What if the biggest thing holding back your STEM career change is not your skills, your experience, or your resources, but the beliefs you keep treating as facts?
🔍 What You’ll Learn:
This Firechat episode challenges four common beliefs that keep STEMM professionals stuck in the same lane for too long: “I’m just a scientist,” “I need to work harder,” “my work will speak for itself,” and “I’m not ready yet.”
Shilpa Agarwal, founder of ClinEQ Training and Chapter One Publishers, brings a grounded view of what it actually takes to move from clinical research into entrepreneurship while still being realistic about family, money, risk, and responsibility. She shares how collaboration, human connection, asking for help, and showing your work can create traction long before everything feels perfectly figured out.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why your STEMM skills do transfer, especially when you stop dismissing people outside your technical field
• Why asking for help is not weakness, it is one of the fastest ways to work smarter
• Why your work will not speak for itself until people know what you do and why it matters
• How to think about starting before you feel fully ready, without pretending risk does not exist
• Why having a safety net does not make your career move less brave, it makes it more practical
Listen to this short Firechat if you need a sharp, practical nudge to stop overthinking your next career move and start testing what could be possible.
🧠About the Guest:
Shilpa Agarwal is the founder of ClinEQ Training and Chapter One Publishers. Through ClinEQ Training, she works with pharmaceutical companies, small biotechs, CROs, and individuals across leadership and GCP training. Through Chapter One Publishers, she helps aspiring authors move from secretly wanting to write a book to actually becoming published.
Her work sits at the intersection of science, mindset, leadership, and communication, which makes her a brilliant example of what happens when a STEMM career stops living in one neat little box. Honestly, the box was getting crowded anyway.
đź“Ś Episode Highlights:
00:00 Challenging the beliefs that hold scientists back
01:20 Shilpa introduces ClinEQ Training and Chapter One Publishers
02:45 Myth 1: “I’m just a scientist and my skills don’t transfer”
03:15 Collaboration, human connection, and staying open to people outside your field
05:30 Myth 2: “I just need to work harder”
06:20 Why asking for help is working smarter
07:15 Myth 3: “My work will speak for itself”
08:00 Why visibility matters before people can trust your work
08:30 Myth 4: “I don’t have enough time, money, or resources to start”
09:30 Mapping the numbers, family support, and realistic timelines
11:20 Choosing priorities that reduce pressure and unnecessary spending
14:00 Plan A, fallback options, and staying flexible
15:30 Why STEM professionals often have more safety nets than they realise
16:10 Where to hear the full conversation with Shilpa
đź”— Resources Mentioned:
• ClinEQ Training
• Chapter One Publishers
• Full conversation with Shilpa Agarwal, linked in the show notes
• Architecture is a Determinant of Health, mentioned as an example of what happens when clinical research and design thinking meet
🤔 Reflection Time: