how many different balls have to the jungles at ones and some parts of departments can take decisions.

 Which is totally different when I was working in small companies, small start ups really have like five max ten people team versus a hundred people who are management who have more regular meetings it's not like we just write what's happened, let's talk...

 I have to have a meeting with more structured way due to the size of the organizations.

I became pregnant and we bought a house at the same time, the houses a delay and it's going to come at same time as my second baby, it’s a baby boy.

Two months before my due date I get a phone call from them from my colleagues I was collaborating with during my PhD time,testing to biomaterials and she told me that their companies trying to go public and start selling and they need someone to help them up with a marketing.

When we talked on the phone and she was describing the position I was “Gosh this is my dream job”. It is marketing, doing marketing for a biotech company. For a product which in fact I know really well because I was involved in the early stages of the research and partly I feel like I'm definitely want to go and talk with them so I did.

 It was a bit funny because when I entered I was like two months in due dates.

 So it definitely could see it I was pretty huge at the time and my belly was sticking out much more in front of me.

I Didn't say much in the beginning and it was basically me who brought it up to the table telling them that yes the positions sounds good I would definitely be interested however yes my due date is soon

 We decided to all have a moment to think about and we talk to each other a week after. I was really thrilled that they decided to give me a phone call with the suggestion that they're interested and they are flexible for me to start working soon after my delivery but I could work out from home.

Help them up from a more distance things or bring the kids with me to work and I think this is a brilliant way because we are nowadays living in Sweden at least me I'm living in Sweden and I think Sweden is very  open for having kids, for having kids at work and for females working with a kid in an office it's not a big surprise and maybe some people still feel this with weird but many people don't see it as a problem and I end up pretty lucky to be in a company which says it’s okay this is totally okay with my four months old baby discovering the voice and kind of giggling on a side when we are having a conversation and discussion.

It’s definitely hard for me to juggle my maternity leave together with my work plus having a ‘four and a half years old which is full of ideas and active little girl which is definitely cannot stay in one place and play she's too active for that. It was also pretty tricking in the sense that I had to unpack the house, furnished  the house and try to set it up and find time for myself.

 Which is definitely not so easy I thought that having one child definitely change my world and teach me a lot. Change my understanding of being a flexible and time management. But having second one basically you have to learn it again from scratch you have to experience it in a different way.

 Because the responsibility increase as you progress in your family life as well as your career.

 So the flexibility has to increase in some way too it is definitely hard, especially for me for a person who likes to have few plans, structure and doesn't like surprises.

Having two kids is full of surprises.

 Definitely work and motherhood can coexist.

 And you can have it all and there are moments where everything under the plan.

 If it feels like whoa, it's just too good to be true and know that soon something is going to go down or can go wrong.

 And this could be like a easy thing that it's a flu season and then one of the kids can get sick or bring a virus and the little one just have a running nose but you get a forty degree fever and you can’t move.

 You don't really have an influence on that.

 I'm really happy and really thrilled that I have a partner,l friends and family who are really helpful.That can really rely on.

 And so this is not only my duty and my skills to juggle with all. We share responsibilities really well with my parents and my partner of taking care of the kids and taking care of the house or helping each others and a daily basis.

I think this is a huge blessing for me.

I  know everyone don’t have this on a daily basis.

I read some studies that forty three percent of highly qualified women decide to leave the carriers for having kids and I think that definitely does not an option for me I'm too active person, I always do a few things once.

As being a full time my mom at home, It's not really my thing I would definitely get a bit frustrated I mean I need things which are more stimulating and more pushing up from behind and challenging a bit more.

 As much as I love my kids and I love spending time with them.

I need the kind of more intellectual stimulation, some kind of me time.

 That's why I always try to stay updated with museum, theater, cinema. Try to read maybe now I have not so much time for reading but I switch to the audiobook and I’m listening at least in the way when I drop the kids to preschool, or driving to work or taking the bus or the train.

And so it's really really good time which you can use it for this kind of stuff.

 I have to say that at first when I was signing up the contract and it was like literally six weeks before the due date I was really afraid of how it's going to end up because how the little one didn't show up today, I was a bit afraid if he has a colleague or maybe I have a post partum depression or maybe I would not feel well or you know there's a tones of thought running in your head especially when you are pregnant and you see everything pretty black.

But in the end I was really happy at all clear it up well.

 My son is an amazing baby, a really happy baby. I started to work in february mostly from home.

Nowadays we are going more and more to the office and try to be at least once or twice a week in the office, having more personal meetings with my colleagues and discussing about product launch, the website and updates and things like that. I work a lot by night and this is again pretty good that I'm an evening person.

 I am not a morning, I don’t like to wake up in the morning, so in the morning I just rather do things on autopilot and in the evening when the kids are sleeping in that house is basically under control and I have time to sit down and focus and continue with my task and fulfill my duties as an employee.

 I definitely can say that especially nowadays with all the digital media and digital appliances which you can just take along with you and you can reply to email on the playgrounds when the dotter is playing and the son is sleeping in the pram.

 You can keep an update with your website and keep in touch with your company and colleagues. It is definitely  possible to have it all.

Having  family and having jobs at the same time. It's not easy and sometimes it's a bit messy, complicated and overwhelming but  in the end I think this is a life it's not really easy peasy.

 There are times up and down, I have to say that overall I fing my life really satisfying even though it is challenging but as I said before, I like challenges I definitely enjoy it

more when it's more.

I prefer the challenges than have it a bit boring.

I think this is for all of the females who are thinking like well should I try it or should I not try. I would prefer to try something and say okay this is for me or this is not for me than just sitting and thinking about what would it be if

So if you have a doubt about being a mother and having a career life, Give it a shot!

It's always better to say and okay I tried it didn't work out than to be later on fifty or sixty and thinking it would have been so cool if I would have done it like that twenty years ago.

I don't like speculation, I think that's kind of my research nature coming up in it.

I prefer to have facts so.

I tried it and I see if it works or not. 

In many ways I think work is the center of our lives.

Even though from my family is super hard for me. I wouldn't be able to provide for my family if I wouldn't have my work too because I need the balance between family time and work time which is a bit of my own time.

Which is the time I can really plan and predict because when you're at home you cannot predict with two small kids which is really resourceful you cannot plan your day.

I definitely learn a totally new set of skills even though I was good in time management and I was pretty flexible. I learned it in a new dimension because the life taught you a lot of things in a different time and maybe not times which you have definitely not plan it and it could be from illness to day off at school because they have some planning or schedule and so you have to deliver the unexpected.

Juggling few balls at the same time it's pretty, it’s really challenging.

The work life balance is hard I still managed to find some time for myself.

When my daughter was two I started dancing again I like dancing this is my thing, that's relax me.

I joined a group which is started class and we are dancing modern Jazz.

 We were lucky because we not only compete on a national level, we got to the second place in Sweden we went for the international competition competed for Sweden and got a third place which felt really cool especially for me because I'm Polish and I was dancing in the Swedish national team and we get a third place 

It felt pretty weird also showing that the workplace nowadays it's so open, it’s so multicultural people moving and changing, adjusting to different situations.

I think we all should have our dreams and hopes in some way try to follow some plans but also take all the punches that comes on the way trying new possibility not to be close mine but pretty open to new options and suggestions.

Because I think if I would just chose just a career or just the motherhood I will feel excluded from the outer part. 

I can see that at least for now I can say for myself it's definitely possible and it was definitely possible for my mother, she kept her career and two kids in the home when I had really caring parents and the small of the cake at home and she managed to succeed in her career so I think that especially nowadays when the world get more open for that working mothers. That it's even easier and it's a pity not to try.

I'm still having my own company and doing some small projects. On the side I’m working fifty percent for a biotech company and fifty percent on maternity leave

As I said, don't give up! Try it!

 And see if it's for you and if you don't like it, try something else and try from a different angle – try to find your balance and what suits you the most.

Take your life in your hands and then don't give up if it doesn't work out.

Just try something new.

Moving to marketing after PhD in neuroscience wasn't maybe to most obvious choice I soon found it a great choice and great solution for me especially nowadays when I work as a product management and biotech company where I can combine my research knowledge, my scientific skills combined with the marketing skills and try to communicate the product to the scientist which are our first customers, I find it  really cool I find it is a good reason to wake up in the morning and continue it.

And that is it for another episode of PhD Career Stories.

As always, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by commenting on our blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. If you like what we do, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or Spotify. So that’s goodbye for now, but we will be back with a new story for you in two weeks time.”

Key words: motherhood, maternity, career balance, family life, private life, PhD, marketing, neuroscience, teaching, alumni.

Thomas Thestrup was born in New Jersey (USA) and has lived and worked in the USA, Australia, Germany and Denmark. He holds a MSc in Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in Neurobiology from the Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology and Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Today, Thomas is an Associate at Sunstone Capital, an early-stage Life Science and Technology venture capital company investing in European start-up companies with strong potential to achieve global success in their markets. 

"By networking, networking and networking, and assessing your dreams, your feelings about what keeps you excited, you will eventually find people that can help you take the next step, at least, that helps a lot."

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Michael Gralla is a PhD student at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and also a Leadership Consultant and Career Coach who has just started his own company: fby – find the best in you.

During his career, Michael has never followed the given path. With a Master in Nutrition, he switched fields to get a PhD in Molecular Biology. During his PhD studies, Michael repeatedly guided fellow PhD students and postdocs in career related questions and helped them organize their next career moves. Furthermore, he holds an executive position in a German travel agency start-up.

Due to various reasons, Michael is pausing his PhD right now to start his own company. As his passion lies in people and team development, he started fby – find the best in you – a leadership consulting company. Michael's constant interest in broadening his network and meeting people to discuss talent development-related topics has given him the opportunity to team up with experts of different areas covering leadership.

"In her TED talk in 2015, Emilie Wapnick introduced “multipotentialites” – a type of personality that easily gets interested in different areas. Multipotentialites quickly consume a new field of interest. By repeatedly doing so they become fast learners, adaptable and innovative."

- Michael Gralla, CEO and Founder of fby – find the best in you

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’I really never knew how I felt in the lab, what does it really mean [for me]?... I’m a creative person, I love to meet people [and] I realised that being in the lab can be quite lonely’, Sara asked herself during her time as a PhD candidate.

In this episode, Tina Persson, the founder of PhD Career Stories, interviews Sara Andersson, who tells us about her PhD journey and how she became a talent advisor at Mpya Sci & Tech.

Sara finished her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Uppsala University where she gained experience as a manager, problem-solver and critical thinker. During her PhD years, she learned in detail about the pharmaceutical industry and she also chaired the doctoral committee which tremendously helped her to understand the skills and the challenges faced by a PhD candidate. 

In this podcast, Sara also shares how she got her job as a recruiter and how this fits her previous experiences. Since Sara herself has travelled the path of a PhD, she understands the applicant’s journey, which allows her to help, advise and recruit graduates in the science and technology fields.

Do you want to know more? Listen to this interesting and insightful episode. Enjoy!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/sandersson

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During your PhD, have you ever thought if the world actually needs your research? Would people want to use your product?

In this episode, Tina Persson and Sajni Haria discuss the entrepreneurial mindset that PhDs can train themselves with if they start thinking of the bigger picture of commercialising their research. Sajni also reminds us of how PhDs do not just have an academic skill set but also a vast set of transferable skills that can help them translate their research. 

Sajni holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham and currently is a Business Development Manager at the National Institute of Health and Care Research. She supports the Life Science industry to navigate the UK’s clinical research ecosystem whilst providing her business acumen.

Sajni also talks about how she transitioned from a doctoral researcher to a Business Development Manager where she helps to push research technologies forward, and finds opportunities for implementing these technologies in the real-world setting by fostering collaborations, thereby improving the quality of life of patients. 

Listen to this episode to know more about Sajni’s insights. 

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/sharia

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When attending the third Max Planck Career Fair at Harnack-Haus in Berlin earlier this fall, we got the chance to talk to Katrin Franke, Professor of Computer Science and Head of the NTNU Digital Forensics group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

In this episode, we talk to Katrin about her decision to pursue an academic career and the reason why she moved to Norway. We also get to hear her thoughts on networking and how important it is to build a culture of sharing.

Getting a PhD is only level 1 in Super Mario. At level 2, we need to reorientate ourselves.

- Dr Katrin Franke, Professor of Computer Science at NTNU, Norway

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you realized the need for a fresh job title that better aligns with your responsibilities and skills? In this episode of PhD Career Stories, join our host Elisabeth Reithuber as she sits down with Martin Trinker, the Director of Business Development and Fundraising at the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB) to explore the intriguing journey of creating a new job position from scratch.

Martin's journey exemplifies the potential that lies in identifying gaps, embracing diverse skill sets, and creating one's own path in the professional world. Discover how Martin identified a crucial need and forged his unique position, combining his PhD in biotechnology with a background in economics. As the conversation unfolds, Martin shares valuable advice on networking, continuous learning, and adapting to new challenges.

Don't miss this episode full of inspiration and invaluable insights. Tune in to PhD Career Stories to hear Martin Trinker's incredible journey from a biotechnology PhD to a leader in business development and fundraising.

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/mtrinker

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In 2011, after his PhD in Marine Microbiology at the Max

Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Dennis Fink started a company on science communication (get back to episode #20 to hear more!). Six years later, he changed his path again to become a social media expert at one of the biggest biotech companies.

In this episode, he tells about the tasks of a social media campaign manager and the skills required for this job. He also shares his thought of why it is important for scientists to be active on social media.

“As a scientist, you should not be scared about the use of social media. Actually, contrary to this, you should use social media, you should use career networks, because it will make your life easier, especially, your professional one.”

Dr. Dennis Fink, Campaign manager and social media channel expert at QIAGEN GmbH, Germany

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Kathleen Champlin graduated with a doctorate in Contemporary American Literature from Ball State University in Indiana (USA) in 2015. Currently, she is an online writing tutor with Pearson's Smarthinking and a copyeditor for several companies.

In this episode,  Kathleen will provide an example of a disabled PhD's career transition in the humanities. From her story, you can learn how her disability impacted her academic and professional paths and how she was able to overcome the many barriers that came up along the way.

Kathleen will also share how her love for the written word has been a driving force throughout her journey and how she hopes to contribute to a world without ability barriers.

Enjoy listening!

For show transcript click here:
https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/odduft04

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Are you curious why soft skills are crucial for your career growth?
Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this podcast is your gateway to practical tips, real-life examples, and expert insights that will help you harness the full potential of soft skills.

In today’s episode, our host Tina Persson will have a roundtable discussion with our guests Patricia Carvajal, David Morrow, Antonio L. Andreu (Toni) and Alex Gardiol from EATRIS.
EATRIS is a non-profit, European research infrastructure for translation medicine that focuses on improving and optimising preclinical and early clinical development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics, and overcoming barriers to health innovation.

Join them as they talk about soft skills and reveal why they hold the key to unparalleled success in any professional setting. From effective communication to taking risks and being able to adapt, these hidden gems go beyond technical expertise, empowering you to thrive in the job market.

Remember, in the competitive job market, it's not just about what you know but how you apply it. Soft skills make the difference, so let's dive in and elevate your career to new heights. Stay tuned!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/eatris

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In this episode, João tells us about his career story and professional journey, holding several roles in different Life Science fields and different countries. He talks about the reasons that led him to do a PhD, as well as the opportunities and challenges encountered along his path.

He closes the episode sharing valuable tips:

• If you are not 100% set on an academic career, find an industry experience as soon as possible.
• If you are considering a PhD position, make sure you have an affinity with your supervisor and future colleagues. It is also important to be fine with working conditions, infrastructure, resources and city. 
• Participate in work groups of your topics of interest.
• Do not be afraid to contact researchers or interesting entities to get to know more about their work and to work in collaborations.
• If you are finishing or have just finished your PhD and are set on breaking from academia, first explore what career options are available, get information and talk with professionals from different areas. Define the area to pursue and develop the requirements to break into that area.

To know more about João’s story and the opportunities in the Life Science fields, please listen to this episode.

Welcome to today episode where Dr. Evelina Kulcinskaja tell us the story of her transition from academia to industry. Evelina received her PhD in biochemistry at Lund University in 2015. After that she did a 2-year post-doc at the University of Nottingham, UK, doing research on biocatalysis. She now works as a lab manager at a pharmaceutical company, taking care of day-to-day operations in a laboratory that does analysis by mass spectrometry.

Evelina will also share with us some reflections on her journey, as well some useful tips and tricks for researchers in different stages of their careers.

”As a PhD student, I learned lots of transferrable skills, such as compiling and sorting information, written and oral communication, negotiation with your supervisor, team work in the group, as well as a broad range of laboratory skills.”

If you are curios Evelina’s story and get some tips, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy listening!

A year ago, [Tina] talked to Michele. At that time, he was a PhD student looking for a job in industry. […] “I have a feeling that you have a lot of energy; would you like to share what you have learned with other people so that you will make life easier for them? Because, you see, I have a dream and a vision to start a podcast.” And Michele said, “Why not? I would love to! I don’t know how to do it, but I can probably learn.” 

To learn how this story continued to where we are now just click and listen...

In this episode Pearl Osirikeshares her story and some of the most important lessons she has learned during her PhD so far. Pearl is a biochemist with an interest in drug discovery and infectious diseases. She holds a first-class degree and a masters degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria, where she also serves as an Assistant Lecturer. Currently, she is a second year PhD student of Molecular and Cell Biology of Infectious Diseases at the West African Centre for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana. 

 Pearl is passionate about teaching and research and she is excited to share her story to motivate and inspire others.

To learn more about Pearl’s story, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

For complete show notes and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. 

Dr. Naresh Thatikonda, a senior scientist at Cobra Biologics shares his story and about his transition from academia to industry. Naresh did his undergraduate study in India and continue his education in Sweden. He has a PhD in Biotechnology, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His plan was to pursue an academic career but after PhD, he changed his mind and started his career in industry.

If you are curious about Naresh’s transition from academia to industry , please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

In episode 15 of PhD Career Stories, Jo Havemann returns for a “tips & tricks”-themed podcast on why it is crucial to be aware of your audience when writing about your research.

Dr Johanna Havemann works as a trainer and consultant in Science Communication for Universities and research institutions in Europe and Africa (access2perspectives.com). Follow her tweets about #scicomm and other topics of interest at @johave.

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In this episode, Tina interviews Lauran Fuller. Lauran is a mother of three, an entrepreneur, and a doctoral student. For the past 7 years, she has owned and operated a dessert bakery in southern Oklahoma. She wants to take the lessons learned along her journey and educate others. She is particularly keen on self-development and work-life balance, as prioritizing her family has posed its own challenges along the way. Focus and determination drive her every step of the way, as her educational pursuit has not slowed her entrepreneurial spirit.

Lauran talks about her experience being an entrepreneur and a mother at the same time. Having her own business has given her the flexibility to successfully manage her family. She closes the interview with valuable tips to women having entrepreneurship and leadership career goals:

• Nail down your passion and your desires
• Design a life that fits that
• Pursue it- Don’t let anything stop you and stand in your way
• Make sure you decide what to do and how to do
• Find the community that supports your decisions and directions.

Listen to this episode to hear more about a good example of a woman entrepreneur who successfully maintains her work-life balance, managing doctoral studies, a bakery and 3 kids!

Girish Kedar was born and brought up in Mumbai, India. For his higher studies, he moved to Sweden in 2009 and since then he studied and worked in different European countries like Sweden, Germany, and The Netherlands. He holds pharmacist degree from India and PhD in Neuroscience from Vrije University, Amsterdam. After a big struggle in finding the right job in the pharma industry, Girish came up with a plan B -- he started his own business and founded The GLOVERK Consultancy, which is based in Amsterdam and provides services to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Along with Europe, GLOVERK also has an office in Pune, India.

Girish is also a student ambassador in Vrije University and an independent Career Coach for PhD and Post-Doctorate candidates.

In this episode, Girish contemplates about mistakes he made that complicated his job search and shares advice on how to avoid them. He also describes how the personal strengths he developed during his PhD helped him in the hard task of starting his own business.

“Throughout PhD career, everyone thinks only about two options: either academia or industry. But I believe, PhD is way beyond that -- PhD prepares you for an even harder and better journey, where you can build up your own empire”

Dr. Girish Kedar, PhD in Neuroscience, Entrepreneur, Career Coach

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Dr Magnus Eneberg defended his PhD thesis Beyond the Product - Enabling Design Services in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises at Lund University in 2015. After working as a controller for a couple of years, Magnus returned to academia by studying theory architecture and design management. The latter led him into projects that had a focus on innovation with a design perspective. Currently, Magnus holds a position as a researcher, lecturer and project manager at KTH - The Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm.

In this episode he will tell you about his journey from being a PhD student to working as a service designer in a public organization within healthcare. Magnus reflects over the differences between academia and the “real world” and how one can translate ones academic skills to the skills one need to work in a company or organization.

Becoming a PhD student gave me the opportunity to explore not only the subject area of design, and innovation, organization learning, but also myself. Digging into the ontology and epistemology - it was great time to look at how I view the world, to put words on who I was or who I am.

- Dr. Magnus Eneberg, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Sam Dupont is a Researcher and an Associate Professor in Marine Eco-Physiologist at the University of Gothenburg and an Honorary Assistant Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, Hong Kong University. His main research topic is on the effect of global changes on marine species and ecosystems.

He currently has about 150 publications in journals including Nature, PNAS and TREE. His work aims at revealing the mechanisms behind species and ecosystem responses to environmental changes and at developing the needed unifying theory for large scale projections.

"To study without passion was never an option for me and I early decided that all my decisions should always be based on passion, not on potential jobs, not on potential positions.”

- Dr. Sam Dupont, Associate Professor at University of Gothenburg

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In this podcast, Tina Persson interviews Bärbel Tress. Bärbel is a Research Career Expert & Advisor. Her main expertise is to advise young researchers how to successfully conduct and complete their PhD studies, how to apply for academic jobs, and how to improve research performance and efficiency.

Bärbel has a PhD in Landscape Ecology from Roskilde University, Denmark.  She worked in academia for more than a decade, as postdoc, researcher and lecturer at universities in several European countries. She co-founded TRESS ACADEMIC in 2007 together with her partner. The company helps researchers acquire the complementary skills they need to succeed in academia. Bärbel also co-founded the SMART ACADEMICS Blog which helps young researchers with PhD completion, getting published, and career tips. 

Different time points in the PhD journey are discussed in this interview together with the required actions. What to do and what to think about from the first day of signing the contract, at half-way through, the last year of the PhD, when 6 months are left, when one month is left and lastly the D-day: the defense day. 

Bärbel finally closes the interview sharing five valuable tips that help PhDs to successfully complete their PhD studies. 

1- Enjoy the ride

2- Keep the end in mind

3- Define your objectives early on

4- Start writing early on

5- Work on the relationship with supervisors

Listen to this episode for valuable advices from two career coaches with a lot of expertise in accompanying PhDs along their PhD journey.

Dr Kate Evans, Founder and Director of charity called Elephants for Africa, shares her story and tell us how her passion and interests in elephants shaped her career.

Kate is an award winning behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist who conducted

her PhD ‘The behavioural ecology and movements of adolescent male African elephant in the Okavango Delta, Botswana’ through the University of Bristol. With over 20 years of experience as a field biologist throughout Southern Africa on a variety of species, she has a solid understanding of the challenges of large mammal conservation, the complexities of conflict and the importance of stakeholder relationships.

Kate is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group, Elephant Specialist Advisory Group and the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre.

If you are curios how Kates interest shaped her career, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

Are you one of the people who feels shy about using LinkedIn? Do you know about its potential but still hold back, in fear of having nothing worth sharing? You are definitely not the only one, and today’s guest has some wisdom to share! Join our host, Elisabeth Reithuber, for an inspiring talk with Ashley Ruba, a psychology researcher turned UX researcher and career coach.

Ashley is a psychologist by training, holding a PhD in Developmental Psychology from University of Washington, a field where she also did a post doc, before jumping into the world of user experience (UX) research. Today, she works as a human factors engineer at the medical technology company Arthrex, in Florida, USA, while also juggling a career coaching program for academics, After Academia.

Today, Ashley tells us all about how she used LinkedIn and other social media to pivot from academia into a completely different industry, her path to get to her current job, and how the way people resonated with her words inspired her to make a second career out of helping PhDs advancing their careers. She also tells Elisabeth about the skills that were transferable to her new job and the things that she had to, instead, unlearn.

Among other things, Ashley advises you to pick a career niche to focus on, emphasizes how important a branding tool LinkedIn is, and gently nudges you to lose your inhibitions in order to connect with people who will help propel you towards your dream job!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/aruba

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Michele Manzo started his career change in April 2015, after completing his PhD in Applied Physics at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden. In this episode of “PhD Career Stories”, Michele tells the story about his journey from academia to industry, which lasted almost a year. We learn how Michele, after a few hundreds of applications and with a little reverse engineering of the job hunting system as well as the willingness to completely reinvent himself, was able to land his current position as Electronic Design Engineer.

Elvira Ganic is back for another uplifting episode and this time she shares her best tips and tricks from her job hunt experience when transitioning from academia to industry. Amongst other things, she explains why a growth mindset will help you succeed and also make the journey more enjoyable.

Elvira received her PhD from the Stem Cell Center of the Lund University. After her defense, through the career coaching sessions with Tina Persson and the long job searching process with 27 interviews, she landed on the position of the Regulatory Affairs Specialist at a pharmaceutical and medical device company in Malmö in Sweden.

Want to know more about Elvira? Listen to her inspiring story on how coaching changed the way she sees herself and her skills: #068: Elvira Ganic Story.

"The other thing that was also defining for me was getting over this feeling of failure. I remember getting my first rejection. I found it very difficult and of course you feel like you failed and you wonder what you could do better, you take it personally."

- Dr. Elvira Ganic, Regulatory Affairs Specialist

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Welcome to episode 100 of Phd career story, where we have a round table discussion with 9 members of our team.

In this episode we talk about the impact that Phd career stories have had on Phds around the world, based on comments we have received. We also talk about what we have learned from Phd stories and working as a team in the last 3 years.

This is the last episode for now, but we will be back in 6 to 9 months with the new beginning.

Stay healthy!

In episode 42 of PhD Career Stories, Anestis Dougkas returns for a tips & tricks-themed podcast. In this episode, we learn more on how you can prepare for an international career and become part of the global workforce.

Dr Anestis Dougkas is the researcher that take on the daily challenges in order to create a healthier world by making nutrition accessible. Currently, he is a Researcher in nutrition, health and eating behaviour at the Centre for Food and Hospitality Research at Institut Paul Bocuse, Lyon, France. He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece with a four-year B.Sc. degree in chemistry with specialization in biochemistry and food chemistry. He then continued his studies and received a M.Sc. in food science and nutrition and a Ph.D. in nutrition, within the Nutritional Research Group at University of Reading, UK. His Ph.D. work focused on the associations between consumption of dairy products and the risk of obesity. Specifically, he undertook epidemiological research and human dietary intervention trials, which investigated the effect of dairy on appetite regulation. In 2011, he got a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Food for Health Science Centre, Lund University, Sweden.

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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Prateek Mahalwar is originally from India and completed his PhD under the supervision of Nobel laureate Prof. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany. During this time, he studied the cellular mechanism of pigment pattern formation in zebrafish. Beside his PhD research, he was involved in several initiatives with Max Planck Society (MPG) stakeholders as the spokesperson and deputy spokesperson of the Max Planck PhDnet in 2015 and 2014 respectively. He has represented the MPG at several internal and external initiatives like Opencon (a global open science initiative), Early Career Researchers (ECR) advisory board member at eLife, science policy meetings with Science Europe and Open Access Ambassadors program at MPG.
He has been an entrepreneur as well and co-founded two start-ups in parallel to his PhD studies. Currently, he is working as Manager Strategy - Life Sciences at Ernst & Young in Frankfurt. His work includes advising biotechnology, pharma and MedTech companies on investment, product commercialization and digitization topics.

In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Niba Audrey Nirmal, a science communicator. Niba is dedicated to hosting and producing science videos related to plants, skincare and cosmetics. If you are curious, you can find Niba’s work on her YouTube channel NotesByNiba.

During the interview, she shares her career path and talks about her decision to not pursue her PhD further. She also tells us about the factors that drove her to follow a career in Science Communication.

In addition, she openly talks about her confidence levels in pre- and post-academia times, her journey in searching for a job outside academia and finally she shares her networking strategies.

At the end of the conversation, she gives some important tips for all graduates:

• Do not isolate yourself! Be communicative with your support network (family, friends, etc) and ask for help when you need it. They are there to help you!
  
  
• Every time you have an informational interview with someone related to your career interests, ask them to recommend three other people from their network so that you can build your own network further.   
  
  
• A steady workload does not mean you are not doing enough in your career. 

Are you making a transition from academia?
If so, you should definitely listen to this episode and take these tips with you.

Enjoy this episode!

For show transcript click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/qzm8y2t9

PhD Career Stories is now on major social media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and on our Website.

In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Elena Itskovich and Ofer Yizhar Barnea. Elena has a PhD in stem cell biology from the University of Cambridge. She volunteers for ScienceAbroad and has hosted the macadamia podcast. Ofer has a Ph.D in Human molecular genetics. He has served 6 years as an officer and ran a RnD team of physicists  and mathematicians. In parallel he is a co-founder of a company that has been growing and evolving for 3 years now. 

The main topics discussed in this podcast are the importance of networking and digital presence. Listen to this episode to learn about how to grow your network both online and offline. Important tips for PhDs are to start the networking process early and to leave the comfort zone to be able to expand their network.

Data Scientist is often called “the hottest job of the 21st century”, but what makes it so attractive? And how can a PhD-graduate transition into this field?

Chris Armbruster, a PhD graduate in Sociology from the Lancaster University, spent two years at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy studying the emerging R&D and innovation landscape in Europe.
Later he has moved “from innovation research to doing innovation” and first worked on rolling out digital infrastructures for the Max Planck Society, and then dived into start-up life in a variety of roles encompassing digital technologies, customer-centric business models, and product development.
Today he is a Director of Community Development at The Drivery - the mobility innovators' club in Berlin, which goal is to push for innovation in the mobility sector, e.g. autonomous driving, electric kickscooters.
His key mission is to cover the shortage of talent for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, more specifically for roles in Data Analytics, Data Science, and Machine Learning in Europe.
He writes a blog on Medium about Data & AI field and professional opportunities and drives the “10,000 Data Scientists for Europe” initiative, which we can be found on Eventbrite, Meetup, and Facebook.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

Are you looking forward to pursuing a postdoc career in the USA? Are you living in Europe, but dreaming of a long-term career in the USA? Are you looking forward to pursuing a postdoc career in the USA? Then this is an excellent episode for you as Tina Persson and Thalyana Stathis extensively discuss the application strategies for a postdoc position in the USA. 

Thalyana Stathis is the Associate Director of the Office of Career and Professional Development for postdocs and PhD students at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in NYC. As a career advisor, she supports hundreds of students and postdocs in each stage of their career planning. She also directs workshops for career exploration and navigating the job market for all academic and non-academic career paths.

Tina and Thalyana talk about the common mistakes that many PhDs do when applying for a postdoc application. One of the great tips from Thalyana is about how to use your current network to reach out to your future research lab/company. Thalyana also provides many tips regarding the different visa options.

If you have any questions about how to apply to postdoc positions at MSK, how to contact faculty members you are interested in working with, or how to learn more information about different labs at MSK, please feel free to email Thalyana Stathis at stathist [at] mskcc.org or connect with her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thalyanasmithvikos/).

Listen to this episode to know more about this in detail.

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/tstathis

PhD Career Stories is on all major Social Media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and our website.

In this podcast, Tina Persson interviews Adam Sierakowiak with a focus topic: the career transition into the pharmaceutical industry. Adam is a medical advisor at MSD since 2018. He has a master's degree in biomedical sciences from the Karolinska Institute, where he later pursued his PhD in neuroscience. 

Adam discusses the importance of learning the local language, of communicating the transferable skills as well as of knowing the industry language. He also talks about the importance and the need of networking. A good example on how to be memorable while approaching someone is also given in this episode. Different roles or job titles are found in the medical sector, but what do they really mean and which one suits us most? These are questions addressed in this podcast.

He finally closes the interview sharing three valuable tips for a successful career transition:

1- Network and learn industry language.

2- Highlight your personal skills instead of technical skills

3- Don’t give up 

Don’t miss this episode. You will definitely enjoy it!

In episode four of “PhD Career Stories” Tina Persson returns for a “tips & tricks”-themed episode. In this podcast, we learn more on how we can prepare ourselves for our next career move by making an inventory of our skills and rewriting our CV:s.

In this episode, Tina Persson talks to Mark Herschberg about how to learn to become an entrepreneur. Mark’s recently published book “The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You” gives deeper insights into this topic.

Mark has a diverse background ranging from Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Cryptography, to extensive business expertise. His wide experience has enabled him to launch and develop new ventures at start-ups and Fortune 500s. In addition to this, Mark also annually teaches in the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, famously known as MIT's “career success accelerator”.

During the conversation, Tina asked Mark about who is an entrepreneur, how to train to become an entrepreneur, and what are the challenges in it. Mark addresses these questions and many more such as describing types of entrepreneurs, the required mindset, and how to find business opportunities.

Finally, Tina inquired about his three top tips for starting a company:

• Create a supportive business network in different fields.
  
  

• Look for a co-founder, make sure you are compatible, and make written agreements.
  
  

• Don’t worry about being right. Just try not to be wrong. It means that when you build a product, you should keep other possible options around as long as you can, and at the lowest costs possible.
  
  

Is being an entrepreneur the next chapter in your life? If so, you cannot miss this episode!

Enjoy listening!

For show transcript please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/mherschberg

PhD Career Stories is now on major social media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and our Website.

Welcome to this new episode where Dr. Francesca Cappellini shares her experience about her career path as a scientist. Dr. Francesca Capellini is working as a researcher for the non-profit organization Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, she is also a scientist writer and a science communicator. In this episode, she talks about the common mistakes done while applying for a job or position as well as how she prevailed over those. Would you like to know how she overcame her circumstances? Listen to this episode.

If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don´t hesitate to contact us. Enjoy listening!

Matt Hotze graduated with a doctorate in Environmental Engineering from Duke University in 2008 and he is currently Administrative Director at Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Engineering Research Center.

From his story, you will learn how almost failing the GRE exam brought him to the managing position he has now and how to apply business principles in academia and life. 

Matt also shares his experience with the dual-career challenge that many PhD couples face after their graduation and offers good advice on how to find a job and keep a relationship at the same time. 

We are joined by Joakim Muschött who is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) that has coached leaders at all levels in Sweden and internationally. Amongst other things, Joakim is the Founder and CEO of Skifta Utveckling AB – a company that train leaders and specialists to think straighter and thus helping them to perform better.

Joakim holds a bachelor within dramatics, musicology and law and has been working as a theatre producer, restaurant manager, translator, travel agent and a financial assistant. Recently, he fulfilled one of his dreams - he published his first book on the topic “Courage” (Mera mod! : bejaka din rädsla och våga mer).

In this episode, Joakim converse with his son Johan Bertil Muschött about the method coaching and how you as a PhD student or PhD can benefit from professional coaching. He also talks about the different occupations and how they differ and what services you may expect as a coachee.

"Coaching is a method for helping others grow and develop."

- Joakim Muschött, ICF Professional Certified Coach, Sweden

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

Samer Yammine has a PhD in Cancer Epigenomics from Karolinska Institutet. He is professionally passionate about design, user experience, innovation and business development and has extensive experience in problem-solving and creative solutions within the biotech sector. Nowadays, Samer have one foot in academia as a project leader at the Unit for Bioentrepreneurship at Karolinska Institutet with the main task to develop graduate courses for PhD students and the other foot within biotech industry and the startup world as Director, Co-Founder/CTO of Karmagenes.co and Chairman, Co-Founder/CTIO of CelFIT.co

We are joined by Dr Åsa Burman who has a broad background and professional experience from business, academia, and social entrepreneurship. Amongst other things, Åsa is the Founder and CEO of Finish On Time - a company that helps graduate students, postdocs, and other academics to finish their academic work on time and feel well during the process. So far, over 1000 PhD students, supervisors, professors and researchers have participated in conferences and seminars organised by Åsa and her colleagues Johanna Clausen Ekefjärd and Henrik Levinsson. Earlier this year, she also published her first book: Bli klar i tid och må bra på vägen: Handbok för doktorander (Natur & Kultur, 2017) which is to be translated into English during next year.

In addition, Åsa holds a PhD in Philosophy from Lund University and has also conducted research as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. After finishing her PhD, she started working as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company and then continued to work with social entrepreneurship. As of a few years ago, Åsa has returned to academia and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University.

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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Our guests today are the Max Planck Alumni Irene, Maria, Sneha and Arnold, whom we met at the 2nd Max Planck Symposium for Alumni and Early Career Researchers in Berlin in early September last year.

In one of the breaks, we got the chance to sit down with these inspiring people to discuss the importance of keeping in contact with peers through your alumni association. We also talk about how events such as the Max Planck Symposium for Alumni and Early Career Researchers can broaden your horizon on possible career opportunities after a PhD and also help build a network that bridges academia and the industry.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

On this very first episode of our new podcast “PhD Career Stories”, Tina Persson talks about her career story and how her experiences inspired her to start this podcast. We learn how Tina, after 20 years in academia, finally found her dream job as an Professional Academic Career Adviser and Coach supporting PhD students, researchers and professionals to find career possibilities.

Are you a recent or soon-to-be PhD graduate trying to figure out the next steps? Have the events of the past few years gotten you interested in Science Communication? In this episode, you will hear from Katharina Schwaiger, who has been in a very similar spot!

Katharina holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the Technical University of Graz and currently works as a science communicator at the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), a position she took on while still finishing her PhD thesis!

In this episode, Katharina tells our host, Elisabeth Reithuber, how she became interested in pursuing a career in science communication after working on a SciComm project at ACIB and also after witnessing the disconnect between the scientific community and society, during the pandemic. They talk about Katarina’s experience juggling her new position with the final stretch of her PhD, and about which PhD skills can help you be a great science communicator…and which skills you might need to learn on your own!

Katharina’s warm advice touches on themes like finding your inner drive and learning to ask (for guidance, for a job…). Don’t forget, “sometimes, you have to feel the fear” and do it anyway!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/kschwaiger

PhD Career Stories is on all major Social Media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and our website.

In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska and Ola Samuelsson, who are co-founders of a global company called GE Hunter. They are experts in headhunting, recruitment and client advisory. 

They have 20 years of international experience in finding talents for the pharma, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), medical,  industrial and more sectors.
Ola Samuelsson specializes in roles within Finance, Supply Chain, IT and Manufacturing, while Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska’s expertise are roles within General Management, Sales, and Human Resources.

In the interview, the guests talk about the headhunting process such as identifying the most suitable candidates to the right companies and positions. This involves a well-structured process where candidates are coached to identify their interests and motivations. Finally, they match what candidates are looking for with the client’s expectations and vice-versa. 

At the end of the episode, they share important tips for PhD candidates who are looking for jobs:

1. Be passionate about your interests.

2. Be motivated.

3. Be yourself.

4. Be social and communicate frequently.

Are you in the job searching phase of your career?

If so, you should definitely listen to this episode and take these tips with you.

Enjoy the interview!

For show transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/zgms85xt

PhD Career Stories is now on major social media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and on our Website.

Anne Schreiter advocates for researchers and scientists. At the German Scholars Organization she and her team offer guidance and programs to help PhDs on their career path – in academia and beyond. In this episode Anne talks about why she believes in planned coincidences and what question turned out to be the tipping point for her career.

Anne holds a PhD in Organization Studies and Cultural Theory from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Berkeley. She studied Communication in Social and Business Contexts and Sociology in Berlin before embarking on a year long adventure in China.

Today she lives and works in Berlin again.

You can connect with Anne on LinkedIn and Twitter. She shares posts on science policy, leadership topics, and occasionally also on the odd and curious.

Whether you want to become a professor or do something else, it helps to make yourself visible and heard. And after a while you won’t have to chase opportunities, but instead they will present themselves to you.

Dr. Anne Schreiter, Executive Director at German Scholars Organization e.V.

Transcript

Hi, I am Paulius Mikulskis from PhD Career Stories. It is my pleasure to introduce Anne Scheiter. In today's podcast Anne gives tips how to set yourself up for a successful career even when you do not know where you want to be in 5 or 10 years.

Hi, my name is Anne. I hold a PhD in the social sciences and have been working in the non-profit sector for the last 4 years. Today I’d like to share two pieces of career advice that have proven true for me on my professional journey thus far.

Number one: Answer the question how much you are willing to suffer for a career in academia.

Asked by a career counselor shortly after I finished my PhD, this question really hit me. It triggered me to actively question my career and life choices and forced me to figure out what I really wanted - because, quite frankly, during my time as a PhD student I never really thought about the next career step. I somehow drifted into my program and later into the great opportunity of being a visiting postdoc at the University of California Berkeley. I guess I really loved the atmosphere in academia, I loved the exchange with tremendously smart people, and the flexible lifestyle. But soon the doubts crept in, and this crafty question made them very obvious. I wasn’t so passionate about my research that it outweighed the disadvantages of an academic life, such as instability, a narrow job market, moving around a lot, you name it. I wanted to live in Berlin, I felt that I wanted my work to have an immediate impact, and I was more interested in hands-on tasks. However, for many PhD students and young postdocs such as myself back then, academia is the only path they’re familiar with - even though statistically, academia is the alternative career for PhDs. Questioning my priorities in life helped me to make an informed choice. Once I knew that the hardships of an academic career were not for me, I could then lead my energy towards pursuing another path. If however a career in academia is the right thing for you – go for it! But make it a proactive and informed choice. I can also highly recommend the TED talk by Ruth Chang on how to make hard choices.

Advice Number two: You don’t have to know what you want to do in 5 years – but you can set yourself up for lucky coincidences.

I am currently executive director of a non-profit that supports scientists and researchers who want to pursue a career in Germany – either in academia or in other sectors. My team and I do that by offering career coaching, facilitating career workshops, and developing and managing programs that fill gaps in the current funding landscape, for instance a leadership academy for academics, or a boost fund that supports independent and flexible research for postdocs. We’ve been building a network of PhDs, who work in all sectors, and are able to connect them with those researchers who are about to take the next step in their careers. I really like this job because it combines many things that I enjoy doing, while interfacing with a diverse intellectual community.

5 years ago, after having talked to the career counselor at UC Berkeley, I would have never guessed that I’d do what I do today. However, in retrospective the outcome wasn’t all pure chance and luck.

During my PhD studies I also worked as a research assistant. Back then I learned that I really enjoyed organizing workshops for fellow doctoral students, I enjoyed being an advocate for young researchers as representative on the university board, and that I was good at building and fostering networks. I felt more at home giving talks and managing people than evaluating data and writing on my own. That didn’t change while doing my postdoc.  

After I decided to look for a job outside of academia, I started to gather information on how to transition into another sector. I found resources in the United States, but hardly any in Germany. So I set up a blog about career topics and experiences for job searching beyond academia in German. Gaining traction with online visibility, I then conducted a bunch of informational interviews on life beyond academia, and landed some side hustles moderating panel discussions and writing. At the time, I was also working part time organizing a leadership program for students at a non-profit called Common Purpose. I got this job in Berlin after doing quite a bit of homework on how to build a CV and letter of motivation that appeals to the world outside of academia. Importantly, I highlighted my transferable skills and strengths, demonstrating what I could bring to the table in a non-academic sector with an academic background. There was trial and error in this process - before landing this job, I was rejected for positions I thought I was qualified for, but not having the right work experience wasn’t really helping that much.

However, only a few months after I got my foot in the door of my first non-academic job at Common Purpose, I received a call from a headhunter asking if I was interested in a leading position in a research management-related non-profit. As a sociologist with hardly any work experience in the sector, I was not at all used to getting this kind of call. Apparently someone working at the organization had suggested me as a potential candidate after talking to me at a conference and following my blog. I was curious and went through the application process. I honestly thought that I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting the job due to my lack of experience. But to my surprise, I did get an offer. I was intimidated at first by this new role – I’d never led a team before, never was responsible for the finances of an organization, or raised funds other than my own stipends. However, I quickly realized that my previous training had prepared me at least enough to learn these skills on the fly, and I find myself constantly learning on the job. This is a „transferable“ skill I carried with me from academia into my new role – analyzing problems, solving them in real time, quickly adapting my thinking to new information – that comes with PhD training regardless of the specific field. More important than the hard skills are communication and problem solving skills, the ability to deal with uncertainty, as well as understanding my target group of young academics.

To sum it up, whether you want to become a professor or do something else, it helps to make yourself visible and heard. And after a while you won’t have to chase opportunities, but instead they will present themselves to you. And by the way, I have no idea what I’ll be doing in 5 years. But I look forward to finding out.

I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Feel free to contact us on all the usual social media channels, have a great rest of your day and see you in two weeks!

Welcome to a new episode of PhD Career Stories. In today's podcast, Dr. Rui Cruz tells us about his career path and how he went from doing a PhD in biomedical sciences to starting up his own company, called Connecting Biotech. He also shares with us valuable tips and lessons he learned along his journey.

Looking back, I view my PhD as a process of self discovery, a process that allowed me not only to recognize my limitations and strengths, but it also allowed me to work on those weaknesses and strong points.

To know more about Rui’s story, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone willing to share his story, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Enjoy listening.

The career path of the guest of our today’s episode is anything but conventional. Dr. Andrew Quitmeyer studied Engineering and Film Making during his master’s degree. The trip to Galapagos deviated his direction and led him to pursue a tailor-made PhD degree at the crossing of Digital Media and Field Biology.

Today Dr. Quitmeyer describes himself as a hacker and adventurer, studying intersections between wild animals and computational devices. His academic research in “Digital Naturalism” at the National University of Singapore blends biological fieldwork and DIY digital crafting.

He runs “Hiking Hacks” around the world where participants build technology entirely in the wild for interacting with nature. His research also inspired a spin-off television series for Discovery Networks called “Hacking the Wild”.

The Digital Naturalism Conference is his largest initiative so far, and is leading him to start his own permanent Art-Science Field Station Fab Lab.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

In September 2018 Tina Persson attended the annual Max Planck alumni meeting in Berlin and had a chance to speak with the professor for Applied Mathematics and Physics Dr. Magda Schiegl.

Magda Schiegl made her PhD in Theoretical Plasma Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in 1996 and then had a long career in the financial and energy industry. In 2009 she decided to come back to science and teaching, but this time, instead of theoretical plasma physics research, she chose the practical field of Risk Management and Applied Mathematics. She got a professorship position at the University of Applied Science in Cologne and later moved to Landschut, Germany.

In this interview, Magda reflects upon how her experience as a PhD influenced her career and shares a tip on how to combine interests for the industry and practical problems with the passion for scientific research and education.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
• www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

Am I fit for a PhD? My experiments are going nowhere. Will I see the end of this PhD? I only have academic experience, how will I find a job in the industry?

Have you ever been in these situations? Our guest Marisa Pereira had asked herself these same questions, but today Marisa has successfully completed her PhD and transitioned to the biotech industry as a Project Manager. She also is the co-founder and owner of pic.cell, a unique company that designs textiles inspired by microscopic images.

In today’s episode, Marisa shares with us the highs and lows of her career path. She addresses how she overcame the snags during her PhD, how she started her brand pic.cell, and how - after 2 years of Postdoc experience - she landed in the biotech industry. Throughout the episode, Marisa shares many tips not just to survive but also to thrive while doing a PhD.

Last but not least, Marisa shares a vital piece of advice “....enjoy the journey. PhD is only a part of your life. In the end, what is interesting, is the knowledge that you [gained] as a professional but even most important as a person.”

If you want to learn more about Marisa’s story, listen to this episode now.

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/mpereira

PhD Career Stories is now on major social media channels. To receive more content regularly, follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and our Website.

In this episode, Tina Persson and Maria Sjögren look back at the first 10 episodes of the show and talk about some of the highlights during 2016 as well as what's in store for 2017.  

We are joined by Dr Per Olof Arnäs who is a logistics researcher, podcaster, public speaker, blogger and entrepreneur with an - as he puts it - unhealthy interest in the digitalization of transportation.

Per Olof has been working in, around, and with the logistics industry since the late 1980s, both as a professional and as a researcher. He has a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Logistics from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has also worked as a developer building sustainability tracking systems for the freight industry. Today, he is back as a senior lecturer at Chalmers after a long time in industry.

Apart from his research, Per Olof is also a podcaster and a keen social media enthusiast. His first podcast (Logistikpodden, in Swedish) is one of the the largest logistics podcasts in Sweden. Together with Lena Göthberg, he also runs the show Podgeek, a podcast about podcasting (in Swedish). During 2018, he will also launch his first international podcast, Logistics Rocks.

What is the feeling when you put your hand on the doorknob and enter your workplace? Do you feel happy or not? If not, you should look for something else.

- Dr Per Olof Arnäs, Senior Lecturer, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

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PhD Career Stories podcast marks its third anniversary!

We can hardly believe it ourselves, but we are extremely proud that for three years we managed to bring you every two weeks a new inspiring story from our speakers and share with you our thoughts about PhD life and - importantly - the life after it. 

We are also happy to say that we are not going to stop - our team is continuously growing and new exciting projects and ideas are waiting to be realized. So stay tuned and keep us in your podcast subscriptions!

To celebrate, one lovely summer evening a part of our team sat at the virtual round table to discuss one of the hardest topics in career development - how to stay resilient during the career transition? 

Tina Persson offered for this discussion the questions that helped to unfold the concept of "resilience" and brought interesting notions and personal tips from the team members Michele Manzo, Jo Havemann, Subbu Surrendran, and Natalia Stolyarchuk:

1. Why do so many PhDs stress out at the end of their PhD?

2. What is an academic “bubble” and how does it prevent PhDs from looking beyond their thesis?

3. What could help PhDs to be more confident and resilient in the process?

4. How - and why - shall we talk about failures? 

5. Why digital platforms such as FB and LinkedIn are still so unpopular among PhDs? 

6. Why is it so hard for many PhDs to just stay between jobs?

Listen to the episode to know what came out of it!

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Do you feel stuck? Do you tend to procrastinate taking the next steps in your career? If you want to find out why this happens and how to move forward, you should listen to today’s conversation with Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier and our host, Dr. Tina Persson.

Marie-Hélène is a trained psychologist who holds a PhD and an MBA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Throughout her career, she has had a prominent role within several organizations and publications in discussing important topics such as workplace mental health and leadership resilience, having authored an upcoming book on the topic, titled "The Resilience Plan”.

In this episode, in an almost coaching-session-like fashion, Marie-Hélène and Tina discuss common situations and cases they have found while helping people with their careers. They converse about how to move from thinking into action, practicing self-compassion, and gradually training exposure to stress in order to build resilience.

Marie-Hélène also emphasizes the importance of looking inward and grounding ourselves in our own values, despite external expectations. By the end of the episode, you will have heard advice about managing expectations and nurturing and investing in your brain - a sample toolkit that can help you “take the one first action” towards your next goal!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/mhpelletier

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Today you will have a chance to get to know Kajsa Hallberg Adu, who was born and raised in Sweden and nowadays lives and works in Ghana.

Kajsa Hallberg Adu is a lecturer in Communications, Leadership, and Political Science at Ashesi University. She holds a PhD degree in African Studies (University of Ghana) and a Master degree in Political Science (Uppsala University, Sweden).

Her research interests turn towards the future as she studies youth in Ghana and beyond, student migration, labor migration, knowledge societies, social media in the classroom, social media in elections, the intersection of internet freedoms and democratization, uses of augmented reality and decolonizing the academy. Outside of her academic career, Kajsa is a blogger and activist. 

In this episode, she tells what can help when you want to quit the PhD program, how activism and teaching are excellent companions to research, and what beckons after you have completed your dissertation and finally could sleep properly again.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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In this episode, the founder of the podcast Dr. Tina Persson discusses the question that every PhD faces sooner or later in his/her academic career: “Should I make a postdoc or not?”

Tina, being the professional career coach and recruitment specialist in the present and the assistant professor in the past, provides the unique perspective on this issue and gives valuable advice.

“In academia, we are trained to work hard, long hours, and tend to be very critical about our own achievements. That mindset must be re-evaluated to following: I can learn, I am not afraid to fail, I can ask for help, I like feedback, I can say “I don’t know”, and I contribute to a team.”

Dr. Tina Persson

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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Welcome to a special episode of PhD Career stories. Our guests today are Yorick Peterse and Maria Eichel, whom we met at this year’s Max Planck Symposium for Alumni and Early Career Researchers (#MPSAECR) in Berlin, Germany. At this symposium, Maria and Yorick conducted a workshop on Mental Health and also wrote an article about it on the blog of the Max Planck PhDnet entitled The Mental Health of PhD Candidates.

Today, Maria and Yorick will tell us how “normal” it is to encounter mental health challenges during a PhD, which sounds rightfully alarming. There are numerous preventive and coping measures that can ease the situation. Some of these lie in your own hands, some are – and should be – offered to you by the research institution. Let’s hear it from the experts, welcome Maria and Yorick!

When attending the third Max Planck Career Fair at Harnack-Haus in Berlin earlier this fall, we got the chance to talk to Dr David Alich who works at Capgemini Consulting as Principal for Insight & Data. We talk to David about his decision to leave academia, what he wished he had known before he started his PhD at the Max Planck Institute and how he landed his current position at Capgemini.

I was always asking myself this question: Are you working to live or are you living to work?

- Dr David Alich, Principal Insight & Data at Capgemini Consulting, Hamburg

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
• www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod
• www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories
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In episode six, Philipp Gramlich will show you that there are many more jobs out there for you to put Tina Persson's inventory from episode four to best use. He will bring in his experiences from industry, academia and as co-founder of NaturalScience.Careers along to enrich the "landscape" of jobs you will see in front of you.

Dr Priya Revathikumar is an Indian researcher with a pharmaceutical technology background that moved to Sweden in 2010 to do a Master’s project at Karolinska Institutet. Her interest for immunology and the brain led her to a PhD in Medical Sciences, which she finished in May last year.

Today, Priya works as a Failure Investigation Engineer at the molecular diagnostics company Cepheid AB.

In this episode, she shares her story on how she turned obstacles into opportunities while making the transition from academia to industry as well as some do’s and don’ts to consider along that path.

"There are a lot of people out there who really are willing to help people from academia to make the transition to industry. Reach out to these people and ask for feedback."

- Dr. Priya Revathikumar, Cepheid AB, Sweden

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
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Dr. Ali Al-Sawalmih is the director of the Marine Science Station (MSS) Research Institute in Aqaba, Jordan and a researcher on Marine and Coastal Sciences at the University of Jordan in Aqaba since 2012. He has prior 5 years of experience in Germany on Marine Calcification at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) in Germany. Dr. Al-Sawalmih earned the MSc degree in Physics at Stuttgart University / Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI FKF) in 2004, and PhD degree in marine materials at the RWTH Aachen University and Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (MPIE) in 2007.

“For one who wants to be a researcher first before becoming a director or a manager being organized can save time, can make your work perfect and it can make you avoid mistakes as much as possible.”

Dr. Ali Al-Sawalmih

Gunes Ozhan earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Middle East Technical University in 2003.

Shortly after, she was admitted to the Molecular Biology Program of International Max Planck Research School in Göttingen, Germany. She received her PhD in 2009, with her thesis on the molecular evolution of embryonic development in arthropods, which was conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen.

After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Biotechnology Center of TU Dresden and gaining experience in signal transduction and the zebrafish animal model, Dr. Ozhan was offered a PI position at iBG-izmir and moved to her hometown Izmir in 2014, to achieve her vision of establishing an independent lab in a top-notch biomedical research center in this lovely city.

Upon her return, she has been successively awarded Reintegration Fellowship of TUBITAK, EMBO Installation Grant, L'Oréal Turkey For Women In Science award, Academy of Science BAGEP award and Turkish Academy of Sciences GEBIP award.

Dr. Ozhan is a molecular and developmental biologist and made valuable contributions to our understanding of Wnt/β-catenin signaling regulation at the plasma membrane. At iBG-izmir, she explores the tight regulation of Wnt signaling that will reinforce discovery of novel drugs and its roles in adult zebrafish brain regeneration.

Fabian Taube studied Environmental and Health Protection, Chemistry and Education during his Bachelor and Master study at the Umeå University in Sweden and in 2003 he received a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry. After that, he continued experimenting with different subjects and had two postdocs - one at the Department of Chemistry, Environmental and Biogeochemistry and another at the Dept. of Teacher Education in mathematics, technology and Natural Sciences.
He also worked as an occupational hygienist at Sahlgrenska University hospital and from 2012 he is employed as a specialist in preventive medicine at the Swedish Armed Forces Centre for Defense Medicine (SWE CDM). 

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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In this podcast, Tina Persson, the founder of PhD Career Stories has an interesting interview with Dr. Laura Pozzi, who is currently working as a Scientific Writer for a Swedish Biotech, Atlas Antibodies, in Stockholm. Her role involves content creation and scientific marketing communication. Laura received her Ph.D. in Life and Biomolecular Science at the IRCSS-Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan in 2011.  After her graduation, she joined the Neuroscience Department at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where she worked as a postdoc until 2017. Her research interest focused on the identification of the molecular aspects of brain disorders.

If you are curious about how Laura stepped out of academia and started a new career, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

Martijn Bijker was born and raised in the Netherlands where he did both his Masters and PhD in immuno-oncology. In 2007 he moved to Sydney, Australia to start his postdoc at the Garvan Institute and 4 years later transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry where he consecutively worked as a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) with Abbott, AbbVie and Amgen.

He quickly realised that like him, many other PhD/Postdocs struggled to find good information to prepare themselves for the transition from academia into the pharmaceutical industry. This inspired Martijn to found his own career and coaching company.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
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In an age of misinformation, it has become essential for science to reach the public audience in a transparent manner. As a graduate in science, have you ever thought of communicating your science with the world? In this episode, Santoshi Devadas talks to Priya Rangan, who tells us everything about her journey to becoming a scientific communications specialist. 

Priya holds a PhD in Biology of Ageing and has 11 years of experience working in academic research and pharmaceutical settings. She transitioned to science communication because she is passionate about it. Priya wants to translate what scientists are doing in a way which makes sense to people who are completely outside of it. 

”...I do believe that scientific communication is a field that is going to change a lot of things within academia, within industry …and the general public,  [who] I think are the most important of all.”, says Priya.

At the end of the interview, Priya advised our listeners on the job hunt:

1. Set up your LinkedIn profile as well as you do it for your resume.
2. After meeting people either in person or online, send them a message explaining why you want to connect with them, rather than merely sending them a connection request. Make a connection with them.
3. Prioritise your mental health and know that your life is not just the lab or your job, it’s also everything else outside of it.

If you want to know more about how Priya aligned her life and career goals, while pursuing her passion, listen to this episode! Enjoy it!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/prangan

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Johanna Dutton is the Biomedical Engineer that after 10 years in industry decided to return to academia to pursue a PhD. She is also the Founder of Think Likely Resumes Service, a service providing do's and don’ts on how to design a CV or resume for industry as well as interview coaching.

In this podcast Johanna will share her best tips and tricks on resume writing. We will learn how we can make our application letter and CV stand out and why it’s important to demonstrate other skills than the academic ones. She will also provide key points on what to include as well as exclude from the resume in order to convince the hiring manager or recruiter to meet up for an interview.

You need to be able to show that you have other skills and abilities that make you a competitive candidate.

- Johanna Dutton, PhD Graduate and Founder of Think Likely Resumes Service

About Johanna

Johanna earned her BS in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and an MS in Analytical Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then worked as an analytical chemist for almost ten years at Eisai before accepting a position as a formulation scientist at Novartis Vaccines, now GSK Vaccines. Currently, Johanna is a PhD Candidate in the Joint Program of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State. She spends some of her free time reviewing and editing resumes for students that want to transition from academia to industry.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

• www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories
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In episode 31 of PhD Career Stories, Jenny Zie tells us about her journey from marine research to career coaching and what she has learned along that path.

Jenny Zie finished her PhD at Stockholm University in 2014 and since then worked as a researcher in industry and with competence development at the Swedish Government Offices (Regeringskansliet). Now she is working as a career coach at Uppsala municipality (Uppsala kommun).

In this podcast, Tina Persson,  the founder of PhD Career Stories has an interesting interview with  Dr. Martin Blaser, who is a postdoc coordinator and co-founder of the Max Planck PostdocNet.  He studied food and nutritional science in Giessen and continued his doctoral study in microbial biochemistry at the University of Marburg (2007). He continued his academic career as a postdoc and project group leader at the MPI for terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg until 2017. During this time he also was a postdoc representative. After spending over 10 years in academia, he took his first step out of academic system and became a career coach, a postdoc coordinator at the Justus Liebig University Giessen and  a co-founder of the Max Planck PostdocNet.

“Really the problem is that you focus on the academic track and a lot of people are really having biased idea that they can stay. Which isn't supported by the evidence in reality so much.”

Martin Blaser.

 If you are curios how Martin step out of academic career and started a new career, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy Listening!

For complete show notes and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. 

You can also find us on social media:

www.facebook.com/PhDCareerStories

www.twitter.com/PhDCareerPod

www.instagram.com/phdcareerstories

www.linkedin.com/company/phd-career-stories

In this new episode, Adriana Bankston tells us about her career story. Adriana is a Principal Legislative Analyst at the University of California Office of Federal Governmental Relations in Washington, DC, where she serves as an advocate for the university with Congress, the administration and federal agencies.

Adriana grew up in a family of scientists, which made her interested in pursuing a research career. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from Emory University and later on she managed to transition into science policy through a number of volunteering opportunities. While exploring the several options, she became interested in academic training and the connection between science and society and got involved in organizations that work on training the next generation of scientists. Along the way, she held some leadership positions where she built her brand in science policy coupled to training activities and got involved with non-profits that advocate for early career trainees. This has opened a new avenue to her to connect federal policy to university research and training the next generation of scientists. And made her realize that it is a path for her!

Finally, Adriana shares key skills and qualifications that one needs in science policy:

• Be used to fast-paced environments.
• Prioritize projects and be able to shift from one to another.
• Look at how you might be able to impact policy in real time by responding to agency requests for information or contributing to legislation.

Interested in policy and science? Listen to this episode to get insights into policy roles and skills for a career path in science policy. Maybe it will also be a path for you? Enjoy listening!

The interviewed author expressed their personal views and not the views of their employer.

For show transcript click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/z2hfd5ou

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Anestis Dougkas is a Researcher in nutrition, health and eating behaviour at the Centre for Food and Hospitality Research at Institut Paul Bocuse, Lyon, France. He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece with a four-year B.Sc. degree in chemistry with specialization in biochemistry and food chemistry. He continued his studies and received a M.Sc. in food science and nutrition and a Ph.D. in nutrition, within the Nutritional Research Group at University of Reading, UK. His Ph.D. work focused on the associations between consumption of dairy products and the risk of obesity. Specifically, he undertook epidemiological research and human dietary intervention trials, which investigated the effect of dairy on appetite regulation. In 2011, he got a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Food for Health Science Centre, Lund University, Sweden. His research interests are within the area of protein and appetite regulation, obesity prevention and sustainable diets. He is a member of the Nutrition Society, American Society for Nutrition and the Association for the Study of Obesity and alumni of the European Nutrition Leadership Platform.

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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Are you feeling left behind, questioning if your traditional methods are outdated in this era of AI tools? Do you grapple with ethical concerns when utilizing ChatGPT for specific tasks, feeling a sense of cheating? Or do you proudly embrace ChatGPT as your go-to solution for all your needs? Tina Persson and Joel Baker explore the importance of striking a balance between these approaches and bring together their insightful perspectives on these thought-provoking topics.

Joel Baker is an English coach from World English Coaches. His personal journey of learning Spanish ignited a passion within him to assist others in achieving their goal of fluent English communication. Joel specializes in coaching leaders and executives and through his coaching, he has successfully guided and supported over 500 individuals in achieving their goal of fluent English communication.

In this episode, Tina and Joel discuss how you can make use of ChatGPT for your needs but with certain limitations. They also dive into the do's and don'ts of incorporating ChatGPT into your application journey, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a human touch throughout the process. Last but not least, they emphasize the significance of staying up-to-date with the latest trends, while also cautioning against excessive reliance on AI tools that may hinder your personal growth.

Get ready to ignite your curiosity and delve into an exciting episode that explores the burning questions surrounding the integration of AI tools like ChatGPT into our lives. Stay tuned!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/jbaker

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Has your academic path lacked solid mentorship and support? Do you feel that, in order to move up, you need management skills that weren’t passed on to you during the PhD? Well, Flávia Sousa has “been-there, done-that” and in today’s episode she tells our host, Tina Persson, how she is working on making it easier for you!

Flávia Sousa holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from ICBAS, in Portugal, and is currently a Senior Scientist at Adolph Merkle Institute, in Switzerland. Her current goal is to become a full professor, and she is also the founder of her own company and passion project, LYRIS, which is focused on providing mentorship and courses for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

During the episode, Flávia talks about her drive to help other academics succeed in the less science-focused parts of their jobs, and how LYRIS came to be. While exploring her personal experiences in international environments, she and Tina talk about the most important skills for the future, such as language learning, teaching skills, and the ability to manage people.

Flávia also shares how crucial it is to choose a country where you will be happy even outside of work and a supportive supervisor, but she also highlights that, most of all, you should “enjoy life!” through it all!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/fsousa

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In episode 30 of PhD Career Stories, Åsa Burman returns for a tips & tricks-themed podcast. In this episode, we learn more on why shifting focus from what you are working with to how you are working will increase your productivity. In addition, we are presented with different productivity tools and how you can apply them to your own work situation.

Dr Åsa Burman has a broad background and professional experience from business, academia, and social entrepreneurship. Amongst other things, Åsa is the Founder and CEO of Finish On Time - a company that helps graduate students, postdocs, and other academics to finish their academic work on time and feel well during the process. So far, over 1000 PhD students, supervisors, professors and researchers have participated in conferences and seminars organised by Åsa and her colleagues Johanna Clausen Ekefjärd and Henrik Levinsson. Earlier this year, she also published her first book: Bli klar i tid och må bra på vägen: Handbok för doktorander (Natur & Kultur, 2017) which is to be translated into English during next year.

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Paulius Mikulskis is a Computational Chemist with a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from Lund University, now working as a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham. In this “tips & tricks”-themed episode, Paulius shares two tips which he found useful in his job search.

Professor Alfred Orina Isaac is a Pharmaceutical Scientist with a specific interest in Neuroscience. His research is focused in neurotoxicology and neuroprotection mechanisms in the brain. Currently, he is studying the neurotoxicity of Khat in a mouse model; and also the neuroprotection capability of naturally found compounds against neurotoxic drugs e.g. Melarsoprol. His long term goal is to start the first institute for brain research in Kenya and he has published a book entitled, “Scientific Writing for Students and Young Scientists”.

Sara Borniquel started her career as a scientist in Spain, before moving to Sweden in 2008. At Karolinska Institute she combined a postdoc position -leading a pre-clinical study about immune-inflammatory diseases- with two internships at KI Innovations AB and Stockholm-Uppsala Life Science. Since 2014, Sara has held several positions in industry including project management, marketing, and business development. Today she works as freelance consultant for Life Science companies, as recruiter (Rekryteringsspecialisten AB) and marketing & sales consultant (innoFund Innovation Funding Advisors) among others.

Sara holds a BSc in Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and has completed her education with various courses in Business and Marketing.

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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In episode 14, the PhD Career Stories founder Tina Persson returns for another “tips & tricks”-themed episode. In this podcast, Tina shares her experiences on how to get started with self-assessments and why it is important to grow your understanding about who you are and what you want and expect from your professional life to land your dream job.

Dr Filippo Guarnieri earned his PhD in theoretical physics in 2014. He is currently working as a postdoc in theoretical physics at NORDITA in Stockholm, Sweden and is the chair of the Max Planck Alumni Association. In this episode, Filippo will share his story about his transition from academia to entrepreneurship, which he is presently undertaking.

"Many PhDs aim to transition outside of academia. However, many PhDs also prefer to procrastinate this transition, further venturing into academia. Procrastination may provide additional time to better develop your transferable skills and find your mission in life, but may also come with a price."

- Dr. Filippo Guarnieri, Postdoctoral Fellow at Nordita

Don't miss out on any of our PhD Career Stories podcasts. Subscribe to the show in a way that suits you and say hello to us on social media!

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Sonia Jaeger is German-French psychologist, psychotherapist, and PhD.

She has been living a location independent life as a digital nomad for the past four years while working as an online therapist, providing online counselling to expats and other globally mobile clients in German, French, and English.

After finishing her PhD she decided to take a break and travel the world. However, instead of returning home afterwards she decided to start an online private counseling practice and has been traveling the world ever since.

In 2018 alone she went to (and worked from) 12 different countries, from Australia to Europe all the way to Latin America. Currently, she has not only started to mentor other psychotherapists who want to work online but also facilitates workshops that broach the issues of mental health while living globally.

You might have always wanted to be an academic, but what if your academic research brought up a groundbreaking technology that you knew could dramatically revolutionize industrial processes? Would you choose to stay in academia or pivot to industry and bring your idea to market? Well, it is possible to do both! 

This episode’s guest, Simon Rittman, shares with our host, Tina Persson, all about his experience with founding a company while still holding a position in academia.

Simon Rittmann is the CSO and co-founder of Arkeon, a biotechnology company focused on alternative food production technologies. Additionally, he serves as the Principal Investigator at the Archaea Physiology & Biotechnology group at the University of Vienna, where he also shares his passion through teaching.

Simon and Tina discuss the crucial steps and the strategic planning that go into building a start-up as an academic, highlighting the importance of finding the right people to help bring one’s entrepreneurial vision to life. Further in the episode, they delve into the personal qualities needed to take the leap.
They also talk about the concept of a dual career, how to keep “one foot in academia, one foot in the industry”, the motivations behind that choice, and how to manage both. 

With Simon’s advice, you will learn that you can have the best of both worlds, if only you are flexible, open to personal growth and pick the right business-minded people to complement your scientific skills and build a great team! Stay tuned!

For the transcript, please click here: https://phdcareerstories.com/pub/srittmann

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In this episode, Tina Persson interviews the associate professor Erik Alexandersson from the  Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp (SLU).

Erik has a background in plant molecular biology, and he is currently studying the interaction between potatoes and pathogens, as well as potato defense mechanisms both in the laboratory and in the field. He is also leading a project on biofortification of cassava. Half of the time Erik is the director of PlantLink - a collaboration between Lund University and SLU to strengthen plant research in Southern Sweden. For a couple of years, he had also worked as an in-house editor at BioMed Central publisher in London before he decided to come back into the academic career.

Erik will reflect on his career choices and discuss with Tina how the series of life events may lead to the dream job and what you need to sacrifice for it.

“Dare and make the step, and move between environments, and going between countries. Because, I think, you learn and develop so much from seeing different systems. So if you have the possibilities, do not hesitate. Make a move!”

- Dr. Erik Alexandersson

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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We are very happy to welcome Lina Tengdelius back to the show, this time to provide us with a tips & tricks-themed podcast on how to find a job after a PhD. In this episode, we learn more on how to structure our CV:s in the best way, what to write in a motivation letter and how to perform successfully in job interviews.

Dr Lina Tengdelius holds a MSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Materials Science with specialisation in Thin Film Physics from Linköping University, Sweden. She recently transitioned from academia to a role as a Consultant Manager at Dfind Science & Engineering. She works with recruiting people with a science background and reads a large number of CVs from PhDs every day.

"If you can’t motivate why you want the job more specifically than writing that it sounded interesting, maybe you don’t really want the job?"

- Dr Lina Tengdelius, Consultant Manager at Dfind Science & Engineering, Sweden

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the podcast, visit www.phdcareerstories.com. You can also find us on social media:

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