Plans to leave academia can add value to research

As I sat in a dingy corner of the library, scouring old volumes of obscure journals at the end of the first year of my PhD, I realised that I was having quite a lot of fun. More fun, in fact, than I’d had in the lab for ages. It was the final confirmation I needed that experimental research was not going to be part of my post-PhD career plan.

From then on, my time at university had a dual purpose: complete my PhD and gain the skills I needed to leave research behind. A career in science communication appealed, so I entered writing competitions and got involved in lab demonstrating, school visits and outreach activities.

Some of the time I spent on those activities was time that, officially, I should have spent on research (though I was also able to count some of it towards my transferable skills requirements). Yet, I don’t think my research suffered – if anything, the opposite was true. Yes, I’d occasionally have a week where I’d find myself booked up with communication commitments, leaving barely any time to visit the lab. But once those busy periods passed, my research motivation was renewed. Talking to people about science – even if it had nothing to do with my own project – energised me. In response, I worked far more efficiently and effectively than if I’d have spent the entire time hunched over my experiments.