Olivia Marsse is a Senior Conversational Designer. Her academic training is in Linguistics and she received her Ph.D. from University of Colorado, Boulder. In this episode, we discuss in conversational analysis, Olivia's transition story from PhD to Industry, tips for PhDs students and much more.

If you're an academic interested in opportunities in tech industry, this episode is for you!

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Show Notes:

[02:02] Intro to Conversational Data Analysis 

[03:41] Data Collection Techniques in Conversational Analysis 

[09:59] Conversational Analysis: Zoom

[13:04] Olivia's PhD To Industry Transition Story

[20:58] Academic Skill Set & How to Translate it to Industry

[25:11] How to Navigate Rapid Progress of AI

[29:17] Collaborative Work

[30:36] Jumping into a Senior Role right after PhD

[33:13] Biggest Challenge Pivoting: Work Life Balance?!

[36:45] Opportunities in Computational Linguistics and/or Conversational Design

[38:30] What Academic Expertise Fit Well in this Field?

[39:47] 1 Advice for PhDs

[41:21] Brownies, White Lotus and Alaska!

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Olivia's LinkedIn: here

Aditya's LinkedIn: here

Joe Stubenraunch is a user experience researcher in tech. He has been in this position for about six months, before that an instructional designer in the same company and prior to that, he was in academia for most of his career. He got his Ph.D. in History with a focus on late 18th and early 19th centuries British history. Then, he had a very traditional academic path from graduate school to tenure track to tenured, and then, he had a midlife crisis and decided to completely reinvent his life…tune in to find out how he navigates that and lands in tech.

If you're a Humanities Ph.D. interested in opportunities in industry, this episode is for you!

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Show Notes:

[01:09] Joe's background - History Prof to User Experience Researcher in Tech

[03:24] Why a Tenured Prof would decide to reinvent their career in tech

[08:52] Career options as you grow in seniority: Academia vs Industry

[13:26] How to explore post-academic career options and steps to get there

[18:21] Core skillset overlap between a Professor and roles in industry

[22:41] Background, skillsets, and experiences of an Instructional Designer

[25:36] Roles and opportunities for Humanities PhDs

[32:27] Total open roles in Tech vs Academia

[38:05] Ego, prestige, and how it affects the decision to re-start a career outside academia

[43:58] Lightening Round - Food, Video Games, and Travel

Madalina Sucala is Director of Digital Health at AstraZeneca. She began her career as a clinical psychologist, but she eventually realized that she was more interested in research than clinical practice. She completed a postdoc in behavioral medicine and moved to management roles at Johnson and Johnson, before eventually moving to AstraZeneca. She discusses her career trajectory as well as the importance of intentional networking and how that led to her successes.

If you're an early career professional or an academic/Ph.D. interested in opportunities in behavioral science or the pharma industry, this episode is for you!

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Show Notes:

[02:06] Madalina's journey to her Ph.D.

[03:27] Pivoting to research as a therapist

[05:17] Why industry made sense for Madalina

[06:34] Intentional networking and how it led Madalina to industry

[09:39] Expectations for an informational interview

[12:07] Opportunities in digital health

[15:11] Challenges in behavioral science

[17:46] Raid Fire - food, show, travel!

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Contact: Madalina's Linkedin