Making the Leap: 3 Tips for Moving from Academia to Industry
Maybe it's burnout. Maybe it's the funnel. Maybe it's about money. Maybe it's about having a clearer path forward. Maybe it's all of these things. Whatever your reasons, you're thinking about where you are in life, and you're wondering if a traditional, tenure track is right for you. Two years ago, I was thinking the same thing. My lab was running out of funding, my mentor was leaving, and my future was uncertain.
One year ago, I got my PhD, feeling like I had finally hit my stride as a researcher.
Today, I'm in a satisfying, highly-regarded position as a User Experience (UX) researcher at a large, successful company.
I got here by using lots of information from a ton of great resources (which are listed at the bottom of this post). What I want to focus on in this post are 3 things that I think helped me gain a bit of an edge in the process. These things helped me carve out my own space in the job pool, but it also helped me understand more about myself, and what I actually want out of a research career. Read on to find out more!
Embrace the Uncomfortable
I have tons of role models, but the OG is definitely Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. You can hear the excitement in her voice, can't you? "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" This has been a constant theme in my research career, and it even serves as a summary of what it felt like when I started looking for opportunities in industry.
Grad school pokes at our insecurities -- otherwise, imposter syndrome wouldn't be such a widespread in-joke. Whether it's when we're delivering results to our mentors, or teaching our students, we're expected to have all the answers. How ironic is that? We're RESEARCHERS -- our whole gig centers not around knowing what the answers are, but dedicating ourselves to the process of finding out!
Remembering this can help when starting to examine new career possibilities, or even networking with people. Seek out the people who have the jobs you're interested in, and start a conversation. Maybe it's been a while since you last spoke with anyone outside your lab, let alone your field! Whatever activities you choose to do, remember that your starting objective is to learn. Trust your instincts as a researcher and tackle these situations in a similar way. Every new person you talk to is field research! Every article you read may have strange or new terminology, but you're used to decoding! And every time you feel like you've made a mistake or missed an opportunity, remember that you have a chance to learn from it and do it again!
Find an "Accountability Buddy"
Research can be very isolating. This definitely seems true for experimental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience in particular. When you're running day-long transcranial direct current stimulation sessions or fMRI studies, you have to tell the only people you may see that day to stop talking, stop moving, and put all their energy solely into thinking. Later, when you're analyzing your data, you can't really have a ton of people with you. Not only can it be distracting, but generally, people aren't awake at 2-3 AM.
To get out of my research silo, I found it helpful to buddy-up with people who were also making a big change in their lives. Maybe they're also preparing to change careers, or maybe they're just interested in learning something new. Regardless, you now have someone you can keep pace with, which helps you track your progress. My "accountability buddies" included three people. One of my buddies was a friend of mine who was interested in changing her career. She and I would talk regularly about all of the professional development aspects of the process: creating a website, sending out resumes, using social media, and staying sane in the midst of it all.
Another buddy was someone in my PhD cohort who was interested in transitioning into industry, but not UX. He and I would chat about how to translate our research skills into industry-speak: organizing and keeping tabs on several studies at a time is a reflection of "project management", mentoring teams of students counts as "leadership experience", and all of the posters, talks, and lectures we had done over the years certainly showed "presentation skills". He and I would find new ways to highlight hidden gems of skills buried in our routines, as well as how those skills could translate into business success.
My last buddy was someone who was pursuing her PhD in a different field but was interested in moving into UX. She and I continue to talk about all of the field fundamentals that are so key to our work, from research design and methodologies (interviews, card sorts, surveys) to reporting out to stakeholders (workshops, presentations). She and I are consistent data collectors, sharing interesting articles, thought-provoking presentations, interview experiences, and even emotional support.
Having these buddies helped me think about my actions and progress from several viewpoints. I could track what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how I was doing overall. When I got stuck, I had three other sources sharing what had been helpful for them. This not only helps you ensure you're using best practices, but also helps you feel less alone.
Tell Your Story
People usually think you have total control over the research you do in grad school. For most of us, this probably isn't the case. You may be working in your field of choice, but you might get stuck with projects that you aren't too thrilled to lead. Working this way can lead to burnout, which obfuscates who we are as researchers. Think about it: how many times have you sat at your desk, thinking to yourself, "Who am I? What am I even doing here?"
In the shift from academia to industry, this can be especially problematic. As researchers, we're trained to see patterns in data. We have all sorts of fancy ways to display those patterns, and we have our inside/science-y languages to describe those patterns. For me, that language is based on APA format, looking at the figures instead of the words of an article, and the infamous "p < .05". However, people generally understand and remember stories better than these disparate pieces of data. One of the best talks I ever attended was given by a prominent neuroscientist talking about how our associative memories would form and change if an elephant were to barge in the room. These highly successful talks are the ones that have stories that stick with you long after the presentation. This is true not just for our research projects, but also when we're relating to people.
If you're a researcher, you already know how to collect and format data. You have a CV, and maybe you're starting to look into how to translate that into a resume. You probably have all your articles listed and stored in some place, maybe in a folder on your desktop or on ResearchGate. You've prepared at least 3 different versions of your slide deck for all the presentations you're anticipating during the interview process. But every other researcher out there has done the same thing. If you've sat at your desk, wondering, "Who am I?", then your interviewers will think that too.
Take control of the networking and interview processes by telling your story. This is what people mean when they talk about personal branding. For example, my training is in cognitive neuroscience, but when I think about what brought me to this field, I realize an overarching theme: I like to study how people think. This is an easily understood way of explaining what I am passionate about, and what drives my research. Now, I get to do research that helps me tackle this from different angles: What do people think about our product? How can I get people to share what they think? Why do they think those things? What factors (emotions, context, environment) influence what they think? What things are they overthinking? How can we reduce unnecessary thinking? If we want them to think about things differently, what do we need to do?
Now, start with your research. Distill it down to its most basic elements. Maybe you're working on a project that you aren't in love with, but what brought you to do that research in the first place? What do you hate about the project? What do you like about the project? Why are you still doing it? What do you gain from it? Carve out some time to show people what your ideal research looks like. One way to show this is through "guerrilla-style" research -- survey friends and family, design tasks to answer research questions, and maybe do some outside data collection (coffeehouses are great for this!). When you're out of topics that interest you, or if you're at a research blank, leverage social media to find out what other people had questions about, and create research designs for those questions. If you're in a field where your data collection is very lab-specific, illustrate what kind of research you'd like to do, and what you would hope to do with the findings.
Then, organize how you want to share that information. Don't just list all your experiences and publications -- get creative! Use different methods to display what you've accomplished. Maybe it's a website (like this one!). Maybe it's a story told in pictures. Maybe it's a short collection of essays or articles. Maybe you make up a "main character" and talk about how your research affects their life. Take the time to identify what overarching themes you have in your research, and how it is applicable to the industries or companies that interest you. Your research could fill a gap that they have, add to their success, or even increase innovation. This not only gives you a way to show off your research skills, but it also gives you a chance to re-center as a researcher. Investigate what drives you, and stay true to yourself.
Summary
I truly feel these three things helped me figure out what I wanted out of my research career, as well as find a new research space to call "home". Our skills can be glossed over in grad school, but when we step out of that bubble, we are sources of untapped potential. It's exciting to see how we adapt and grow these skills by practicing them in new environments. It's also incredibly rewarding to do work that can be applied directly to others' lives. By embracing the uncomfortable, having "accountability buddies", and telling your story, you remove the fear that can keep you from experiencing this kind of satisfaction in your research career. So, I encourage you: be fearless!
Here are some helpful resources that can help you get started!
And if you're interested in UX research specifically, here are more links!
This post was written at Crema Espresso Gourmet. Go visit them!