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Kathleen Champlin graduated with a doctorate in Contemporary American Literature from Ball State University in Indiana (USA) in 2015. Currently, she is an online writing tutor with Pearson's Smarthinking and a copyeditor for several companies.
In this episode, Kathleen will provide an example of a disabled PhD's career transition in the humanities. From her story, you can learn how her disability impacted her academic and professional paths and how she was able to overcome the many barriers that came up along the way.
Kathleen will also share how her love for the written word has been a driving force throughout her journey and how she hopes to contribute to a world without ability barriers.
Enjoy listening!
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Kate Champlin. I have a PhD in literature from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA. I’ve trained in online college teaching, but I’m currently an online writing tutor and copyeditor. My story is unusual for two reasons: I’m changing careers post-PhD and when I went to graduate school, I was already deaf.
A little background: I started losing my hearing when I was around 18 and lost it completely when I was 24. I’ve got a genetic disorder that makes benign tumors grow (among other places) on both hearing nerves. I was diagnosed in the summer before I started college. I went through about 6 years of college as a person with progressively worse hearing loss and 7 more years of college classes and dissertation work as a deaf person. I also started my first real career search 5 years after I went deaf. My previous jobs had either been assistantships from the colleges that I attended or jobs that I had as a teenager. American Sign Language is a common language in the USA and Canada. I’ve taken classes in it, but I never really learned the language. My preference is written English.
Meanwhile, I’ve always loved English literature classes. I took advanced English classes in high school and signed up as an English major without hesitation when I first went to college. After my senior year, I was invited to teach and earn a Master’s degree at Pittsburg State University. I enjoyed teaching, and I realized that I wanted to teach college classes professionally. I needed a PhD to teach college classes so, at that point, a PhD seemed like the natural next step on my career path. At the time, I’d known for several years that I’d eventually lose my hearing and, by the time I enrolled at Pittsburg State, I knew I was going to lose my hearing within the next couple of years. I reached out and asked several people if I’d be able to teach online classes when I had my doctorate. They all told me that online classes were the future of education, and that there would be a market for online teachers by the time that I got my degree. Unfortunately, the prediction turned out to only be sort of true. I’ll discuss that more when I talk about my career change.
People ask me how I overcame my disability but, the truth is, I have no choice. This is the body and the life that I have, and I have to live the best life that I can with them. I’ve had support from my family, the schools where I studied, and many people that I’ve met professionally, and that’s been wonderful. I’ve had the opportunity to join the workforce after I went deaf, and that made my survival possible.
My first experiences at college were interesting, and my disability only added a little bit of difficulty. I had fairly normal hearing for my first four years of college. For my last two years as a hard-of-hearing person, someone hooked me up with CART captioning, a system where a court reporter listens to classes or conversations and types them on a computer screen. It can either be done remotely through the internet or the reporter can attend the class. I used the first method while I earned my master’s degree and the second method while I got my PhD. There have been times when the equipment or something else failed. One of my captionists got a computer virus an hour before one of my classes, and I had to miss the class. One of my teachers told me that she didn’t want the captioning to disrupt her classes, and I took that as a sign that she didn’t want me in her class at all. So, when she did things like walk away from the CART microphone to write on the chalkboard – which was her way of trying to help me but which actually made it harder for the captionist to hear her – I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think she cared whether I could understand the lectures or not. It took us months to straighten that out. Never talk about disruptions with a disabled student or a disabled client. Ask them what they need instead. In the unlikely event that there ever is a disruption, you can discuss that with them later.
After I went completely deaf, I continued to use CART captioning in my classes. My teachers at Ball State were great about this and also great about making sure that I understood. We’d have entire conferences where I spoke and they typed whatever they needed to say. I also had conversations with people who wrote down their half of the conversation in a notebook. Nevertheless, my biggest problem was isolation. I’d attend workshops and miss out on group conversations or encounter people who were intimidated. People would say “I wish I could talk to you” in the middle of conversations. I also taught online classes (English composition) because I had trouble communicating with the students through CART captioning. There was a slight delay to the captions, so I was interrupting students to ask if there were responses. It got to be a real barrier and online classes eliminated that.
When I went on the market, things got really interesting. After I graduated, I wasn’t eligible for CART, and CART is very expensive. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t sure how to request accommodations from people who hadn’t already agreed to work with me. I tried using the notebook face-to-face, and people took that as a sign that I could only teach online classes (which was true but limited my career search). I had phone interviews, and people would get nervous because of the pauses for the captions. I could tell, because I noticed them talking more to fill the silences. I already had one part-time job at that point, but I was afraid that no one else would hire me. All in all, I think many people let the verbal communication barrier become more of a problem than it needs to be. They assume that because I have to ask for clarification or I’m slow to answer, I don’t know the information that they asked for – and that is not the case. I’m fully trained in English, in disability studies (the topic of my dissertation), and in teaching. There is a communication barrier and, because of it, I sometimes let myself sound less confident than I should. I know that people take slow speech and lack of confidence as signals but, if they look around the signals, they find my expertise and my work ethic. That’s true about my value, and it’s true about a lot of other people on the job market with communication issues.
I eventually learned to look for the employers who are willing to do unusual things because of my needs. My audio and captions actually failed in an online interview once. It turned out that, in addition to the problem with the captions, my computer had muted itself without my permission. I ended up speaking my half of the interview while the other person typed their questions. I really, really appreciated their flexibility. I’ve also learned to get people I know to recommend other contacts. A job counselor told me that if you can take people through a typical day, they’ll understand that you can do the job in spite of the communication barriers. He also noted that we (personally, in that conference) didn’t have any communication issues, but that’s because of really great translation software that I recently found on the internet. Finding technical ways to remove barriers is not a perfect solution. Finding people who are open to the idea of disabled employees is.
At the moment, I’m planning a slight career change. Although I enjoyed online teaching, there are budget cuts throughout the college teaching market (at least in the US). I’m not the only one who’s had trouble finding a niche in that market, and communication in the classroom would still be a barrier. Many schools in the US also won’t hire teachers to teach only online classes, and I hadn’t anticipated that when I started my PhD. I found a job as a writing tutor through one of the websites where higher education jobs are posted. That was the job I got before I got my PhD. The tutoring company is owned by a producer of college textbooks, and it’s a lot like working in a college writing center – except that it’s online. So far, it has lasted longer than many contract jobs teaching online classes do in the US. We’re also international. The company has contracts with a few colleges in Australia/New Zealand, at least one college in Canada, and at least one college in the Caribbean.
I find that fascinating, because I grew up in the years before the internet really existed. There really is a global community online now, and it includes amazing possibilities both for hearing people and for deaf people. American Sign Language users can contact each other through Zoom and sign to each other remotely – instead of relying on written communication. People who prefer written English, like me, can send messages through email and also contact people all over the world. Programs like Google Meet include captions, so I can do face-to-face meetings through them. I also recently found a very useful speech-to-text translation software online. It’s called AVA. I use that in programs like Zoom that don’t always generate their own captions and also carry a copy on my phone. It allows me to participate in face-to-face conversations even in daily life. All that took was someone who understood computer coding and understood accommodations. I’ve read that the software was created by a child of deaf adults. They knew coding and also knew about a community need. There are also more remote jobs opening up, along with more chances to contact companies across geographic lines. I look forward to exploring that more in the future. In fact, I’m already beginning to, since the jobs that I’ll mention are all remote and are in very different areas of the US.
In 2020, I applied for a remote internship with an education company based in Georgia (in the southeast USA). The company creates teacher education courses aimed at elementary, middle, or high school teachers – about things like virtual (Zoom) field trips and building robots in the classroom. The idea is that the teachers learn those skills and pass them on to their students. It was unpaid, but it offered practice at social media marketing and more practice at curriculum design. I really wanted that. I ended up proposing a course on making classes accessible for students with disabilities. My boss agreed that the topic was especially important because of the pandemic. In the US, most classes were moving online, and that often meant that teachers who were unprepared to deal with online classes had to manage them anyway. I saw some news stories about students with certain disabilities getting left behind in the mad rush to put school online. That first course led to my boss extending my contract, twice, and also paying me. Later on, since she liked my unpaid work at pointing out small issues with her online courses, she offered a contract to copyedit her first book. It was a great book about grant writing specifically for teachers. In the US, teachers often need to use their own funds to purchase classroom supplies or find funds for projects like building robots in the classroom. My boss also contracted me to check her courses when she moved them to a new website. That meant copyediting but also things like checking formatting and making sure that links worked. Some sources on the internet just vanish after a few years. Have you ever noticed?
Lately, I’ve made contact with another copyediting business in Vermont (which is in the northeastern USA) and with a foundation related to the Indiana School for the Deaf (which is in the Great Lakes region of the USA). I haven’t received any contracts from them yet but, hopefully, they will remember me when they need copyediting work. My dream job is a permanent position in publishing or a non-profit that publishes. I earned a PhD in English partly because I believe that the written word can help to change the world. I still do believe it, and I want to be part of that change – whether that means editing ground-breaking fiction or choosing ground-breaking articles for a newsletter. I look forward to working my way toward that goal.
It hasn’t always been easy. I’ve felt at sea. I’ve wondered if I would ever get a job, and I’ve also felt like the only disabled PhD out there. I wanted to tell everyone else that they aren’t alone, and I am hoping other people will reach out and share their stories. I know disabled people can have major problems both on the career market and in colleges. I’d love to see a world where disability isn’t an issue for any qualified job candidate and where all employers are willing to be flexible. That would mean people being willing to work with my need for written English, employers being willing to hire American Sign Language translators at a moment’s notice (for people whose first language is American Sign), employers automatically assuming that websites must be accessible to screen-readers [which is a software that reads the screen for blind users] etc. That’s a world totally without ability barriers. I look forward to working toward that goal too.
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In this new episode, Adriana Bankston tells us about her career story. Adriana is a Principal Legislative Analyst at the University of California Office of Federal Governmental Relations in Washington, DC, where she serves as an advocate for the university with Congress, the administration and federal agencies.
Adriana grew up in a family of scientists, which made her interested in pursuing a research career. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from Emory University and later on she managed to transition into science policy through a number of volunteering opportunities. While exploring the several options, she became interested in academic training and the connection between science and society and got involved in organizations that work on training the next generation of scientists. Along the way, she held some leadership positions where she built her brand in science policy coupled to training activities and got involved with non-profits that advocate for early career trainees. This has opened a new avenue to her to connect federal policy to university research and training the next generation of scientists. And made her realize that it is a path for her!Finally, Adriana shares key skills and qualifications that one needs in science policy:
Be used to fast-paced environments. Prioritize projects and be able to shift from one to another. Look at how you might be able to impact policy in real time by responding to agency requests for information or contributing to legislation.Interested in policy and science? Listen to this episode to get insights into policy roles and skills for a career path in science policy. Maybe it will also be a path for you? Enjoy listening!
The interviewed author expressed their personal views and not the views of their employer. -
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In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Rachel Kindt. After a PhD in Biology and a postdoctoral fellowship, Rachel dove headfirst into the biotech world, working her way from the lab bench to the corporate boardroom over her 20+ year career. Leveraging her scientific training and acquired - some might say improvised! - business savvy, she led drug development teams and built high-performing organizations. Rachel is known as a master facilitator, dedicated coach and mentor, and keen thought partner in scientific leadership. She is now coaching, consulting and co-authoring a book of career advice for scientists.
Rachel tells us about her exciting journey and career path that took her from a bench scientist, to leading a research collaboration, to being a leader and project manager in drug development.
Project management is a focus topic in this interview. What is a project manager? What are the skills required for a project manager role? How to grow as a project manager and how long does it take to be good in this role? What managerial titles do we have today? And what is the difference between a project manager, a program manager and a team manager?
All these questions - and much more - are answered by Rachel.
Finally, Rachel closes the episode sharing three tips for people applying for project manager roles:
Learn the language of project management.
Look at what you have done that is already project management.
Focus on the people’s aspect of the work you have done versus the technical aspect.
Listen to this episode to get inspired by Rachel’s journey and her valuable tips for a successful project management career path.
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João Graça holds a PhD in Biosciences from Cardiff University and currently works as an R&D Project Manager for LIPOR, the entity responsible for waste management in Greater Porto (Portugal). His current projects mostly concern the valorisation of bio-waste to high-value products. João has been involved in the creation and coordination of Smart Waste Portugal Young Professionals (SWYP). This group, currently with 80 members, aims to create work and knowledge sharing networks between professionals working or interested in the circular economy. Prior to his current role at LIPOR, João has attained different positions in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries including Biological Scientist at LIG Biowise (UK), Early Stage Researcher at AstraZeneca (UK) and Research Intern at Anacor Pharmaceuticals (USA). In addition to the PhD, João also holds a BSc in Biosciences from the Catholic University of Portugal and a MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Porto.
In this episode, João tells us about his career story and professional journey, holding several roles in different Life Science fields and different countries. He talks about the reasons that led him to do a PhD, as well as the opportunities and challenges encountered along his path.
He closes the episode sharing valuable tips:
If you are not 100% set on an academic career, find an industry experience as soon as possible. If you are considering a PhD position, make sure you have an affinity with your supervisor and future colleagues. It is also important to be fine with working conditions, infrastructure, resources and city. Participate in work groups of your topics of interest. Do not be afraid to contact researchers or interesting entities to get to know more about their work and to work in collaborations. If you are finishing or have just finished your PhD and are set on breaking from academia, first explore what career options are available, get information and talk with professionals from different areas. Define the area to pursue and develop the requirements to break into that area.To know more about João’s story and the opportunities in the Life Science fields, please listen to this episode.
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In this episode, Tina interviews Lauran Fuller. Lauran is a mother of three, an entrepreneur, and a doctoral student. For the past 7 years, she has owned and operated a dessert bakery in southern Oklahoma. She wants to take the lessons learned along her journey and educate others. She is particularly keen on self-development and work-life balance, as prioritizing her family has posed its own challenges along the way. Focus and determination drive her every step of the way, as her educational pursuit has not slowed her entrepreneurial spirit.
Lauran talks about her experience being an entrepreneur and a mother at the same time. Having her own business has given her the flexibility to successfully manage her family. She closes the interview with valuable tips to women having entrepreneurship and leadership career goals:
Nail down your passion and your desires Design a life that fits that Pursue it- Don’t let anything stop you and stand in your way Make sure you decide what to do and how to do Find the community that supports your decisions and directions.Listen to this episode to hear more about a good example of a woman entrepreneur who successfully maintains her work-life balance, managing doctoral studies, a bakery and 3 kids!
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In this podcast, Tina Persson interviews Bärbel Tress. Bärbel is a Research Career Expert & Advisor. Her main expertise is to advise young researchers how to successfully conduct and complete their PhD studies, how to apply for academic jobs, and how to improve research performance and efficiency.
Bärbel has a PhD in Landscape Ecology from Roskilde University, Denmark. She worked in academia for more than a decade, as postdoc, researcher and lecturer at universities in several European countries. She co-founded TRESS ACADEMIC in 2007 together with her partner. The company helps researchers acquire the complementary skills they need to succeed in academia. Bärbel also co-founded the SMART ACADEMICS Blog which helps young researchers with PhD completion, getting published, and career tips.
Different time points in the PhD journey are discussed in this interview together with the required actions. What to do and what to think about from the first day of signing the contract, at half-way through, the last year of the PhD, when 6 months are left, when one month is left and lastly the D-day: the defense day.
Bärbel finally closes the interview sharing five valuable tips that help PhDs to successfully complete their PhD studies.
1- Enjoy the ride
2- Keep the end in mind
3- Define your objectives early on
4- Start writing early on
5- Work on the relationship with supervisors
Listen to this episode for valuable advices from two career coaches with a lot of expertise in accompanying PhDs along their PhD journey.
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In this podcast, Tina Persson interviews Adam Sierakowiak with a focus topic: the career transition into the pharmaceutical industry. Adam is a medical advisor at MSD since 2018. He has a master's degree in biomedical sciences from the Karolinska Institute, where he later pursued his PhD in neuroscience.
Adam discusses the importance of learning the local language, of communicating the transferable skills as well as of knowing the industry language. He also talks about the importance and the need of networking. A good example on how to be memorable while approaching someone is also given in this episode. Different roles or job titles are found in the medical sector, but what do they really mean and which one suits us most? These are questions addressed in this podcast.
He finally closes the interview sharing three valuable tips for a successful career transition:
1- Network and learn industry language.
2- Highlight your personal skills instead of technical skills
3- Don’t give up
Don’t miss this episode. You will definitely enjoy it!
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In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Elena Itskovich and Ofer Yizhar Barnea. Elena has a PhD in stem cell biology from the University of Cambridge. She volunteers for ScienceAbroad and has hosted the macadamia podcast. Ofer has a Ph.D in Human molecular genetics. He has served 6 years as an officer and ran a RnD team of physicists and mathematicians. In parallel he is a co-founder of a company that has been growing and evolving for 3 years now.
The main topics discussed in this podcast are the importance of networking and digital presence. Listen to this episode to learn about how to grow your network both online and offline. Important tips for PhDs are to start the networking process early and to leave the comfort zone to be able to expand their network.
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Dear listeners, it is with great joy that we welcome you to our new home and to episode 101 of PhD Career Stories. After a year-long pause, we return to podcast publication with a fresh and functional website, in which you can find our entire podcast catalogue conveniently organized in relevant categories.
We believe that storytelling is a powerful way to connect with others and to find one’s own path in career and life. We believe that our new website helps us fulfill our ambition of becoming a storytelling channel, where everyone can participate and share their journey and experience, so we can learn and grow with each other.
In today's episode, PhD Career Stories co-founder Tina Persson will share with you insights from our journey that resulted in this new beginning, and update you on our plans for the future.
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Welcome to episode 100 of Phd career story, where we have a round table discussion with 9 members of our team.
In this episode we talk about the impact that Phd career stories have had on Phds around the world, based on comments we have received. We also talk about what we have learned from Phd stories and working as a team in the last 3 years.
This is the last episode for now, but we will be back in 6 to 9 months with the new beginning.
Stay healthy!
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Welcome to a new episode of PhD Career Stories. In today's podcast, Dr. Rui Cruz tells us about his career path and how he went from doing a PhD in biomedical sciences to starting up his own company, called Connecting Biotech. He also shares with us valuable tips and lessons he learned along his journey.
Looking back, I view my PhD as a process of self discovery, a process that allowed me not only to recognize my limitations and strengths, but it also allowed me to work on those weaknesses and strong points.
To know more about Rui’s story, please listen to this episode. If you also have a story to be told or if you know someone willing to share his story, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Enjoy listening.
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Welcome to today episode where Dr. Evelina Kulcinskaja tell us the story of her transition from academia to industry. Evelina received her PhD in biochemistry at Lund University in 2015. After that she did a 2-year post-doc at the University of Nottingham, UK, doing research on biocatalysis. She now works as a lab manager at a pharmaceutical company, taking care of day-to-day operations in a laboratory that does analysis by mass spectrometry.
Evelina will also share with us some reflections on her journey, as well some useful tips and tricks for researchers in different stages of their careers.
”As a PhD student, I learned lots of transferrable skills, such as compiling and sorting information, written and oral communication, negotiation with your supervisor, team work in the group, as well as a broad range of laboratory skills.”
If you are curios Evelina’s story and get some 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!
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Welcome to a new podcast in PhD Career Stories. In today’s podcast, Dr. to be Natalia Bielczyk shares her journey from her homeland Poland to the Netherlands and the different steps she took to become an entrepreneur. Natalia is just about to get her PhD in Neuroscience at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior in Nijmegen. In 2018, she launched a foundation, Stichting Solaris Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling, that offers free consultancy to early career researchers interested in self-development or search for new careers in industry. Furthermore, in 2019, Natalia established, Ontology of Value, a company that helps researchers to develop careers beyond academia. She also wrote a book entitled “What is out there for me? The landscape of post-PhD career tracks.“ Natalia brings us to a journey of self-discovery and recalls how she navigated herself from academia towards the open job market to finally become an entrepreneur.
Academic CV: https://www.nataliabielczyk.com/archive
Stichting Solaris: https://stichting-solaris.github.io/
Ontology of Value: https://ontologyofvalue.com/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082YCHJHP
To know more about Natalia´s journey, 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!
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Dr. Ulrikke Voss has a PhD in medical sciences from Lund university, and and has been working as a postdoc and associate researcher at Lund university for 6 years. She just decided to quit the academic career and start her new journey, both mentally and physically. In this podcast, she shares her story and the first steps of the preparation of her adventure.
Ulrikke is currently a blogger, where where she shares her curiosity and love of science, describe a life in academia with reflection, and humor describe falling and regaining her footing. She also has started her youtube channel where she will share the interviews with amazing scientists while walking in the nature.
If you are curios Ulrikke’s long journey, 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!
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In this podcast, Tina Persson, the founder of PhD Career Stories has an interesting interview with Dr. Laura Pozzi, who is currently working as a Scientific Writer for a Swedish Biotech, Atlas Antibodies, in Stockholm. Her role involves content creation and scientific marketing communication. Laura received her Ph.D. in Life and Biomolecular Science at the IRCSS-Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan in 2011. After her graduation, she joined the Neuroscience Department at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where she worked as a postdoc until 2017. Her research interest focused on the identification of the molecular aspects of brain disorders.
If you are curious about how Laura stepped out of academia and started a new career, 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!
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Dr. Naresh Thatikonda, a senior scientist at Cobra Biologics shares his story and about his transition from academia to industry. Naresh did his undergraduate study in India and continue his education in Sweden. He has a PhD in Biotechnology, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His plan was to pursue an academic career but after PhD, he changed his mind and started his career in industry.
If you are curious about Naresh’s transition from academia to industry , 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!
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In this episode, Dr. Sabine Englich shares her career story from the perspective of a coach and tells us about the essence of developing a satisfying career. Dr. Sabine had been a science manager in the Max Plank institute for over 20 years. After retirement, she started her coaching career and currently she is helping young PhDs to fulfill the transition from academic into the professional life.
To know more about Sabine’s story, 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!
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This is the second episode of Dr. Francesca Capellini, in which she will talk about the importance of networking in order to broaden your career opportunities.
In her first podcast (#91) Francesca shared with us her career steps that led her to her current position at the italian non-profit organisation Fondazione Umberto Veronesi and how she developed her passion for science writing and science communication. If you have not listened to her first podcast, don’t hesitate to do so.
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Welcome to this new episode where Dr. Francesca Cappellini shares her experience about her career path as a scientist. Dr. Francesca Capellini is working as a researcher for the non-profit organization Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, she is also a scientist writer and a science communicator. In this episode, she talks about the common mistakes done while applying for a job or position as well as how she prevailed over those. Would you like to know how she overcame her circumstances? 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!
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In this podcast, Tina Persson, the founder of PhD Career Stories has an interesting interview with Sven Totté, who is a Management Consultant using the knowledge and the skills gathered over 25 years in different commercial and leadership roles in a large variety of industries. He is passionate about improving companies’ performance through organizational and business development, often enabled by innovative technologies.
Finding, engaging and keeping the right talent is according to him the most important key to success, hence his deep understanding of the Future of Work including trends like the gig economy.
His favorite missions are to build sharper customer experience, implement innovative value-adding services and shape happier teams.
If you are curios about gig economy and its definition, 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!
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