how did I get from here yes I'm very cute to here and to having the opportunity to stand here before you today I'm a post doctoral researcher at the University College London School of Pharmacy and as a postdoc in Academia you reach a very important stage in your career where you must step out from under the shadow of your principal investigator otherwise known as Pi and emerge in an ideal scenario as an independent researcher I'm currently going through this process uh right now now on paper the transition from postdoc to Independent researcher seems easy but
I've come to realize that there's more to this transition than just finding what re research question would make you stand out it's actually about tackling one's fear of and resistance to change when I look back at Key moments in my life and my career so far I realize that these moments have forced me to step out of my comfort zone this is one of my favorite quotes by Neil Walsh Life begins at the end of your comfort zone and with that I've also identified what I believe to be three core elements of change that I've
encountered at each hurdle you self-explanatory us so that's family and all friend and then external parties which who may support or be resistant to your change over the next few minutes I'm going to talk through the changes that an individual may go through at the early stages of their academic career I will draw on some of my experiences to date but also show us how these three core elements tie in so after your GCS and your A Levels or or equivalent you've been accepted to to study um your degree at your chosen University this is
an amazing achievement for some people the transition from school to University comes with all sorts of excitement yes but fears and concerns 50 to 7 research has shown that 50 to 70% of UK students experience homesickness in the first 2 to three weeks at University well this can be overcome by creating that sense of us or at least a version of that us when you arrive and also help will always be available from external parties such as the university counseling service and uh Nightline Association but another question that people ask themselves and I know I
definitely did is will I succeed this question is born out of a fear of failure Dr Susan Jeffers uh the author of the book Feel the fear and do it anyway believed that the fundamental reason and underlying reason for everybody's fears is a belief that I can't handle it and I agree with that the solution as she suggests is to trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way but also to realize that the only way to get over a fear is to go out and do it when I was in my first year
undergraduate studies I had a reset I don't know if anybody's been through this experience but it's not pleasant and in addition to that you have to pay for the reset which is not good at the time after successfully um passing my reset I realized that I just I just wasn't motivated enough in my degree at the time I knew that I would graduate and qualify and so forth afterwards but I'm very competitive with myself I wanted more and that's when I realized that don't bother competing with other people you should only compete with yourself it's
important to challenge yourself to do better to be better and to achieve better you need to figure out what you need to focus on to get you through your degree for me it was to do a PhD the PHD is an excellent opportunity for independent study it's about identifying a gap of knowledge in an area and then working towards advancing knowledge in that field there are four domains that are thought to Encompass um what researchers should work within and how they can work with others be effective in their research um and contribute to the wider
society and the environment at the start of your PhD depending on if you decide to do it um in your home country or abroad you may experience some feelings of homesickness and you're definitely going to ask yourself the questions will I succeed well you've already tackled this in your undergraduate degree you know that you can succeed but when you put your mind to it so after doing your PhD if you decide to stay on in Academia you um may decide depending on which field you're in you may decide to uh conduct undergo a postdoctor researcher
position this is where I am this slide to me sums up the uh postdoc experience so postdocs for research of position is where you undertake some research after your PhD so this can be either in the same area as your PhD or in a completely different area so for example my PhD was in the area of formulation science and Material Science characterization and my current postto is in the area of phaco engineering and nanofabrication it's a very interesting position and current and past posts have lots of thoughts and opinions about uh the position I also
believe that it's about working and growing and developing in those four domains that I previously mentioned as I mentioned the postto is a very challenging uh position but it's going to force you to grow in different ways and I'm just going to take some points from Leo babala um the creator of Zen habit the postto will force you to overcome your resistance to change you're going to have to learn to find the joy in what you do and keep it but also learn to celebrate little victories but most of all overcome your fear of failure
and your fear of success it is in this position where those in the them group may actually become resistant to your change and so you're in a situation where you're trying to work through your process of change but how do you deal with other people's resistance to your own change top reasons why people uh tend to be resistance the change include a misunderstanding about the need for the change they don't understand why you want to change or why you feel you need to change they're connected to the old way so that's people being connected to
the old you but not the you you're about to become interestingly one of another top reason why people might uh be resistance to your change it's like they feel they haven't been consulted in any way about your process uh in change and so therefore this the communication there's been poor communication about the change so as a postto in Academia you reach an important stage in your career where you must step out from under the shadow of your pi and emerge in an ideal scenario as an independent researcher the reality is only 10% of posts will
actually make it on to be an independent researcher but hopefully by that time you should have reached a level of acceptance and have a new sense of confidence but furthermore now you have not just the tools but the support to embark on the next stage in your career thank you
