Academic side hustles

This week’s Academic Crisis lines: Which side hustles bring you forward at each stage in your carrer?

Franziska Hartung, PhD

Today, I talked about academic side hustles. You can rewatch the session here (mini summary below):

Most side hustles are helpful for networking, developing and communicating your skills, and can generate a side income. You should only invest in side hustles which will help you achieve your goals or are fun. Keep in mind that these are usually voluntary activities which should in the first place benefit you and your career.

If you are very early in your career, I suggest you focus on fewer things. Most helpful side hustles for pre-doc researchers are reviewing (you can ask your supervisor to help you get experience or volunteer for conference abstract review), teaching (don’t overdo that, it is very time and energy consuming), as well as volunteer and science communication services (public outreach, valorization).

If you are at least halfway through your PhD and have finished one project from start to…

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Shared office space – a delicate ecosystem

Just a few months ago, I moved into the very first office that has only my name on it. During my whole scientific career, I shared offices of various sizes with between 1 and 7+ people. My office history ranges from the windowless undergrad thesis internship room where 6 students working on related projects and shared science and cookies over the room with a view and 2 colleagues as a PhD to the office with a server and between 0 and 3 others I occupied as post doc. During this time, I experienced many ways of sharing space: From the uncomplicated folks that tolerate your occasional cursing at the monitor to the weirdly expansion obsessed colleague who insisted that I would have more room if I just moved closer to the wall. Now, I’d like to think I know a bit about how to navigate shared office spaces, and I want to impart some bits of my wisdom and open them for discussion. Don’t hesitate to share your office mate horror stories in the comments and/or add useful tips how to improve office life!