#2 Why do people find it Difficult to Leave Academia?
Hi everyone,
Welcome to my website and my second blog post 😇.
In my last blog I wrote about the idea that helped me switch from academia to industry. The blog received 563 views to date and a lot of them reached out to me to share how they are preparing to bring positive change in their lives. It made me happy 😃. But it also reminded me of a lot of my friends and colleagues who were unable to take such decisive actions in their careers.
This made me wonder why is it difficult for some people to change even when they see positive examples in front of them. Are they lazy? Are they Ignorant? Or is there a psychological reason behind it?
Today’s blog is about a psychological factor called Learned Helplessness, how it might affect a PhD and how friends can help them recover from the difficulty.
Learned Helplessness was theorized in the 1970s by Martin Seligman and Steven Maire, using ruthless experiments on animals.
Scientists kept dogs in 2 different boxes. One type of box had two chambers with an incomplete partition between them, while the other type had two with a complete partition between them. When kept in a specific chamber and electrocuted, the dogs ran off to the other chamber only in boxes with an incomplete partitions. But the dogs that were kept in boxes with a complete partition between the chamber could not run away and, over time, learned to tolerate the shock.
Pictorial representation
Experiment box with 2 chamber with an incomplete partition
Scientists then transferred the ‘Shock Learned’ dogs to boxes with incomplete partitions between the chambers. Thus, they could run away from the shock chamber this time. But to their surprise, they observed that the dogs did not run away from the shock chamber and kept tolerating the pain. Scientists showed how other dogs escaped the shocks, but the ‘Shock Learned’ dogs kept tolerating the pain. In the end, the scientists had to physically teach them how to use their legs to run away from the shocks. This is called Learned Helplessness. A mental state where you become tolerant of aversive stimuli and refrain from changing even when an opportunity comes up later.
This begs me to ask: How many PhDs in academia suffer from the such a psychological condition - Learned Helplessness?
Two factors generate Learned Helplessness: 1) Developing a tolerant behavior to aversive stimuli 2) Lack of awareness about other options.
A survey involving graduate and postgraduate students in the United States of America and Europe revealed that Students received the most career advice about academic careers. Many students felt a lack of support and awareness of career options blunted their ability to reach their ideal careers.
The biggest aversive stimulus in academia is the psychological indoctrination that a PhD is nothing without a quality publication. This generates a fear for which people work day and night. Moreover, since the chance of getting an opportunity is quite low, students usually stick to whatever lab they get to do a PhD. The scarcity of opportunity and fear of publication generates a highly competitive work environment. And if this continues for 5 or 7 or even 10 years, ‘Techniques for publication’ is all a PhD gets to learn, not the opportunities in the industry or other applied fields.
This is what inhibits people from leaving academia. People feel scared to dump all their academic investments to start a new life. The situation psychologically forces people to stick to whatever they have as comfort and stability in their life.
How can we change it? Remember that the scientists had to teach the dogs how to run away from the shocks in the classical experiment. So, it starts with friends and people reading this blog, helping others to become aware of opportunities beyond academia (conceptual association between experiments and real life, not literal).
Understand why people need to be aware of career opportunities early in life and not drown themselves only in lab experiments. Talk about all the difficulties in career transitions amongst friends. Create a ‘Brain Storming Groups’ to talk about what kind of change is the biotech industry going through. What kind of job positions are there that a PhD can contribute to? What are personal and technical qualities in demand? How to connect with people on LinkedIn to get more information on this?
Ask the research institute administration to fund a workshop on career development. This discussion and negotiations can be difficult, but Negotiation and Conflict Management is one of the highly rated Transferable Skills required in the industry.
The summit was organised in Copenhagen where leaders from CRISPR medicine, digital health, and drug discovery field spoke about their current goal and future vision.
An example of what students can do when they come together is the Synapse - Life Science Connect – a student-driven, non-profit organization in Copenhagen that creates events, workshops, and networking opportunities for students and recent graduates with interest in pursuing careers in life science environment (not a promotion – I genuinely love them 🙂).
Visit Synapse website to know how they function, and start talking to your colleagues today.
A better life starts with better access to opportunities.
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See you soon… 🤟
