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#81 Fabian Taube on how to survive outside of academia:Tips and Tricks

This is the second episode of Dr. Fabian Taube, in which he shares five tips on how to survive outside of academia after an academic career. He holds a PhD in inorganic chemistry and shares his story about his transition from academia to a specialist in Preventive Medicine.

Published onAug 16, 2019
#81 Fabian Taube on how to survive outside of academia:Tips and Tricks

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.

Below you will 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.

Let the organization know that the big advantage with you it’s not your skills in a specific scientific area. It is your skills in being able to take off on any kind of problems with the critical and analytical view.

Dr. Fabian Taube

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! 


Transcript:

Hi and welcome to PhD Career Stories!

I am Tina Persson, founder of the podcast and it’s my pleasure to introduce the second episode of Fabian Taube, in which he will share five tips on the topic: 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.

A short citation for his first podcast “At the same time, the struggle for research results and the money made me a person I did not actually want to be – one that is a bit too ambitious and too narrow minded. Today I realize just how much negative impact such a person can have on colleagues and on team building”.

So are you ready for his second podcast? I do hope you are ready! Fabian’s five tips on the topics how to survive outside of academia.

Hi there this is Fabian. 

If you listened to my first podcast, you might know something about me and my professional career. In this podcast, I want to share five tips with you based on my own experience in how to survive being an academic outside the academy.

These are tips that you perhaps will find useful when applying for a position or when you are already in a new position.

So here is Tip number 1:

Sort out the pros and cons before accepting a certain position. Before accepting a job position, especially one outside your professional discipline, it is important to ask yourself the pros and cons of such position. In my experience one advantage is that you will develop both on a social plane and on a scientific level and that you get to see a wider perspective and thereby new approaches on how to solve problems.

Another advantage is that you will develop your skills of understanding and working with people from other professions. You might of course also see or find disadvantages of taking a job position outside your professional discipline. One of these might be that you will not get the chance to make a traditional carrier. One that could have got you into a leading position within your own scientific discipline. In addition, you might have to work hard in order to compensate for being outside your professional discipline or perhaps even outside your comfort zone.

Tip number two:

Let the organization know your big advantage. The big advantage with you being a researcher might not be your skills in a specific scientific area. Do not count on that an organization outside the academy understands your academic competence. If your employment means working outside your own area of expertise or even in a complete other professional discipline. Let the organization know that the big advantage with you it’s not your skills in a specific scientific area. It is your skills in being able to take off on any kind of problems with the critical and analytical view.

Tip number three:

Make contact and collaborate. Interact with co-workers and persons with different professions. Looking at the same problem from completely different views may lead to new results and conclusions but widens your perspectives. Also, if you already have sorted out your weaknesses and strengths then try to interact closely with those coworkers or persons who complement and compensate for your weaknesses.

Tip number four:

Make yourself and your coworkers satisfied. There are many ways to make your coworkers satisfied with how they are being treated as coworkers and what they accomplish as a team. One way of achieving this is to make sure that you’re satisfied with yourself. In the long run, your self-satisfaction will gain from working according to the good enough principal. To achieve the final percentage of perfection that you might have the possibility to do in the academy can be counterproductive not only for you but also for your coworkers, especially in a dynamic and operative nonacademic organization. Your self-satisfaction will also gain from providing yourself with options.

Ask yourself what you would be if you were to leave this position or organization. In that way you can be more comfortable and self-confident in your position. Knowing that you have alternatives if you should need them. This might result in better self-esteem and more relaxed relations with your coworkers.

Yet another thing that boosts your self-satisfaction is to make sure that you are needed. The best moments in my professional career comes from helping a colleague, a patient or a student. In the end it is really better to give than to take.

You can also make your coworkers feel appreciated by giving positive feedback and by being honest with yourself and with your coworkers. Even if being completely honest can be difficult try to stick to the truth as often as you can. It will catch up with you anyway.

Take every opportunity to share positive moments with your group and give positive feedback to them. But be honest when you do it. You do not necessarily have to agree with the person you speak to. But be diplomatic when arguing and lay low if you are  insecure about your arguments. You probably will have time to get arguments that are more balanced later on.

To be honest with yourself also means that you have to accept that there will be conflicts at the workplace. If you become involved in the conflict the best thing you can do is to sort it out as soon as possible by honestly trying to understand the arguments that initiated the conflict no matter if it is your own arguments or someone else’s.

Another important thing is to be as transparent as possible towards your coworkers. Especially about sharing information. They will certainly feel good about it and hopefully you’ll feel good about it too.

Finally do what you can to make your coworkers feel needed. Interact with them and ask them for advice, when it is appropriate. Everyone needs to be needed at least from my point of view.

Tip number five:

If you aim at becoming a leader you should first question your purpose of wanting to become a leader. If you love to see and have the ability to make people grow in an organization a leading position might be the choice for you. Especially if you also have organization skills. Leadership should never be about the need for power and competition or for the fact that you do not want someone to lead you because you know best yourself. Also ask yourself how you deal with conflicts such as being questioned.

No matter where you will be you will not always get a positive feedback for your suggestions even if you’re right. It is a fact that you have to live with and accept. Both as a coworker and as a leader.

So that was all tips for now and I really hope that they can be of some assistance to you. I wish you good luck with the carrier and bye for now.

So, thanks for listening to the second episode of Fabian Taube and also thanks for following us and listening to our podcasts. It was podcast 81. If you have a story to be told or if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You find us at our webpage phdcareerstories.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Thanks for your support, this is Tina Persson form a very sunny Malmö in Sweden.

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