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Original poster

Please help me work out what to do with my career!

7 replies

Hopelessacademic · 29/07/2022 11:40

Hi Everyone, I need help to work out what to do with my career, and hoping someone can help me! (I've name changed in case this gets identifying)

The background:
I did well at school, did a Physics degree, an MSC, and then a PhD in Audio (trying to be vague for now!).
I then got a really good (on paper) 3 yr postdoc at a great Uni, which to be honest hasn't been great. Due to covid parts of the project were shelved, and I ended up working on something I wasn't particularly interested in, and not super well-suited for though just about capable at. I do however love the general research area (hearing aids), which is a bit of a step away from my PhD.

My manager is ridiculously busy so I think I've been left to my own devices a bit too much, I live 3 hrs from the Uni so mostly work remotely as well which hasn't really helped.
I also had 10 months maternity leave in the middle.

My job ends in September and I've secured another postdoc at a less-prestigious institution to start in October. This one is in the same area but I hope will be a better fit to my skills, but it'd only 27 months. I'm 7 weeks pregnant again so will be taking another maternity leave (probably shorter as I didn’t enjoy it at all last time).

So now, I'm really starting to question if academia is for me long term! I'm sick of the instability of short term contracts, sick of the politics and poor salaries. I feel a bit like I just floated into this career, instead of actively choosing it if you see what I mean.

Yes I'm clever, but I feel like I have skills that aren't being used - I'm great at planning things, finding creative ways to make things work. I'm creative, resourceful, efficient, and get on well with most people. I feel wasted sitting behind a computer making technical programs.
The obvious thing I'm almost qualified for is software development, but I fear that won't solve my problems. I'm beginning to suspect I have ADHD as I struggle to concentrate at work and I want something more active, dynamic and varied.
I have taught in the past but I don’t really want to do that. I'm not very keen on other people's children or the general public either!
I've been wondering about project management but that seems to be a very broad term… I could retrain a bit but years of study isn't really an option. If I could go back in time I should have done medicine and been a surgeon or something!

If you made it through all this, thanks! Any thoughts welcome!

OP posts:
aridapricot · 29/07/2022 18:03

I do not have any great advice OP but have you thought of having a chat with the Careers Service at your uni? At many places they offer advice to post-docs and not just students.
And while re-training as a surgeon might seem like a daunting prospect - are there any other careers in healthcare that might require a shorter re-training period? What attracts you to being a surgeon - is it the variety and challenge of the work itself, or is it working in a healthcare environment/doing something objectively "good" for people? If the latter, maybe a look at the NHS careers website might give you an idea of what kinds of positions you might be able to apply to with your current qualifications?

frustratedacademic · 30/07/2022 13:45

Have you thought of research management? Something with research councils/UKRI, or Wellcome? Post docs are a miserable way to forge a career, especially with children in tow. There are also secondments in government sometimes on offer. See if your university has a careers in industry advisory service.

parietal · 31/07/2022 22:55

it sounds to me like work-from-home has not been good to you and you would really benefit from a job where you are in the office and are talking to people and engaged in stuff. In my lab (not unrelated), we are in-and-out of each others offices a lot, and having plenty of dynamic interesting conversations. All the things like project management and problem solving and people skills are important all the time. It is much harder to make these things work when people are remote.

otoh, there are plenty of jobs outside academia where that is also true. If you have good coding skills there are a lot of well-paid jobs in Data Science and related technical areas that also involve a lot of people skills and project management. e.g. consultancy with Deloitte (or other firms) where you have a 6-8 week project to work with a team and produce a report, and then move on to the next topic and the next report.

Original poster
Hopelessacademic · 01/08/2022 12:10

aridapricot · 29/07/2022 18:03

I do not have any great advice OP but have you thought of having a chat with the Careers Service at your uni? At many places they offer advice to post-docs and not just students.
And while re-training as a surgeon might seem like a daunting prospect - are there any other careers in healthcare that might require a shorter re-training period? What attracts you to being a surgeon - is it the variety and challenge of the work itself, or is it working in a healthcare environment/doing something objectively "good" for people? If the latter, maybe a look at the NHS careers website might give you an idea of what kinds of positions you might be able to apply to with your current qualifications?

Thank you! The careers service is probably a good shout, either at current uni or the next one. I actually tried at the last one but they faffed about with appointments for ages and then I got my current postdoc so didn't go in the end.

I've thought about other healthcare options, the closest would probably be audiology which does interest me but I don't think there's much scope for development tbh. I want to be able to really advance in a career and acheive a lot!
but there are some other NHS jobs that interest me, and we have a big teaching hospital in our city so I'll have another look there thanks!

OP posts:
Original poster
Hopelessacademic · 01/08/2022 12:12

frustratedacademic · 30/07/2022 13:45

Have you thought of research management? Something with research councils/UKRI, or Wellcome? Post docs are a miserable way to forge a career, especially with children in tow. There are also secondments in government sometimes on offer. See if your university has a careers in industry advisory service.

I agree that postdocs are miserable haha!
Research management doesn't really interest me to be honest, I feel like I'd like to either be a successful academic or leave the academic world entirely.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hopelessacademic · 01/08/2022 12:19

parietal · 31/07/2022 22:55

it sounds to me like work-from-home has not been good to you and you would really benefit from a job where you are in the office and are talking to people and engaged in stuff. In my lab (not unrelated), we are in-and-out of each others offices a lot, and having plenty of dynamic interesting conversations. All the things like project management and problem solving and people skills are important all the time. It is much harder to make these things work when people are remote.

otoh, there are plenty of jobs outside academia where that is also true. If you have good coding skills there are a lot of well-paid jobs in Data Science and related technical areas that also involve a lot of people skills and project management. e.g. consultancy with Deloitte (or other firms) where you have a 6-8 week project to work with a team and produce a report, and then move on to the next topic and the next report.

It's a funny one, I like working from home, and the option to do so makes life so much easier with small children. Also my City is small and decoratvie with not a massive amount of industry here, so it's meant I can work "in" bigger places with more opportunities.
But yes, I'm not 100% sure it really suits me. I tell myself I'd be better at it if I really enjoyed my job and had more deadlines. Currently we have a weekly meeting but basically no time constraints on anything... I need more pressure to acheive anything!

My DH actually works in data science and is constantly telling me about it and it doesn't interest me at all! He seems to deal with mostly shops/selling products data.
I really want to do something worthy that helps people live better and solves real problems etc, not just makes more money for some massive corporation. I guess there are different types of data science though??

Consultancy appeals to me though... the variety and short projects, and I like teaching and am confident enough to tell people what to do! - how does one get into that?? My next postdoc is in machine learning, which fascinates me, so I'm kind of thinking that after that I'd be qualified to be some kind of machine learning consultant?
I know ML is a hot thing at the moment, and I'd like to pick a future-proof career as much as possible!

OP posts:
parietal · 01/08/2022 22:50

when you have data science and machine learning under your belt, you would definitely be able to get work as an ML consultant. I'm afraid I've not much idea how you get started - my DH went to lots of MeetUps (pre-covid in London) and met a bunch of interesting people and got interesting jobs. But I'm sure there are other routes in. Following relevant data science / ML people on twitter is probably a good start.

In terms of *worthy *jobs, there are things like
ourworldindata.org/jobs
and lots of healthcare companies / spinouts that use data and ML to make products that can help people.

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