When I started thinking about writing Navigating the P.I.V.O.T., my first thought was to jump right into all the tactics that make a person successfully land a high-paying job outside of academia.
However, I began to speak PhDs and academics one-on-one and very often I would be blown away by how people would process my advice.
Of course, there were those who were excited to go and implement everything I said.
But then, there would be the ones who would IMMEDIATELY be full of excuses as to why the advice I gave would NOT work. One person even told me my advice was a form of victim-blaming.
BLINK. BLINK.
Initially, when this would happen, being the IFNJ personality type I am, I would try to “save” folks and convince them that I was not victim-blaming or gaslighting or manipulating them in any way!
Well, I’ve grown a few more gray hairs and nowadays, the moment someone throws another psychological term at me, I smile, nod, and move on.
Why? Because for that person, whatever they are saying is very real to them. Their socialization and life experiences until now, point to evidence contrary to the advice I’m giving them. I cannot change a lifetime of thinking in one encounter.
This is one of the reasons why in Part One of Navigating the P.I.V.O.T., I wrote 4 chapters about why every successful career change starts with your thinking and shifting one’s mindset around thought patterns academia gave us.
I mean this with so much love:
The easiest way to self-sabotage your career, and ultimately, life is to immediately find ways to prove that a piece of advice will NOT work for you without even stopping to say, “I’m not used to this. This is different than anything I’ve ever tried. But what if I adopted it or modified it for my life? What would happen? How would my life change?”
That’s all I have today.
Navigating the P.I.V.O.T is now live on all platforms. If you’re a PhD or academic contemplating a career transition outside of academia or you work with PhD students and postdocs on how to make this change, get this book today.
Until next time.
Gertrude Nonterah, Ph.D.