Transitioning from Academia to Industry

Andy Stein on career lessons that turn out to be life lessons

Notes on Andy Stein’s Medium post: the mindsets that help a PhD student or postdoc move into industry are the same ones that help outside work.

Transitioning from Academia to Industry, by Andy Stein on Medium, 13 February 2022.

Most of the advice for moving from academia to industry is also advice for living. The post introduces a career guide written as a pre-read for PhD students and postdocs who ask for advice, and notes that the topics friends and colleagues suggested adding were mostly life lessons.

• Curiosity. Staying open to learning, to feedback and to wonder.
• Collaboration. Everyone has blind spots, and working with others fills them.
• Mindfulness. In a difficult moment, pausing to choose the words and the action from a place of equanimity.
• Practice carries over. Noticing a reaction, asking where it comes from and then choosing how to act takes practice, a coach or a therapist can help build it, and a skill practised in one domain carries over to the others.