
Ask HN: How to change company and roles - eek2017
After a PHD and postdoc, family needs led me back to my hometown and put a subsequent end to my academic ambitions.<p>After looking for a while with no success, I was offered work for a start-up recently, but it feels like a big step backwards. Going from managing a lab, graduates, helping with research direction and collaborating with thirsty, interesting people, I now find myself pigeonholed into a role that has no growth potential, a boring (and somewhat toxic&#x2F;paranoid) work culture, and being managed by people who don&#x27;t seem to know what they are doing, have no management skills and frankly work extremely inefficiently.<p>My initial attempts at initiative have been met with combination of defensiveness hostility and being given the &#x27;hard&#x27; tasks, but still being micro-managed. I can easily get by and excel doing the minimum 9-5, but the pay is not great and I am starting to resent it. I am searching for more research and project management position, but my academic background doesn&#x27;t tick the typical experience required.<p>How do people managed to step beyond their roles in this situation? I&#x27;ve started to look at ways to network in the field with other professionals and keep my ears open, started looking at building my own business, but wonder if I should be looking towards augmenting my skills with some management courses or re-training to expand my profile.
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tixocloud
Having switched companies and roles, I can say the majority of your success
will come down to how you communicate. Courses and re-training will definitely
help.

Based on what you've already said, you do have project management experience
albeit in an academic setting so the onus is on you to convince me how it is
equivalent or even better than having project management experience in
industry. And I can assure you that there are benefits from your skills.

People hire because they trust you can do the job and because they like you or
get along with you. If you can give them confidence you can do the job and
they like you, you're in.

In your case, I'd start by looking at the job postings of companies you're
particularly interested in. Then build a list of everything you've done in
your current role and academic role and draw parallels with the job
requirements.

