13. "Embrace the Unexpected"

When I took the leap into the start-up world I expected to return to academia after 1 year. I had two solid paths back into academia. But my plans were thwarted. This week I describe how I embraced my career after my academic safety net was taken away. (P.S. there is a happy ending).

My Experience Of Not Returning To Academia:

As a brief recap, last week I told you I left academia for financial security. The start-up offered me much more than my academic salary. So I figured I would sell-out for a year and save some money before returning to academia. (For the full story read last week's blog: 'Looking For A Start-Up Career?').

As I was only leaving academia for financial security, I didn't want my transition back into academia to be jeopardised by my time in the start-up. So I created two bridges back to academia.

Bridge Back to Academia #1

Prior to leaving academia, a research group agreed to support my post-doc funding application and the head of the group agreed to be my supervisor. However, a couple weeks into my start-up job I emailed the research group for some information for the funding application and they responded by saying they would no longer support my application.

I was surprised, hurt and disappointed. I trusted the research group, and only a few weeks after they made the promise they reneged. They didn't give me a solid explanation, as to what had changed, but it didn't matter. I couldn't force them to support my application.

All that mattered was that bridge back to academia had crashed and burned.

Bridge Back to Academia #2

Around the same time the start-up offered me the job, another research group offered me an academic position. But when they applied to the university for my letter of offer, they were unable to provide one as they didn't actually have the funds to pay me. They offered to hire me in a year, when they would have more funding.

So when I had been at the start-up for about 9 months, it was time to call the academic research group about the job.

But then I took a minute to think.

I realised I didn't actually want to go back to academia. I had changed. I now preferred the less-rigorous, faster-paced, non-writing focused, start-up style of research.

Plus, the research group didn't reach out to me so maybe they still didn't have funding or changed their mind. Regardless of the reason, I would no longer have accepted the job.

The second bridge caved-in.

It's funny. I went into the start-up world to prove to myself that academia was the career path for me. To prove to myself that I could do industry if I wanted to, but my choice would always be academia. Almost like the start-up job was a passing fling, but academia was my one true love. I clearly adopted an 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' attitude to my career.

But I had never done research in any other setting. I had worked at universities for 11 years, I didn't know what industry was like, and being exposed to a non-academic work environment changed me. Academia was no longer my choice.

This insight may not seem surprising to you.

I am a person who absolutely loves data. Start-ups own a lot of data.

I was looking for financial security, and start-ups pay more. Of course start-ups was my future.

But I may not have made this choice if either of my bridges back to academia had remained intact. Or if I wasn't willing to re-evaluate my career goals and consider what career path would make me happy based on who I was on that day, rather than who I was 1 year ago.

The Lessons Of Not Returning to Academia

• Plan your career, but also go with the flow

It is scary when your dream job, or career path, disintegrates in front of you. However, this also an opportunity to be courageous and find what the next step in your career path should be for who you are today, not who you were when you had this dream. This is also really scary, and it's OK if you just feel lost and unsure for a while before you figure it out.

My experience: I was really disappointed when Bridge #1 crumbled. I know nothing in life is guaranteed, but I trusted this research group with my academic career.

To provide some further context, my research career and my partner were the two tethers that kept me grounded through most of my adult life, and in the space of 6 months I lost both. I was suddenly blowing in the wind and felt like I had no control. I had no purpose. I had no career path. These thoughts made me feel lost, but it also forced me to accept my lack of control and commit to growing personally to embrace these feelings. I am a positive person so I just held on to the belief that I would get through this, and something else will present itself. I have taken a few career steps since this time, I am still unsure what I want to do, but I am getting closer.

• Remain positive

Careers are dynamic, we can shape our careers in a certain way but the reality of working, getting a specific job or being exposed to colleagues can really change our path. We can find out a job exists, that we had never known about. We can be working in our dream job but with managers who are bully's, toxic, insecure, selfish, or simply don't care. We can find out our dream job, actually isn't that great. In the face of any of these experiences we have to try to remain positive and just think about what would make us happy long-term.

My experience: I am a very optimistic and positive person. But my career has brought me to tears many, many times. The elation, the frustration, the unknowns, the feeling that if I could just figure this one thing out, I would be happier. Leaving academia has been a struggle for me. It is a process.

If you can relate to these feelings, let me know your strategies. I am simply sitting with the feelings and working out what interests me in my career today to make my career better for tomorrow.

• Multiple job offers, which one to take?

My experience: I find it flattering and stressful to receive multiple job offers. We are the result of our experiences so a job and our colleagues shape who we are as people, now and in the future. I have always trusted my gut. So when I need to make an important decision like this, I will look at the practical reasons for making a decision, and then let the decision sit with me for a few days. I then let my gut decide.

There are many methods you can employ to make important decisions. What has your process been to make these decisions? Do you write up a pros and cons list? Like me, do you go with your gut? Are you very logical and just think through the problem? Are you methodical by imagining where you want to be in 5 years and then work backwards from there? Do you talk to people from the company to get a feel for it? Do you have a mentor/parent/confidante who you can bounce ideas off?

Take some time to reflect on what your decision making process is. We never know if we make the 'right' decision, and unfortunately we don't get any 'do-overs' in life. We need to make a decision and live with the consequences. By understanding our decision making process, we will know ourselves better and become better at accepting the consequences of that decision. For me, I understand my decision-making process is not 'scientific' but I trust my gut, so I will accept all the consequences I decide based on my gut.

• Always wait for a letter of offer

It is a stressful time changing jobs. If you decide to quit, or turn down a job offer, make sure you have a contract for the position you want to do or accept.

My experience: I received the start-up job offer, and the academic job offer at the same time, and I was about to accept the academic job and reject the start-up job. The academic job was less money than the start-up, but it was what I envisioned my dream job being at that time, I would have remained in academia, worked to attract post-doc funding, and analyse health data to answer important health questions.

Before deciding, I decided to speak to my mentor who always gives me another perspective to consider. They said, "Do not quit your current job, or reject the start-up job offer, until you get a contract from the university."

(I later found out a university's letter of offer involves the university checking the supervisor has the funds to pay you. In this instance I didn't get a letter of offer because they didn't have the funding.)

'Wait for the letter of offer' is some of the best career and life advice I have ever received. Prior to chatting with my mentor, I was going to reject the start-up job for the research position. My life changed when I went into the start-up world, so who knows where I would be if I hadn't made this decision.

What have been your most stressful career decisions? Have you made the choice to leave academia? What has your experience been in a non-academic environment? Did you feel lost without the academic structure? Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Related Posts

'Starry-Eyed for Start-Ups?'

'Looking For A Start-Up Career?'

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