Skills, Connections, Evidence: The Three Pillars of Transitioning from Academia with Dr. Andrew Stapleton

I recently came across a video by Andrew Stapleton, discussing how to strategically plan the transition from academia. He suggests that this planning should ideally begin early in one’s PhD studies or at the start of a research career, but only if one is inclined to do so.

"Build skills you enjoy. Start building up the skills alongside your PhD or early research position."

In the video, Dr. Andrew Stapleton outlines three crucial steps that aided his move into science communication:

• Build Skills You Enjoy

 Initially, he volunteered his time in areas he was interested in pursuing later, notably science communication. He contributed blog posts for free to the Royal Institute of Australia Inc's science communication channel and also wrote for The Australian Quarterly. His aim was "to build up skills and to get feedback from editors."

Having a secure PhD position for a few years or an early-career research position means, “you can trial different skills to build, online courses are an option. It is just about exploring a load of different options. Go out to explore those skills, don’t try to think of it like I’m building skills to get a job later. Try to find things you enjoy”

• Build Connections

Dr. Stapleton shares that he was proactive in reaching out to others. "I was reaching out, and I had loads of coffees; people love going for coffees [...] people like sharing their skills and experiences as well. And because you are the inquisitive party, you can go and ask questions." Since his interest was in science communication, he joined the Australian Science Communicators and attended their conferences. "It's about being seen in the right places. Networking is a huge component of finding a job and a career that you like."

• Building Evidence

"This is the step before the big jump," he notes. For him, it involved blogging. He ran an online blog, which no longer exists, where he blogged weekly about science, he was trying to communicate science in a funny, comedic way that was light-hearted. This led him to write for ScienceAlert and later to an internship with Cosmos Magazine. "I built evidence that I could show I was creating content around science. Here’s my evidence; give me a chance to do that for you."

Conclusion:

"The jump out of academia is scary [...| just follow your heart and what you really like to do. You are designing a career that you’ll get fulfillment from."