Life after PhD - GETA

Life after PhD
Better prepare for it!
Mircea Guina (GETA PhD, GETA Postdoc, Prof.)
Optoelectronics Research Centre, TUT
mircea.guina@tut.fi
GETA annual seminar, 20.01.2011

Introduction
• 1999 – 2002: PhD Student / Funding: CIMO, GETA
• 2003 – 2005: PostDoc / Funding: GETA
• 2006 – 2008: Senior researcher / Funding: FP6
• 2009 – 2013: Professor tenure / Funding: TEKES, (AKA, FP7)
• 2005 – Cofounder and Managing Director of RefleKron Oy
• Married, two kids + mother-in-low = very important work asset
enabling entrepreneurship; sadly, she is not mentioned yet on the
acknowledgment section of any of my papers…

Why bother to be involved in entrepreneurial
activities while working at university
• We are motivated by results and purpose regardless on the way we achieve these
• It is hard to cut out opportunities which have opened after hard work
• “Fun”
• Ultimately money … (not an easy way; high-tech entrepreneurship involves high risk)
• With proper environment (e.g. possibility to rent facilities during weekend time) one
can combine entrepreneurship and academic activities (at least for a while).
A man with a vision on
high-tech:
Prof. Markus Pessa
Established MBE
technology at TUT
and ORC
1991 2000 2003 2004
2008 2009

Things to talk about
• What to expect after PhD
• What to avoid in PhD life
• Success factors
• Career planning
• Some conclusions

Why making a PhD
• Curiosity and desire to contribute to knowledge
• Become an expert in the field, obtain an academic position,
obtain fame in the community
• Have access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and knowhow
enabling entrepreneurship
• Develop personal skills: independence, self-knowledge and
confidence, professional networks, communication, negotiation…

What is the real need for highly
educated people
Unemployment at the moment of MSc graduation
TTY Opiskelijapalvelut / Eeva Ylhäinen

Self-motivation
Students’ motivation profiles
Entrepreneur
Scientist
+
Nothing
better to do
It is nice to
learn more
• All have same challenge after graduation: need to
reinvent, figure out the next goal, get resources to
accomplish it, be independent etc.

Motivation scenario for academic career
Private
life
Funding, facilities,
environment
Research topic
Private
life
Funding, facilities,
entrepreneurship
Research topic
Purpose!
Private
life
Funding, facilities,
environment
Success as a group
PhD student
PostDoc
Professor
Is our society supporting a career path in science
Where is the academic freedom Do professors turn
more and more into project writing “machines”
… practice and lead research
… higher level of purpose
… fame and more opportunities

Prepare to do something else than science
• In western world about 40% of PhD continue as
postdoctoral researchers. 20% are still in academia
after 5 years from graduation you need to acquire
skills that could be used in industry
• The first years after graduation are likely to have a
major impact on professional career. Evaluate your
options well in advance

Success factors
Opportunities
Mentoring
Hard work
Career planning

About hard work
• If you expect to work 7.25 hours/day for 5 days a week it is
unlikely that you will stand out of the PhDs crowd (exceptions
could be related to extraordinary native intelligence, karma,
prayers and other possible mystical approaches … )
• Hard work leads to more opportunities which lead to even
harder work resulting in more opportunities etc. you need to
find a balance
• Be perseverant in getting things finished but review the output
periodically and adjust the goals
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock
long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake
up somebody.“ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Success is dependent upon the glands; sweat glands."
Zig Ziglar

About opportunities
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks
like work." Thomas Edison
• Expose your ideas to criticism and let other people know what
your thoughts are understand your value proposition
• Opportunities are linked to collaboration. “It takes 2 to tango” but
it might require 20 to get a new concept proved in the lab!
• Do more than research work: organize courses, enroll in
professional organization, build your professional network
• Get involved at early stage in writing project proposals and grant
applications
• Challenge your environment in a constructive way; be proactive
and give feedback to the others (good leaders value receiving
even negative feedback; bad leaders perceive criticism like a
threat); there is nothing much you can lose as a PhD student …

About the mentor
• Having a mentor is beneficial for the scientific career
• Does not always need to be your PhD supervisor
• The ideal role is to guide the professional growth such that
success is limited only by your ability to accomplish specific tasks
• Apply common sense in following advices
• Figure out the profile of your supervisor and act in consequence
- Is he the role-model
- Are you regarded just like one more tool to write papers which are used to
attract money to be used for writing more papers
- Supervisor might provide a falls image of what you are (in the best case,
overconfidence driven by group politics , e.g. “In my team I have the most
brilliant students so I deserve more money to keep these valuable people ” )

About career planning
• You can not plan your life too much in advance but you can prepare
for different options
• Define the vision for what you want to achieve in professional life
• Map out your options and prepare for the requirements at different
career stages (e.g. for ERC starting grant you need to have papers
published without your PhD advisor in the author list)
• Match your personality, values, beliefs, skills and interests to possible
options
• Self-marketing Which are your strong points that you can promote
What do you need to improve

Some conclusions
• PhD studies should be driven by curiosity and desire to make a
difference (although most of the time you don’t make it)
• The path towards accomplishing a PhD has different values in
itself. Amongst valuable things you might learn: manage
complicated problems, be perseverant, be independent, selfknowledge,
handle stress. There are good things to learn even
from bad experiences if you keep your mind open
• Stand out from the crowed
• Graduation comes with certain “normal” feelings of uncertainty,
frustration, anxiety. This is just how our brain tells that we need
to keep moving
• Opportunities are there for those prepared to see and grasp
them

… more conclusions
• Apparently there is no longer a big difference between
work environment in universities and companies; this
applies to funding, process tools, short term view on
development, types of skills, job security etc.
• Finding the “next big step” is a complex process. Plan your
next career step well before the graduation
• Try to learn from and stay close to those who are
successful. The “success attraction law” tells that you will
become successful yourself
• Be patient; it takes time to accomplish true (recognized and
sustainable) success
• Be positive and don’t give up easy; attitude could make a
big difference
• Don’t forget to enjoy the work you do. Whatever that is,
do it with passion!
“I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.”
Thomas Alva Edison

6th International Summer School
‘New Frontiers in Optical Technologies’
Tampere, 8-12 August 2011
Supported by GETA since the beginning
in 2001
http://www.orc.tut.fi/school.html
Topics
- Nanophotonics and metamaterials
- Semiconductor technology for nanophotonics
- Photovoltaics
- Biophotonics
- Laser amplifiers
- Entrepreneurship
Lecturers (partial list)
Prof. Robert Boyd, Rochester
Prof. Walter Pfeiffer, Bielefeld
Prof. Pallab Battacharya, Michigan
Prof. Eli Kapon, EPFL
Prof. Mark Hopkinson
Dr. Wladek Walukiewicz, Berkeley Nat. Lab.
Dr. Milton Chang
Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta