Moving in between worlds
With Dr Araceli Venegas-Gomez
Entering the world of academia as an engineer appears to have been less straightforward than one would expect. The challenge of being recruited onto a PhD programme did not deter Araceli to keep going and keep engaging in her interest in Physics. It was through a connection with an academic on an online course that she was able to leverage contact with another academic with whom she eventually worked as a PhD student. Still, it took a long period of engaging with this academic, before Araceli was recruited onto a research project.
At the end of her PhD, Araceli felt she wanted to be part of a professional sphere that was neither academia nor industry. Finding a space in between came about in unsuspected ways. She was able to gain initial funding to explore the commercialisation of her ideas about creating support for the quantum field in a different way than others had done before. Through many conversations with people in the field of quantum around the world in academia and industry, Araceli was able to refine the concept for the type of support needed in this new technological arena. She became an entrepreneur even though she had not contemplated becoming one.
More about Araceli
https://qureca.com/qureca-team/
Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:
How it took a lot of resilience to be accepted onto a PhD programme, as she came from an engineering industry background
How she has experienced herself being one of the few women in the room
How finding the sweet spot of your interests, skills and strengths can get you to become an entrepreneur, when you did not even know you could become one.
Some reflections based on my discussion with Araceli
Recruiting team members from a different discipline or professional experience
Recruiting people on PhD programmes is not an easy process as academics will want people who have core knowledge and skills. It might be worth exploring how our assumptions about the competencies of individuals coming from non-traditional career trajectories or other professional sectors may limit the recruitment of innovative thinkers into the research environment. Challenging their assumptions on many levels is one of the hardest things research leaders need to do.
We may know intuitively that recruiting people with different skills and experiences is a good thing. However, when you are a new research leader and so much is at stake for your career when you are recruiting PhD students and Postdocs, choosing to recruit someone who does not appear to have followed a traditional path may feel like taking a big risk. What could help you as a PI to experiment with your recruitment strategy?
In the case of Araceli, the PI proposed to her to actually experience what it was like to work in the lab, before getting her fully recruited on a PhD programme. The dreams that someone has of undertaking a PhD programme may not match the reality of everyday life in the lab.
o Instead of saying no straight away to someone wishing to join your group, who may come from a non-traditional professional background, can you explore with them over several months, what really interest them about the projects you are developing?
o What would they bring to your research team, that no one else (who has followed a traditional career path) is currently bringing?
o What are your thoughts about the perceived risks that such recruitment represents?
o Could you instigate an opportunity for this person to experience research with you, prior to committing to fully recruiting them?
Being one of the few women in the room
Araceli had already experienced throughout her career being one of the few women in the room from her engineering career in industry. So experiencing the gender differential during her Physics PhD did not come as a surprise. What picked my attention in our discussion was how she had experienced her first connection to a women network while she worked in Germany. It did not feel quite right and she did not continue her connection with them.
It was only later on as a PhD student that some of her awareness about the challenges of progression for women on the academic career track started to change. She became much more aware of the growing gender gap as academic careers progress. She used the term “not welcoming” in describing her experience of applying for PhD positions and being rejected. While of course the rejection could have been just due to the issue of being an engineer and not a Physics graduate. Still, I wonder why not more academics stopped themselves in their track and wondered why would this engineer woman want to do a PhD in quantum physics? Why did it take so long for someone to give her the benefit of the doubt and give her a chance?
She even experienced another women challenging her choice of wanting to do a PhD in academia, when she joined the department “why would you want to work in academia”. Whilst she would have probably wellcome the friendship and support of another woman in the department, this person (most likely unintentionally) perpetuated a narrative of rejection, exclusion and not belonging at a time when she was just starting on her research journey.
For women in male dominated professions, feeling that you continually need to prove yourself to belong to that space is something we often hear from women. There are many stories of women saying that they felt they needed to be so much better than men and work so much more than men to be considered as good. Many of you will think “oh no I don’t do this…I see the work whoever delivers it…I don’t judge whether it is a man or a woman”. Well, maybe that’s what you think, but analysis from research studies shows that perception of quality of work is not gender neutral.
For individuals who are the only one in the room whether it is gender, ethnicity, or any other protected characteristics, you may not always be conscious how the environment is impacting your ability to perform, progress and build professional confidence. You may accept practices and rituals that are just how things are done, without considering how these subtle behaviours of others contribute to your ability to take space in your professional context, or to be recognised as a valuable contributor.
We all need to work on our own biases to see how our behaviours may impact others without us realising they are. Becoming advocates for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in work environments needs us to notice patterns of behaviours and then take action, whether in small steps or bolder ones.
o Can you pay attention of who takes the most air space in the meetings you are attending? Could you ask the chair of the meeting to give speaking time more equitably across the room? Could a systematic approach of going around the table to give speaking time to everyone change favourably the tone and outcome of the conversation?
o How are developmental opportunities handed out in your research group? Is there enough transparency about who is accessing which opportunity and the logic of allocating various opportunities?
o If you feel like the only one in the room, what would be the networks that you could join to regain a sense of belonging and have a space for open exchanges about your own experiences of navigating your professional context?
“really assess what you’re good at. And this is what I think happened in my career...there was a point where I realized that I cannot be a researcher, but I really like this quantum stuff. What can I do with my skills that I can support this new ecosystem?”
