My 2025 Wish For You – Have Great Conversations

Beyond the Thesis With Papa PhD

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Welcome to another thought-provoking episode of Beyond the Thesis With Papa PhD!

I took some time in the middle of my family vacations to record a very short minisode and send you my 2025 wishes of a year full of enriching conversations!

Listen through and you will also find a great reading recommendation for this coming year and a call for listener 2025 wishes!

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD, the podcast that delves into the diverse and impactful roles scientists can play beyond the lab. With me, David Mendes. Hi. David Mendes here and I hope you’ve had a great holiday break and that 2025 is starting, in the best way possible for you. I’ve been on break with my family. My kids are still on vacation and so I’m taking a little time to say hi, to wish you a happy 2025 full of the best projects, full of the best results and also to share my wish for you for this coming year. I myself am betting heavily this year on really investing in networking, in meeting and talking with more people outside my, let’s say, my comfort zone, outside my immediate circle, and I really, really hope that you can do the same. It’s really easy to go through a year so fast and talk to the same, you know, dozen people who are around us in the lab.

But it is really, really important for you who are a burgeoning scientist, a burgeoning researcher to expand your network. And meaning also, not only to expand your network in your domain, but to expand the the diversity that exists in your network. Meet people from government, you know, from policy, meet people from industry, get to know how they got the job they got, get to know how you can contribute. It’s gonna be more and more important for you to be able to know what’s happening outside the walls of university because those places are probably where you are going to eventually land professionally and you really want to land there knowing the terrain or at least having some knowledge of the terrain already. And there’s no better way of doing it than talking with people who are who are there, who’ve been there 5 years, 10 years, who have the same or or whoever Jason, Jason profiles to yours scientifically and to hear their stories of how they got there. I am going to I’m not at the same stage buying, but I’m going to try and do the same, with the podcast, for example, And I I really, really wish for you that this year that’s that’s starting is gonna be filled with surprising, interesting, enriching, and real and human conversations that will lead you to have a better and better grasp on what is out there professionally for you, but more importantly, where you feel that you are going to fit once you get your degree or or where you’re going to fit once you you, you know, finish whichever professional pivot you are in right now. For me, one of the ways I’m going to do this is to get closer to you, the listener. And the first way that I’m doing this, I’ve just created at the end of last year, a community on Skool.com. It’s easy to find. You go to skool.com/paphpd and the community is there. It’s a burgeoning, small community of people like you trying to figure out their, you know, the next chapter for their career, be it because they’re finishing a degree or because they’re pivoting after a first or second job after their their degree. But like I said, my goal with the community is to be able to talk directly with you, and that’s why one of the things I do on school is to have regular live sessions, each week, 3 times a week. So you you get to talk directly with me, with other people if they’re there too, but you get direct access to me. But also, the other thing that I’m doing there is I’m creating some free courses that I’m publishing there and there only, plus the community is going to have priority in accessing other training or mentoring that I am going to be rolling out this year. So that’s one thing you can do, get on the Skool community with me. And the other recommendation I have is a book.

David Giltner, past guest of the show, recommended this reading to me and I really really loved it. It’s by Seth Godin. It’s called Lynchpin and you should read it. It’s a book about how to imagine yourself and and position yourself professionally in spaces where you’re not naturally, let’s say, you’re not naturally a candidate or, you know, you need to kind of create your path. It’s also important because now that we’re in this AI tsunami moment, it’s really a book that’s gonna help you understand what your value is and how to put that forward, in whichever career conversations you have going forward. So, Linchpin by Seth Godin, read this book in 2025 and find where you can be the linchpin next in your professional journey and finally, I’d really love to hear what your wishes are for 2025, and it could be to do with what you’d like to hear, on the podcast, guests, subjects, you know, how I can make this podcast better for you, but it can also simply be what you in your academic, in your professional life would like to see happen and come to fruition in 2025. And then, if you send me a message and tell me, whether you want it to be anonymous, I can make it anonymous. If you tell me that I can share your name, I will share your name. Just send an email with your wishes to [e-mail], and I will share your wishes in a future episode. So that’s it. I won’t take more of your time, in this beginning of 2025. I hope you are still celebrating and you’re still, recharging your family and friend batteries and that you are ready and pumped for what’s coming. So thanks for being a fan. Thanks for listening and see you around in 2025. Thank you for listening to episode 20 of the 6th season of beyond the thesis with Papa PhD, the first one of 2025.

Don’t forget, I will be expecting your wishes for this coming year. Send them to [e-mail], and it’ll be a pleasure for me to read them and to share them in a future episode. Also, remember, if you want to join me on the school community, it’s simply skool.com/papaphd, and it’s really, really easy to join. See you there soon!

You might also like the following episodes:

Sara Thompson – Out of the Box Careers Post-PhD

Tony Stubblebine –Build Authority By Finding An Audience

Andrew Ceperley – Building Fulfilling Academia Adjacent Careers

Alessandra Wall – Positioning Yourself Outside Academia