Ironically, the days and weeks before my PhD defence did not stress me out. I knew what I had done the last (almost) five years and was ready to talk about it, and get my PhD. 

What really stressed me out during the time before my defence was the black hole that would be following that day: Getting my PhD had been a huge goal in my life during the past years, and I had absolutely no idea what would come afterwards.

A few days before defending, my supervisor spontaneously offered me a short term postdoc position in his group. I took it, and my anxiety levels finally went down, albeit only a bit. But the one thing I was pretty sure about was that I did not want to stay in academia. So while I was in the comfortable position of being a postdoc and continuing with my research, I looked around, and talked to as many people as possible: I met up with different people at my institute, working in communication, in project management, and in outreach, asking them about their trajectories and their current day-to-day life. I also contacted alumni from my institute and my research group, who were working in different industry sectors. 

I got a lot of information, valuable insights and different career advice from all of them. However, I still felt confused, as many of my friends chose the path to industry and I felt some kind of peer pressure to follow their path, as it seemed to be the common and evidently successful trajectory. Retrospectively, I should have taken more time to do some introspection at this point, thinking about my values, my interests and my goals. Instead, I took a different, but also valid route: I looked at what was readily available, and applied to many different positions: Industry, a Scientific Communication Position at my institute, as well as a junior scientific Project Manager Position, and even a Postdoc Position. I got accepted for some, and rejected in others.  

I decided to venture into scientific project management, as this would mean to try something new, that was far from a lab environment. In my mind, it was an experiment: A trial-and-error approach to discover a job that truly resonated with me, albeit with some prior research. After a couple of months I saw what I liked, and what I did not like, and was also able to change areas within our team to explore some more.

The first job after your PhD is for many people the hardest to find. I got one, and this gave me the security that I needed at that moment. It also gave me the tranquillity to take the first step towards something that had been in the back of my mind for quite some time: I had attended lots of scientific presentations during my PhD, but all too often I found myself quickly losing track. I knew that TPM Science was giving courses on different topics, so I contacted Gavin and asked whether we could develop a workshop on Oral Presentations together, and eventually, we did. Sometime after the first workshop, I started working more and more for TPM Science, until eventually getting offered a full time position. I enjoy it a lot. 🙂

Some small recommendations for all the scientists out there facing job search and/or struggling with it: 

• Take some time to sit down and explore your values, goals, interests
• It is perfectly fine to just try something out, it is not a failure to realise that this is not what you want. Your journey is your destination. Never underestimate your gut feeling in your decision.
• Talk to other people: Talk to your friends, or ask for a meeting with different people in different jobs at your institute. Write to alumni of your institute (you can always find them on Linkedin) and ask them about the positions and their career trajectory. 
• If you would like to work at a certain company, then write to someone who works there. Tell them about your enthusiasm, and ask what you would need to start working with them. 
• Never underestimate the importance of the team in your job. You can have the dream job of your life, but if you don’t get along with the people you work with, you will probably struggle. Vice versa as well: your team might make your good-but-not-perfect job your dream job. 
• Just remember that there is not THE ONE job for you. Go out and explore! 

In the end, my path to finding the perfect post-PhD job was not a straight line, but rather an adventure of self-exploration and professional growth. I learned how to embrace the uncertainty, trust my instincts, understand my values and explore various opportunities until I found what truly sparks my passion and purpose.

Get in touch with us if you would like to organise a training on Career Development for Scientists at your institute.