Dr. Female Former Academic

Non-white woman in a white male dominated field. Left academia. Tweeting about life in industry and academia and other stuff. Based in Europe 🏳️‍🌈

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

How to leave academia (thread).
1. Make the decision
When it's time to leave academia, you'll know about it. If you're still unsure, it's not time yet. That's when you make a decision. 1/n
@AcademicChatter #AcademicChatter

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@LingfengGe Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with them. Why are they lacking basic social skills?

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

I left academia 5 years ago. Since then I've been interacting and working with different demographic groups both corporate and academic. And I can tell you there is nothing, nothing, nothing as condenscending, disgusting and toxic as a white hetero male academic.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@SarkarAnubha Sure, write me a DM. I have an email address especially for such cases. I don't know how long you've been trying but the job market is dramatically different now compared to when I left.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

P.S. I'm just in-between jobs, so I was naively thinking I could diversify my income a bit by taking some academic gigs. 4/4

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

After a long break I'm back to doing some small projects with academics and somehow I'm reminded why I'm no longer there. A male academic mansplaining to me my own domain, the very reason I was hired on the project. 1/n

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

This and some other things in academia are driving me crazy and are a short reminder why I am not there. Stay tuned for more crazy stuff. 3/n

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

Often as a PhD you have experiences and solutions nobody has ever thought of and the company can benefit a lot from it. However, they don't have the thinking of a PhD to understand that they can benefit from it. Even if you translate it to numbers and business cases 4/

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

I just started my second job in industry. It's within the same company and the same department but a completely different role. I want to share some learnings from this journey 1/

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

My current role is super easy and not challenging at all. I'm enjoying it now but after a while my brain will need more stimulation. Nobody around me understands why I find this job super easy. 3/

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

In my entire academic and #altac life I've seen the worst toxic masculine behaviour coming from women. I've also seen the best empathetic leadership coming from women. Lead like a woman and not a man. Otherwise #dei is not worth it. #womeninSTEM

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@Kyle_Ireton @AcademicChatter Thanks! I've never felt this bad in academia. I'm thinking whether it was because there was less interaction with PIs or because this boss of mine is literally worse than anything anyone could imagine.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

Part of me wants to write a book about leaving academia and thriving professionally a little over a year only to be crashed in the worst possible way that even academia couldn't do. Narcissistic leaders are real and the world needs to do something about them. @AcademicChatter

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

Academia is also full of them, btw.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@LifeAfterMyPhD Yeah, my current situation is more of the exception than the rule. But I hope I will soon be out.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@LifeAfterMyPhD That's really nice. I also used to be there but right now in my altac job I'm in a situation where I'm way less motivated than I've ever been in academia because the management is not just not supporting but also actively creating obstacles to do the work.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@emmafc74 No, still there but planning to leave hopefully for another job in the same company. The reason is that my boss is narcissistic. She'll get fired sooner or later but until then I must get out.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

Observation: in 2022 when I was applying for #altac jobs, it took me only two months from the first application to landing a rather prestigious job.
Right now I'm in my 4th month, way higher interview rate (20%), still no job.

[Dr. Female Former Academic @AcademicFemale]

@ZJAyres Same!