Working Scientist

Should you tailor your job interview style based on the age, gender and cultural background of the person asking the questions?Margot Smit and Dietmar Hutmacher compare their approaches to hiring and how generational influences might shape how they respond to candidates.Smit, a plant molecular biologist who became a group leader at Tübingen University Germany, in late 2023, and Hutmacher, a regenerative medicine researcher at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, list what they look for at interview. Coming from different generations, one with a background in industry, do they differ?This is the third episode in a six-part podcast series about hiring in science.

Julie Gould compares hiring practices across industry and academia by seeking perspectives from Tina Persson, an organic chemist-turned-careers coach based in Malmö, Sweden, and Lauren Celano, a recruitment consultant who founded Propel Careers, based in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009.Persson, whose coaching business is called passage2pro, tells Gould why it typically takes longer to hire scientists in academia. Margot Smit, a plant molecular biologist who now recruits scientists for her lab at Tübingen University in Germany, reflects on her own experiences as an academic jobseeker in 2022. It involved panel interviews, lab tours, team dinners, and, in one case, a symposium where all candidates gave a talk. Now, as someone who recruits scientists to her lab, she involves junior colleagues in hiring decisions.Jen Heemstra tells a similar tale. Her search for a department chair position in 2022 meant moving not only herself but also her entire chemistry research group to Washington University in St. Louis. She explains how she updated her colleagues and addressed their questions and concerns about the impending move.Finally, Rachel Howard describes how she hopes to make the process quicker and easier for hiring managers at the Francis Crick Institute in London, where she is head of talent acquisition.

Successful job candidates aren’t necessarily the smartest or most confident people in the room, Ilana Wisby tells Julie Gould in the first episode of a six-part weekly podcast series about hiring in science.Wisby, a physicist and former chief executive of Oxford Quantum Circuits, which builds quantum computers from its base in Reading, UK, says recruiters use interviews to gauge a candidate’s values, their emotional intelligence, and their growth potential. Asking someone how they received difficult feedback, she adds, is a test of their humility and willingness to admit mistakes, and what they learned from them.The episode begins with Linda Nordling, a freelance science writer who led coverage of Nature’s 2024 global hiring in science survey, talking about some of the surprising things that caught her eye in the data.Future episodes include insights from a careers coach about industry hiring trends, and how an academic research institute based in London is centralizing its postdoc hiring process.

Academia’s focus on individual achievement can be a breeding ground for poor mental health, says astrophysicist Kelly Korreck.Korreck, who experienced pandemic-related burnout while working on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, describes a competitive and ultimately damaging ‘lone wolf’ culture. She is joined by psychologist Desiree Dickerson to discuss how a stronger focus on group success can better protect researchers.Dickerson also calls for improved onboarding processes for early career researchers. They should involve clear conversations about looming challenges, including first person accounts from people who faced work-related stress, anger, anxiety and depression, she argues.“If we only value papers and funding, then of course, we protect those who have great papers and bring in lots of funding. We don’t look after the well-being of the people who actually need to be looked after,” she says.Social and clinical psychologist Ciro De Vincenzo reflects on the positive emotions he felt and witnessed during a fieldwork project as part of his research into migration patterns in the European Union.In contract, his experience of academic life at the University of Padua, Italy, was often less positive, pervaded by a strong sense of imposter syndrome and professional isolation. But being elected to the university senate enabled him to explore the systemic changes needed to improve researcher mental health, he says.And finally, Tammy Steeves, a conservation genomicist at the University of Canterbury in Chistchurch, New Zealand, describes her involvement in the Kindness in Science initiative, a movement to counter many of the perverse incentives that pervade academia, and its achievements to date.This is the final episode of this eight-part podcast series Mind matters: academia’s mental health crisis.

A relentless pursuit of perfection in science can mean that researchers are in perpetual and self-critical ‘survival mode,’ forever questioning their behaviours and actions in the workplace, says clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson.“We are not very good at taking the spotlight off ourselves, a pressure that can lead to burnout other mental health problems, adds Dickerson, who is based in Valencia, Spain.To boost workplace well-being, Ellen Wehrens describes the impact of a happiness programme that was introduced in 2019 to her lab at the Princess Máxima paediatric oncology centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The programme includes both a buddying system and a colour-coded index that enables individuals to signal to colleagues how they are feeling. “So green, you are doing great, yellow, not so much, and red, you are not doing well,” explains Wehrens.Ana Pineda, an ecologist who now runs I focus and write, an education and coaching business, says she began practicing yoga and meditation after feeling stressed at work. At the same time she also actively enlisted the support of friends and colleagues, describing them as “angels.” Meditation, she adds, enables her to find joy, even when faced with daunting tasks.This episode is the penultimate one in Mind Matters, an eight-part podcast series on mental health and wellbeing in academia.

Three researchers with personal experience of anxiety and depression triggered by studying the environmental destruction caused by a changing climate describe the steps they take to protect their mental health.Ruth Cerezo-Mota, a climate scientist based at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, found herself grieving for the state of the planet through her work for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Experiencing a panic attack at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a fear of checking emails and a sense of disengagement from work, led to her seeking professional help. “I was in a really dark place,” she tells Adam Levy. Retreating to a “happy place” that combines home, books, yoga, running, cats and wine is a key copying strategy when things get tough, she says.Similar experiences are recounted by Dave Reay, a climate scientist at the University of Edinburgh UK, and Daniel Gilford, a meteorologist who works at Climate Central, a science-led non-profit based in Princeton, New Jersey, that researches and reports the facts about climate change and its effects on peoples lives.Talking to other climate researchers and focusing on positive developments around climate change also helps, says Reay. Gilford, who is based in Orlando, Florida, likens climate change to being in the path of an approaching train: “I can see it coming with all of its weight and heaviness, and I’m screaming ‘Stop. Stop the train. Stop the train.’“By screaming, by saying what is happening, by naming the problem and telling people about it, I think that that can become a solution as well,” he says.

Krutika Kuppalli, a physician researcher who studies emerging infectious diseases, joined the World Health Organization in 2021, where she worked to combat the COVID-19 on a global level.She had previously been targeted by threats and harassment as a result of media and US congressional appearances to inform the public about the emerging pathogen. These were often focused on her race and gender. Concerned for her safety, Kuppalli went to the police twice. She was told to get a weapon.She tells Adam Levy how employers can support colleagues who face harassment, and the measures she took to protect herself.Kuppalli is joined by Atom Lesiak, a transgender non-binary genome sciences researcher based in Houston, Texas. Lesiak now runs Atomic Brains, a science tutoring and coaching organisation.Being open about their gender as a PhD student and beyond brought profound challenges. It forced them to question their decision to pursue a career in academia.This episode is the fifth in Mind Matters, an eight-part series on mental health and wellbeing in academia.

Kelly Korreck tells Adam Levy how a once-loved career in science gradually left her feeling exhausted, upset, and chronically stressed, with accompanying feelings of imposter syndrome.In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic deprived Korreck, an astrophysicist then working on NASA's Parker Solar Probe, of the favourite parts of her job. These included face-to-face mentoring, public engagement and conference travel. ”It really took a toll,” she says. ”There was none of the joy that I experienced previously. I thought it was my fault, that I was an imposter. I had gotten to this level, and I just wasn't good enough.”Desiree Dickerson, a clinical psychologist based in Valencia, Spain, outlines the different stages of burnout, and how the academic culture often encourages researchers to present a ”shiny façade” to the world.Dickerson, who works with academic institutions to develop healthier and more sustainable approaches to research, outlines three different stages of burnout, and how and when to seek help.This episode is the fourth in Mind Matters, an eight-part series on mental health and wellbeing in academia.

Hilal Lashuel and Dave Reay join Michelle Kimple to talk about faculty mental health and why it is often overlooked.A heart attack in 2016 forced Lashuel, a neurogenerative diseases researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, to question success in science and how it is defined.The pressure to be an excellent researcher, manager, accountant and mentor can exact a heavy mental toll, he says.Since his heart attack Lashuel has taken steps to reduce his workload and spend more time with his family, but also to lobby for systemic change in academia to better support faculty colleagues who are struggling.Climate scientist Dave Reay describes the mental health problems he experienced as a PhD student and the suicidal thoughts it triggered.Now, as a faculty member at the University of Edinburgh, UK, he is protective of family time, talks openly about the struggles he faced, and champions kindness at work and in his pastoral role as a supervisor.Finally, Michelle Kimple, an endocrinology researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, describes how junior colleagues react to her openness about her bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).This episode is the third in an eight-part series about mental health and wellbeing in academia.