81. Ashley Ruba, academic expat and career coach, on being nimble and making pivots

Episode 81. Ashley Ruba is the founder of After Academia and a Human Factors Engineer at Arthrex. Ashley did her PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Washington and her  undergrad degree at Duke University.  

Show Notes: 

Infant language and emotional development lab  [02:00]

NIH NRSA Institutional Postdoc Training Grant (T32) [03:48]

Ashey’s academic story [01:45]

Leaving academia [07:12] 

Human Factors Engineer [9:35]

Arthrax [10:37]

Working in augmented reality  [10:43]

Attachment styles [13:10]

How do you get your first job out of academia [16:05] 

Pivoting into UX research and Human Factors Engineering and the process of making the change [24:21]

Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive  [28:44]

Pivoting from big tech for stability and more growth opportunities  [29:40]

Career coaching [32:22] 

Getting over self doubt, internal roadblock, and imposter syndrome [34:39]

How do I get recruiter to look at my resume [38:32]

Tactical tips on how to structure a resume [40:08]

Motivating factors beyond salary and benefits [44:22]

Being honest with yourself [47:11] 

Core values - growth  [48:21]

Most unexpected change and realization [49:37]

Listen to yourself [52:57]

What advice would you give to your younger self? [54:09]

The myth of being stuck in academia [57:06]