External Academic Advising & Coaching

Academia can be tough. Let’s find solutions.

About

Research careers can involve complex challenges both personally and professionally:

  • Resolving conflicts with mentors, advisors, mentees, and colleagues 
  • Collaborating successfully with your PI or primary mentor
  • Mentoring and supervising students and research assistants
  • Obtaining funding and writing grants: fellowships, K awards, R01s
  • Preparing and submitting manuscripts 
  • Pursuing promotion, career transitions, and the job search
  • Managing procrastination, time management, loneliness, and productivity challenges
  • Balancing family with an academic career
  • Deciding to pursue academic career paths versus industry or alt-ac careers
In an ideal world, academics would be free to discuss these difficult but common problems with advisors and colleagues. In reality, perceived and real barriers may make this hard. I offer confidential external academic advising to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career faculty members. We can work together confidentially to help navigate these challenges.

Solutions

  • Individual external academic advising or coaching

    Meet 1:1 to strategize and problem-solve:

    • Navigating challenging academic relationships (with mentors, mentees, advisors, lab-mates)
    • Maximizing productivity, time management, self-management, & wellbeing
    • Avoiding and recovering from burnout
    • Navigating career transition points (grad student to postdoc, postdoc to assistant professor)
    • Academic culture and fit (especially for first-gen, neurodivergent, and other diverse early career academics)
    • Should I stay or should I go? Navigating the decision to stay in or leave academia 
    • Academic exit strategies: if you’re leaving, how?

    Editing & document review

    I’m a very comprehensive editor with extensive experience in helping early career academics prepare stellar manuscripts and grants. I also have extensive hiring experience both inside and outside academia and can help with CV/resume/cover letter prep.

What might make me a good fit for you?

  • I know what it takes to succeed in academia. I completed two postdoctoral fellowships in the Harvard Medical School system, got a K23 award, became an assistant professor, and received an R01. I have published extensively and have an established track record as an academic mentor.
  • I know what it is like to struggle in academia. At times, I struggled and decided to stay. Ultimately, I struggled and decided to leave. I understand and am able to support many decision paths in this space. 
  • I know what it takes to compete in the non-academic job market. I have received multiple job offers (industry, non-profit) and have hired for non-academic roles (as well as academic ones). 
  • I am a parent, had infants during both of my postdoc fellowships, and juggled pandemic parenting. I know what it is like to manage work-life ‘balance’ (chaos!) and remain productive regardless.
  • I am trained as a clinical neuropsychologist, and because of this I am deeply aware of challenges faced by neurodiverse academics and strategies to work around them.

Contact

If you’d like to hear more, please email me: elizabeth@elizabetholsonphd.com

Inquiries are kept strictly confidential. 

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