December 31, 2024 • 25 mins
For the last episode of 2024, Sarah is looking ahead to 2025 and sharing a sneak peek into what lies ahead.
Sarah talks about
- A preview of upcoming episodes and a special mini-series
- The new research-adjacent careers quiz and making the podcast back catalogue more accessible
- Her half-written book on research adjacent careers
- New workshops and support for research-adjacent professionals
- Launching the Research Adjacent Community for self-employed folks
Find out more
- Suggest a guest via this form
- Try out the research-adjacent careers quiz
- Sign up to the Research Adjacent newsletter
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah McLusky (00:00):
I've also got some new resources and support
for you and your researchadjacent career, and that's for
everybody, whether you areconsidering a research adjacent
role, whether you're alreadyemployed, or whether you are
self employed.
Now that I've said it, all is alot, and it is going to keep me
(00:21):
busy in 2025
Hello there. I'm Sarah McLusky,and this is Research Adjacent.
Each episode, I talk to amazingresearch adjacent professionals
about what they do and why itmakes a difference. Keep
listening to find out why wethink the research-adjacent
(00:41):
space is where the real magichappens.
Hello and Happy New Year.Welcome to the Research Adjacent
podcast. I am your host, SarahMcLusky, and this is coming out
on the very, very last day of2024. Rest assured that it has
been pre recorded. So if you arelistening to this when it comes
(01:04):
out, I am preparing to celebrateHogmanay like the good Scot I
am. I am not sitting at mycomputer and worrying about
doing podcast episodes. So Ihope that you are the same, and
I imagine that by the time mostof you are listening to this, it
will already be 2025 so welcometo the new year. 2025 I have to
(01:27):
say, sounds like a slightlycrazy day. It sounds like
something from back in thefuture, Back to the Future,
although, when I went andchecked Back to the Future, the
future was actually 2015 whichmakes me feel really, really
old. But um yeah, they thoughtwe were going to have flying
cars and everything by now, butwe don't, sadly. But here we are
in 2025
(01:49):
So this episode is going to be acompanion to the last episode.
So the one that came up, outjust before Christmas was a
review of 2024. For this episodeI am going to be looking forward
to 2025 and I'll tell you abouta few things that I have got
coming. So this is going toinclude, I've got a preview of
(02:12):
some new episodes that I havegot in the pipeline, including a
special series. So I'll tell youa little bit about that as we go
through. I have been working inthe background on some better
ways to explore the backcatalogue that we've got now of
nearly 60 episodes. So I'll tellyou a bit more about how you can
access that and what else is tocome. And I've also got some new
(02:35):
resources and support for youand your research adjacent
career and some new ways thatyou can work with me, and that's
for everybody, whether you areconsidering a research adjacent
role, whether you're alreadyemployed or whether you are self
employed. So keep listening, andI'll tell you a bit about those
as we go through.
(02:57):
But first of all, I wanted togive you a little bit of
backstory as to how I've got tothe point that we are at now. So
the Research Adjacent podcasthas been going for two years
now, and when I started thepodcast, I was only really
thinking about profile raising.I was getting, I've written
about this and talked aboutbefore, but very frustrated at
(03:19):
the fact that research adjacentroles were often very much in
the background, not appreciated.And so in my mind, the podcast
started as more of a researchculture thing because of that
frustration that we were beingleft out of the research culture
conversation. But then, as oftenthese things do when I started
(03:42):
to speak to people, everythingstarted to change and expand.
The things that people startedtelling me about started to be
slightly different things towhat I expected. Of course, all
of my guests share theirchallenges and wishes with me,
which are really interestinginsights. After all, I do ask
(04:03):
what they would do with a magicwand, so that was really
interesting to start with. Butalso other people got in touch,
and lots of people getting intouch and saying that they felt
really seen telling me aboutother challenges that they
experience. And also a lot ofpeople saying that they were
recommending it to people thatthey knew, like PhD students and
(04:23):
postdocs who were considering achange of career, and that's a
group of people that I alwayswanted to help write from the
start and because I used to worka lot with people in those kind
of situations who weren't sureabout following an academic
path, but had no idea about whatelse might be out there. So all
kinds of people, professionals,freelancers, students, started
(04:46):
gravitating towards me andsharing their stories, sharing
the podcast episodes, andconnecting with this idea of
being research adjacent. Now,I've always been an educator. I
actually was a lecturer for manyyears, and problem solving is
also one of my superpowers. So Icouldn't help but start to
(05:08):
wonder what else I could bedoing to help these people who
were coming into my world. So alarge part of what I have been
doing this autumn has beenlaying the groundwork for
offering some more tangible andtailored support for all you
current and aspiring researchadjacent folks out there.
(05:30):
So that's a bit about thebackground and why I'm doing
what I'm doing. So let's get onnow to what I'm actually going
to be doing in 2025 so first upthe podcast and a little bit
about what you can expect toland in your ears in 2025. Now
the first thing I said that I'mreally excited to bring you is a
(05:52):
special series. Now, have beendescribing it as I talk about it
with people as a skills series,but it's not what you think when
we talk about skills, I'm notgoing to be talking about
teamwork or communication skillsor anything like that, at least
not directly. Instead, what I'mgoing to focus on are some of
the trickier things that come upagain and again with the
(06:14):
research adjacent folks I talkto, whether that's guests on the
podcast, it's people that I talkto in workshops, people who send
me messages and things likethat. And those are things like
influencing people that you haveno formal authority over. Then
there are the imposterexperiences that come with
(06:34):
working with highly specialistresearchers, navigating the
inevitable change that comeswith life in any organization, I
think, really, but especially inthe higher education world at
the moment. Loneliness withpeople maybe being the only
person in their team ordepartment who does the kind of
work that they do, and the needto patchwork together your own
(06:56):
professional developmentpathway, because there really
isn't much out there, which wasan eternal frustration for me
when I worked in a university,and all the training and
development was aimed at theresearchers. So I need to think
of a better name for it now. Ican see it's not really skills.
Maybe I'll call it thechallenges series. But anyway,
the thing that I'm doing now isthat I am focusing on getting
(07:19):
those episodes recorded. I'maiming for five episodes. I have
got most of the guests lined up.I just need to deal nail down
the recording dates and get themall in the bank and but
hopefully that series will comeout in Spring, maybe towards the
end of February, March, April,that kind of time is when I am
hoping it will come out. Sothat's really exciting, and I
(07:42):
feel like for me, it's somethingthat I'm hoping will be really
useful.
Other things I've got thepipeline are, one thing that
I've been thinking about doingfor a while, and I'm going to
just do it, is to turn thetables and be a guest on the
podcast myself and tell you myown story. I haven't done this
up until now, because when Istarted, the podcast, I thought
(08:04):
that the only people wouldlisten would be people who
already knew me. But now I thinkthere are a lot of you out there
who don't really know my historyand how I've ended up here and
doing what I'm doing, it is abit of a convoluted tale. I
often say that I had a portfoliocareer before it was
fashionable, but I think itmight help you to understand
(08:25):
where I'm coming from. It mightbe interesting, and it might
help you understand why helpingresearch adjacent people is
something that I feel sostrongly about, so that, again,
will probably be sometime in thespring, I'll have a look at
schedule.
And of course, there are goingto be more just regular episodes
featuring the squiggly careerstories of various research
(08:47):
adjacent professionals doing abig range of different roles and
working for differentorganizations. I've got some
recorded and ready to go. Istill have plenty of gaps to
fill, and I always welcome guestsuggestions. Thanks to everybody
who has already sent insuggestions. I am working my way
through them, but I do need to,if you, if you put yourself
forward, or somebody you knowand you haven't heard from me
(09:09):
yet, it's probably just becauseI need to look at the balance of
the podcast and things likethat. So, yeah, working my way
through the list. But if youhave another suggestion that you
would like to send in. There isa form on the contact page of
the website, and I will also puta link in the show notes as
well. So please do feel free tosend me get more guest
(09:30):
suggestions. I would especiallylove to hear from people who do
roles that we haven't previouslyfeatured on the podcast, some
gaps that I know are definitelythere are people who work in the
policy world, although I mighthave somebody a line on somebody
for that, and people who dothings like finance or research
(09:53):
funding, because I feel likethose are gaps that I've
currently got, but honestly, Iam open to just about anybody,
anybody who has really greatinsights into their field,
anybody who's got an unusualjob, I love to hear about them,
and anybody who just has got aninteresting life story,
whatever. So yeah, please sendme your guest suggestions.
(10:17):
Speaking of the website, that'sanother thing that I have been
working on behind the scenes.Over the last couple of months,
I have been moving the podcastfrom where I originally hosted
it, which was on my ownfreelance website, which is
called sarahmclusky.com to astandalone website which is
called researchadjacent.com soit's just research adjacent all
(10:38):
one word.com I'm doing, thatmeans that I can start to make,
as I say, better use of thatexisting archive of episodes
that we've got so many peoplenow, amazing insights, a huge
range of different job roles,people with different
backgrounds, so lots of reallyuseful stuff there. But I do get
(11:01):
that at the moment, it's a bithard to navigate. So one of the
first things that I have done isI have created a quiz. Now this
quiz is aimed at people who arenot currently research adjacent
and are looking for someinspiration. But to be honest,
anybody can do the quiz. So ifyou fancy it, just go and have a
look. One of the testers said,it reminded them of a Smash Hits
(11:23):
personality quiz, which ispretty much the exact vibe that
I was going for. And so youanswer questions about what
you're good at and what youenjoy doing, and it will suggest
one of four job categories andsend you some podcast episode
suggestions to help you get intoit, or maybe find some that you
haven't listened to so far. Ifyou want to try out the quiz, go
(11:45):
to researchadjacent.com/quiz oragain, I will put a link in the
show notes. If you do try itout, I would love to know if you
think the result that you get.So I'm I'm still tweaking it
behind the scenes. I'd love toknow if the result you get you
think is a good match. And ifyou don't, please let me know,
and that will help me to figureout how we can change it. But
(12:09):
yeah, go and try out the quiz.
And I'm also looking at otherways that we can search and
filter the back catalogue,particularly so that you can
find episodes that fit exactlywith what you're interested in.
So whether you want to find outabout particular jobs, maybe
it's people who have got PhDs,people who haven't got PhDs,
people who've had to deal withredundancy, whatever it might
(12:33):
be, I'm going to put somefilters in and some new ways to
search so that you'll be able tofind them more easily.
And another thing that I've beendoing over the last couple of
months is revamping mynewsletter. So I have had a
podcast mailing list for quite along time, but honestly, up
until recently, all I did was Ijust sent out a notification
when there was a new episode.But what I've started to do now
(12:57):
is that on the in-between weekwhen there's no podcast episode
coming out, I send an emailwhich gives my three top
takeaways from the most recentguest. So that's something that,
even if you haven't had youknow, might help you to decide
whether it's worth listening tothe episode if you haven't done
already. And I will start toincorporate other insights too.
(13:21):
So some of the other things, asI say that that I've started to
learn from the guests I workwith. So if you're not signed
up, there is a box on every webpage. So if you go to any page
on the website, you'll find alittle sign up box there. And
you can also use the link in theshow notes of any episode of the
podcast as well
(13:44):
And slightly website adjacent isthat if you have recently
decided to go onto the BlueSkysocial media chat platform, you
can come and find me there too.Just search for research
adjacent, I'm as I think a lotof people, I'm kind of
interested to see how BlueSkyevolves. I'm not sure I was
never the most Twittery personin the first place. I can see
(14:06):
it's very like Twitter, and I'llbe interested to see how it
evolves, but I think I'll stillmainly be hanging out on
LinkedIn, but definitely, if youare on BlueSky, come and say
hello there.
So what else? Well, I think, asI mentioned before, I am
(14:27):
fundamentally an educator. It'sone of the reasons I think I
went into communications. And sowhen people started telling me
about all the challenges theywere having and how hard it was
to access professionaldevelopment, I did think maybe
that is something that I couldhelp with, because, after all,
I've got all these stories, allthese case studies, and also 25
(14:52):
years of experience myself. Sothe first thing that I have
done, I have mentioned thisbefore I mentioned it. I think.
Did I mention in the lastepisode, I have started writing
a book. It's going to be a kindof research adjacent careers
handbook. It hasn't got adefinite name yet, but we shall
see. It will include an overviewof all the different research
(15:14):
adjacent roles and employers whoare out there. It will include
some advice on applying forresearch adjacent jobs drawn
from the literally hundreds ofapplications I've read
interviews. It's probably, it'sprobably 1000s of applications.
Actually, I've been on hundredsof job interview panels, and so
yeah, and then navigating someof those challenging situations
(15:35):
that come up when you've gotyour foot in the door, as I was
talking about earlier, with thespecial series that's coming up
in the episodes. So the book isgoing to include case studies
and advice drawn from both mypodcast guests and my own
experience. It's currently abouthalf written, and I am hoping
that if I go public with it, itwill help me to get it finished.
(15:58):
It will probably be selfpublished, because I'm quite
impatient, and I'm hoping maybeit'll come out sometime, maybe
sometime next year. We shallsee. At some point, I will be
looking for test readers. So ifthat's something that you would
be interested in doing, pleasemake sure that you are on the
mailing list, because that iswhere I will go to offer the
opportunity to be a test reader.I'll also try and share some
(16:22):
updates of how things are going.
And if you can't wait until thebook comes out, then I do have
something that is available nowfor support. I have started
creating some training andprofessional work development
workshops aimed specifically atsome of these challenges that
(16:42):
current and aspiring researchadjacent professionals are
facing. In the last year, I wasapproached by both Leeds and
Bath Universities to run justgeneral, a general kind of
career navigation workshop forresearch adjacent professionals
where I unearthed some of thesechallenges that I've been
(17:03):
mentioning, and it really helpedme to understand the pain points
that people have got. And I'vealso done a couple of workshops
on reframing resilience for PhDstudents and postdocs, which
also is an area came out of apodcast episode I did in 2023on
resilience, and not the kind oftoxic I know some people hate
(17:27):
the word resilience because it'sjust framed as dealing with
putting up with awful stuff. AndI am not into that at all. So
yeah, so I've done a couple ofworkshops on them. And so
basically, what I've done isthat now these workshops and
some others, which I'll tell youabout in a minute, are available
to book so I can come to yourorganization and do these for
(17:48):
you and your colleagues. Theycan be delivered online or in
person, and on the website theyare on the page
researchadjacent.com/support, isthe page where you'll find them
on the website.
Just to give you a bit of anoverview, though, of what is on
offer for anybody considering acareer change, that might be PhD
(18:10):
students, early careerresearchers, and anybody else,
I've got workshops whichinclude, I love the title of it.
I'm quite pleased with the titleof this one fantastic research
adjacent jobs and where to findthem. I've already got that
booked in for Robert GordonUniversity next year,
understanding the researchadjacent recruitment process and
(18:31):
then also reimagining yourfuture, which is a general kind
of career navigation typeworkshop. For those of you who
are already in research adjacentroles I know that current
development opportunities can besparse, but if you can persuade
your organization to put somebudget towards it, I do have
(18:52):
workshops and some of those bigchallenges that I've mentioned
that come up again and again, solike progression, imposter
experiences, influencing othersand resilience. If you are
interested in any of those, Iwould love to work with you. So
please do get in touch for achat. And as I said there, I
(19:13):
know that research adjacentprofessional development, is
rarely a budget employer, abudget priority for employers.
So if there is enough demand, Imight offer some of these
workshops as online and open toanybody. So individuals could
book in. If that is somethingyou'd be interested in, let me
know, because it would depend onwhether there were enough people
(19:35):
who are up for it.
And then last but not least, aremy freelance friends, and a
wonderful part of the podcasthas been connecting with other
self employed research adjacentprofessionals. A few people that
I was chatting to had mentionedthat they would like more ways
(19:55):
to connect with each other. Soin October, I held an
exploratory online networkingmeeting, and honestly, I was
genuinely amazed at the responsealmost as soon as I and I just
did like I literally did. So ifyou didn't see it, it's because
I kept it fairly low key. I didone LinkedIn post, and I did one
(20:18):
post to a couple of email liststhat I'm in, and from that, I
got, almost immediately, peoplestarted booking in. I got 80
people signed up for theworkshop. About 40 of them
turned up on the day. Others whocouldn't make it on the day,
saying that it's something thatthey really thought was were
lacking. So seems to be a realgap in what's out there, and
(20:44):
that led me to create theResearch Adjacent Community. Now
the Research Adjacent Communityis a private online space which
is hosted in a particular kindof community driven software
called circle, and it's earlydays at the moment, I haven't
really publicly advertised itthat much. I've only been
advertising this to the peoplewho came to the online
(21:05):
networking meeting. But here weare. I'm going public with it
now. So we have monthly catch upcalls at the moment. This is
what there is at the moment. Ithink it's going to evolve. We
have monthly catch up calls,share things like contract
opportunities, and there arealso opportunities to discuss
the realities of freelance lifewith people who get it. So just
(21:28):
a couple of days ago, there wasa question come up about a
change in, you know, universityprocurement practices, and one
of our members was able to comein and get some really quick
advice on that. So that's thekind of thing that we talk about
there. If you are self employed,do come and join us. We have our
(21:48):
next online catch up on the 10thof January. That again, once
you're in you'll get a Zoom linkso you can come and join that.
And hopefully it's looking likewe might be able to do an in
person meet up in York inFebruary, which would be
fantastic. Now that community,at the moment, is only for self
(22:11):
employed people. If there isdemand for something like this,
more widely, I might be able toopen it up, but I'm still, as
you can probably tell, thingsare evolving.
I'm still working out whatpeople want and need, and some
of the things that I've beenlearning about what freelancers
(22:32):
need, means that I have got someother plans as well. So one
thing I'm planning to do to helpsupport the members of the
research Jason freelancerscommunity is to create an online
public directory of freelancersand small businesses who offer
services in support of research.And so creating that directory
(22:55):
will make it easier for researchorganizations to find them,
easier for them to get hired.Everybody gets more work.
Research organizations getbetter support. So it feels like
it should be a win win foreverybody. So that is something
that's in the pipeline as well.And I am also planning to create
(23:15):
a guide, or course of some kindfor new research adjacent
freelancers to help them tonavigate this weird and
wonderful world.
So now that I've said it all outloud, that is a lot, and it is
going to keep me busy in 2025but I do hope that there are
things there which sound likethey will be useful. I've tried
(23:39):
to make sure that there issomething there for everybody in
the research adjacent community,more broadly, not just that
online community and whatevercareer stage that you're at. So
thank you for listening to theend. I do feel like this episode
in particular has just been meemptying my brain.
(24:00):
Don't forget to sign up for themailing list, as that is the
best way for me to stay in touchwith you. And if you don't
currently follow me on socialmedia, then come and find me
there. It's @researchadjacent,almost everywhere, mainly
LinkedIn, me personally, I am@SarahMcLusky again, mainly
LinkedIn. Do the quiz. Join thefreelance community, if they
(24:21):
sound like they might be rightfor you. Get in touch if you
want me to come and do sometraining for you or your
colleagues. Send me yourquestions or suggestions, and
most importantly, pleasecontinue to join me in 2025 as
we travel along this researchadjacent journey together. Happy
(24:41):
New Year and I'll see you nexttime.
Thanks for listening to ResearchAdjacent. If you're listening in
a podcast app, please check yoursubscribed and then use the
links in the episode descriptionto find full show notes and to
follow the podcast. On LinkedInor Instagram. You can also find
(25:03):
all the links and other episodesat www.researchadjacent.com.
Research Adjacent is presentedand produced by Sarah McLusky,
and the theme music is by LemonMusic Studios on Pixabay. And
you, yes you, get a big goldstar for listening right to the
end, see you next time you
I've also got some new resources and support
for you and your researchadjacent career, and that's for
everybody, whether you areconsidering a research adjacent
role, whether you're alreadyemployed, or whether you are
self employed.
Now that I've said it, all is alot, and it is going to keep me
(00:21):
busy in 2025
Hello there. I'm Sarah McLusky,and this is Research Adjacent.
Each episode, I talk to amazingresearch adjacent professionals
about what they do and why itmakes a difference. Keep
listening to find out why wethink the research-adjacent
(00:41):
space is where the real magichappens.
Hello and Happy New Year.Welcome to the Research Adjacent
podcast. I am your host, SarahMcLusky, and this is coming out
on the very, very last day of2024. Rest assured that it has
been pre recorded. So if you arelistening to this when it comes
(01:04):
out, I am preparing to celebrateHogmanay like the good Scot I
am. I am not sitting at mycomputer and worrying about
doing podcast episodes. So Ihope that you are the same, and
I imagine that by the time mostof you are listening to this, it
will already be 2025 so welcometo the new year. 2025 I have to
(01:27):
say, sounds like a slightlycrazy day. It sounds like
something from back in thefuture, Back to the Future,
although, when I went andchecked Back to the Future, the
future was actually 2015 whichmakes me feel really, really
old. But um yeah, they thoughtwe were going to have flying
cars and everything by now, butwe don't, sadly. But here we are
in 2025
(01:49):
So this episode is going to be acompanion to the last episode.
So the one that came up, outjust before Christmas was a
review of 2024. For this episodeI am going to be looking forward
to 2025 and I'll tell you abouta few things that I have got
coming. So this is going toinclude, I've got a preview of
(02:12):
some new episodes that I havegot in the pipeline, including a
special series. So I'll tell youa little bit about that as we go
through. I have been working inthe background on some better
ways to explore the backcatalogue that we've got now of
nearly 60 episodes. So I'll tellyou a bit more about how you can
access that and what else is tocome. And I've also got some new
(02:35):
resources and support for youand your research adjacent
career and some new ways thatyou can work with me, and that's
for everybody, whether you areconsidering a research adjacent
role, whether you're alreadyemployed or whether you are self
employed. So keep listening, andI'll tell you a bit about those
as we go through.
(02:57):
But first of all, I wanted togive you a little bit of
backstory as to how I've got tothe point that we are at now. So
the Research Adjacent podcasthas been going for two years
now, and when I started thepodcast, I was only really
thinking about profile raising.I was getting, I've written
about this and talked aboutbefore, but very frustrated at
(03:19):
the fact that research adjacentroles were often very much in
the background, not appreciated.And so in my mind, the podcast
started as more of a researchculture thing because of that
frustration that we were beingleft out of the research culture
conversation. But then, as oftenthese things do when I started
(03:42):
to speak to people, everythingstarted to change and expand.
The things that people startedtelling me about started to be
slightly different things towhat I expected. Of course, all
of my guests share theirchallenges and wishes with me,
which are really interestinginsights. After all, I do ask
(04:03):
what they would do with a magicwand, so that was really
interesting to start with. Butalso other people got in touch,
and lots of people getting intouch and saying that they felt
really seen telling me aboutother challenges that they
experience. And also a lot ofpeople saying that they were
recommending it to people thatthey knew, like PhD students and
(04:23):
postdocs who were considering achange of career, and that's a
group of people that I alwayswanted to help write from the
start and because I used to worka lot with people in those kind
of situations who weren't sureabout following an academic
path, but had no idea about whatelse might be out there. So all
kinds of people, professionals,freelancers, students, started
(04:46):
gravitating towards me andsharing their stories, sharing
the podcast episodes, andconnecting with this idea of
being research adjacent. Now,I've always been an educator. I
actually was a lecturer for manyyears, and problem solving is
also one of my superpowers. So Icouldn't help but start to
(05:08):
wonder what else I could bedoing to help these people who
were coming into my world. So alarge part of what I have been
doing this autumn has beenlaying the groundwork for
offering some more tangible andtailored support for all you
current and aspiring researchadjacent folks out there.
(05:30):
So that's a bit about thebackground and why I'm doing
what I'm doing. So let's get onnow to what I'm actually going
to be doing in 2025 so first upthe podcast and a little bit
about what you can expect toland in your ears in 2025. Now
the first thing I said that I'mreally excited to bring you is a
(05:52):
special series. Now, have beendescribing it as I talk about it
with people as a skills series,but it's not what you think when
we talk about skills, I'm notgoing to be talking about
teamwork or communication skillsor anything like that, at least
not directly. Instead, what I'mgoing to focus on are some of
the trickier things that come upagain and again with the
(06:14):
research adjacent folks I talkto, whether that's guests on the
podcast, it's people that I talkto in workshops, people who send
me messages and things likethat. And those are things like
influencing people that you haveno formal authority over. Then
there are the imposterexperiences that come with
(06:34):
working with highly specialistresearchers, navigating the
inevitable change that comeswith life in any organization, I
think, really, but especially inthe higher education world at
the moment. Loneliness withpeople maybe being the only
person in their team ordepartment who does the kind of
work that they do, and the needto patchwork together your own
(06:56):
professional developmentpathway, because there really
isn't much out there, which wasan eternal frustration for me
when I worked in a university,and all the training and
development was aimed at theresearchers. So I need to think
of a better name for it now. Ican see it's not really skills.
Maybe I'll call it thechallenges series. But anyway,
the thing that I'm doing now isthat I am focusing on getting
(07:19):
those episodes recorded. I'maiming for five episodes. I have
got most of the guests lined up.I just need to deal nail down
the recording dates and get themall in the bank and but
hopefully that series will comeout in Spring, maybe towards the
end of February, March, April,that kind of time is when I am
hoping it will come out. Sothat's really exciting, and I
(07:42):
feel like for me, it's somethingthat I'm hoping will be really
useful.
Other things I've got thepipeline are, one thing that
I've been thinking about doingfor a while, and I'm going to
just do it, is to turn thetables and be a guest on the
podcast myself and tell you myown story. I haven't done this
up until now, because when Istarted, the podcast, I thought
(08:04):
that the only people wouldlisten would be people who
already knew me. But now I thinkthere are a lot of you out there
who don't really know my historyand how I've ended up here and
doing what I'm doing, it is abit of a convoluted tale. I
often say that I had a portfoliocareer before it was
fashionable, but I think itmight help you to understand
(08:25):
where I'm coming from. It mightbe interesting, and it might
help you understand why helpingresearch adjacent people is
something that I feel sostrongly about, so that, again,
will probably be sometime in thespring, I'll have a look at
schedule.
And of course, there are goingto be more just regular episodes
featuring the squiggly careerstories of various research
(08:47):
adjacent professionals doing abig range of different roles and
working for differentorganizations. I've got some
recorded and ready to go. Istill have plenty of gaps to
fill, and I always welcome guestsuggestions. Thanks to everybody
who has already sent insuggestions. I am working my way
through them, but I do need to,if you, if you put yourself
forward, or somebody you knowand you haven't heard from me
(09:09):
yet, it's probably just becauseI need to look at the balance of
the podcast and things likethat. So, yeah, working my way
through the list. But if youhave another suggestion that you
would like to send in. There isa form on the contact page of
the website, and I will also puta link in the show notes as
well. So please do feel free tosend me get more guest
(09:30):
suggestions. I would especiallylove to hear from people who do
roles that we haven't previouslyfeatured on the podcast, some
gaps that I know are definitelythere are people who work in the
policy world, although I mighthave somebody a line on somebody
for that, and people who dothings like finance or research
(09:53):
funding, because I feel likethose are gaps that I've
currently got, but honestly, Iam open to just about anybody,
anybody who has really greatinsights into their field,
anybody who's got an unusualjob, I love to hear about them,
and anybody who just has got aninteresting life story,
whatever. So yeah, please sendme your guest suggestions.
(10:17):
Speaking of the website, that'sanother thing that I have been
working on behind the scenes.Over the last couple of months,
I have been moving the podcastfrom where I originally hosted
it, which was on my ownfreelance website, which is
called sarahmclusky.com to astandalone website which is
called researchadjacent.com soit's just research adjacent all
(10:38):
one word.com I'm doing, thatmeans that I can start to make,
as I say, better use of thatexisting archive of episodes
that we've got so many peoplenow, amazing insights, a huge
range of different job roles,people with different
backgrounds, so lots of reallyuseful stuff there. But I do get
(11:01):
that at the moment, it's a bithard to navigate. So one of the
first things that I have done isI have created a quiz. Now this
quiz is aimed at people who arenot currently research adjacent
and are looking for someinspiration. But to be honest,
anybody can do the quiz. So ifyou fancy it, just go and have a
look. One of the testers said,it reminded them of a Smash Hits
(11:23):
personality quiz, which ispretty much the exact vibe that
I was going for. And so youanswer questions about what
you're good at and what youenjoy doing, and it will suggest
one of four job categories andsend you some podcast episode
suggestions to help you get intoit, or maybe find some that you
haven't listened to so far. Ifyou want to try out the quiz, go
(11:45):
to researchadjacent.com/quiz oragain, I will put a link in the
show notes. If you do try itout, I would love to know if you
think the result that you get.So I'm I'm still tweaking it
behind the scenes. I'd love toknow if the result you get you
think is a good match. And ifyou don't, please let me know,
and that will help me to figureout how we can change it. But
(12:09):
yeah, go and try out the quiz.
And I'm also looking at otherways that we can search and
filter the back catalogue,particularly so that you can
find episodes that fit exactlywith what you're interested in.
So whether you want to find outabout particular jobs, maybe
it's people who have got PhDs,people who haven't got PhDs,
people who've had to deal withredundancy, whatever it might
(12:33):
be, I'm going to put somefilters in and some new ways to
search so that you'll be able tofind them more easily.
And another thing that I've beendoing over the last couple of
months is revamping mynewsletter. So I have had a
podcast mailing list for quite along time, but honestly, up
until recently, all I did was Ijust sent out a notification
when there was a new episode.But what I've started to do now
(12:57):
is that on the in-between weekwhen there's no podcast episode
coming out, I send an emailwhich gives my three top
takeaways from the most recentguest. So that's something that,
even if you haven't had youknow, might help you to decide
whether it's worth listening tothe episode if you haven't done
already. And I will start toincorporate other insights too.
(13:21):
So some of the other things, asI say that that I've started to
learn from the guests I workwith. So if you're not signed
up, there is a box on every webpage. So if you go to any page
on the website, you'll find alittle sign up box there. And
you can also use the link in theshow notes of any episode of the
podcast as well
(13:44):
And slightly website adjacent isthat if you have recently
decided to go onto the BlueSkysocial media chat platform, you
can come and find me there too.Just search for research
adjacent, I'm as I think a lotof people, I'm kind of
interested to see how BlueSkyevolves. I'm not sure I was
never the most Twittery personin the first place. I can see
(14:06):
it's very like Twitter, and I'llbe interested to see how it
evolves, but I think I'll stillmainly be hanging out on
LinkedIn, but definitely, if youare on BlueSky, come and say
hello there.
So what else? Well, I think, asI mentioned before, I am
(14:27):
fundamentally an educator. It'sone of the reasons I think I
went into communications. And sowhen people started telling me
about all the challenges theywere having and how hard it was
to access professionaldevelopment, I did think maybe
that is something that I couldhelp with, because, after all,
I've got all these stories, allthese case studies, and also 25
(14:52):
years of experience myself. Sothe first thing that I have
done, I have mentioned thisbefore I mentioned it. I think.
Did I mention in the lastepisode, I have started writing
a book. It's going to be a kindof research adjacent careers
handbook. It hasn't got adefinite name yet, but we shall
see. It will include an overviewof all the different research
(15:14):
adjacent roles and employers whoare out there. It will include
some advice on applying forresearch adjacent jobs drawn
from the literally hundreds ofapplications I've read
interviews. It's probably, it'sprobably 1000s of applications.
Actually, I've been on hundredsof job interview panels, and so
yeah, and then navigating someof those challenging situations
(15:35):
that come up when you've gotyour foot in the door, as I was
talking about earlier, with thespecial series that's coming up
in the episodes. So the book isgoing to include case studies
and advice drawn from both mypodcast guests and my own
experience. It's currently abouthalf written, and I am hoping
that if I go public with it, itwill help me to get it finished.
(15:58):
It will probably be selfpublished, because I'm quite
impatient, and I'm hoping maybeit'll come out sometime, maybe
sometime next year. We shallsee. At some point, I will be
looking for test readers. So ifthat's something that you would
be interested in doing, pleasemake sure that you are on the
mailing list, because that iswhere I will go to offer the
opportunity to be a test reader.I'll also try and share some
(16:22):
updates of how things are going.
And if you can't wait until thebook comes out, then I do have
something that is available nowfor support. I have started
creating some training andprofessional work development
workshops aimed specifically atsome of these challenges that
(16:42):
current and aspiring researchadjacent professionals are
facing. In the last year, I wasapproached by both Leeds and
Bath Universities to run justgeneral, a general kind of
career navigation workshop forresearch adjacent professionals
where I unearthed some of thesechallenges that I've been
(17:03):
mentioning, and it really helpedme to understand the pain points
that people have got. And I'vealso done a couple of workshops
on reframing resilience for PhDstudents and postdocs, which
also is an area came out of apodcast episode I did in 2023on
resilience, and not the kind oftoxic I know some people hate
(17:27):
the word resilience because it'sjust framed as dealing with
putting up with awful stuff. AndI am not into that at all. So
yeah, so I've done a couple ofworkshops on them. And so
basically, what I've done isthat now these workshops and
some others, which I'll tell youabout in a minute, are available
to book so I can come to yourorganization and do these for
(17:48):
you and your colleagues. Theycan be delivered online or in
person, and on the website theyare on the page
researchadjacent.com/support, isthe page where you'll find them
on the website.
Just to give you a bit of anoverview, though, of what is on
offer for anybody considering acareer change, that might be PhD
(18:10):
students, early careerresearchers, and anybody else,
I've got workshops whichinclude, I love the title of it.
I'm quite pleased with the titleof this one fantastic research
adjacent jobs and where to findthem. I've already got that
booked in for Robert GordonUniversity next year,
understanding the researchadjacent recruitment process and
(18:31):
then also reimagining yourfuture, which is a general kind
of career navigation typeworkshop. For those of you who
are already in research adjacentroles I know that current
development opportunities can besparse, but if you can persuade
your organization to put somebudget towards it, I do have
(18:52):
workshops and some of those bigchallenges that I've mentioned
that come up again and again, solike progression, imposter
experiences, influencing othersand resilience. If you are
interested in any of those, Iwould love to work with you. So
please do get in touch for achat. And as I said there, I
(19:13):
know that research adjacentprofessional development, is
rarely a budget employer, abudget priority for employers.
So if there is enough demand, Imight offer some of these
workshops as online and open toanybody. So individuals could
book in. If that is somethingyou'd be interested in, let me
know, because it would depend onwhether there were enough people
(19:35):
who are up for it.
And then last but not least, aremy freelance friends, and a
wonderful part of the podcasthas been connecting with other
self employed research adjacentprofessionals. A few people that
I was chatting to had mentionedthat they would like more ways
(19:55):
to connect with each other. Soin October, I held an
exploratory online networkingmeeting, and honestly, I was
genuinely amazed at the responsealmost as soon as I and I just
did like I literally did. So ifyou didn't see it, it's because
I kept it fairly low key. I didone LinkedIn post, and I did one
(20:18):
post to a couple of email liststhat I'm in, and from that, I
got, almost immediately, peoplestarted booking in. I got 80
people signed up for theworkshop. About 40 of them
turned up on the day. Others whocouldn't make it on the day,
saying that it's something thatthey really thought was were
lacking. So seems to be a realgap in what's out there, and
(20:44):
that led me to create theResearch Adjacent Community. Now
the Research Adjacent Communityis a private online space which
is hosted in a particular kindof community driven software
called circle, and it's earlydays at the moment, I haven't
really publicly advertised itthat much. I've only been
advertising this to the peoplewho came to the online
(21:05):
networking meeting. But here weare. I'm going public with it
now. So we have monthly catch upcalls at the moment. This is
what there is at the moment. Ithink it's going to evolve. We
have monthly catch up calls,share things like contract
opportunities, and there arealso opportunities to discuss
the realities of freelance lifewith people who get it. So just
(21:28):
a couple of days ago, there wasa question come up about a
change in, you know, universityprocurement practices, and one
of our members was able to comein and get some really quick
advice on that. So that's thekind of thing that we talk about
there. If you are self employed,do come and join us. We have our
(21:48):
next online catch up on the 10thof January. That again, once
you're in you'll get a Zoom linkso you can come and join that.
And hopefully it's looking likewe might be able to do an in
person meet up in York inFebruary, which would be
fantastic. Now that community,at the moment, is only for self
(22:11):
employed people. If there isdemand for something like this,
more widely, I might be able toopen it up, but I'm still, as
you can probably tell, thingsare evolving.
I'm still working out whatpeople want and need, and some
of the things that I've beenlearning about what freelancers
(22:32):
need, means that I have got someother plans as well. So one
thing I'm planning to do to helpsupport the members of the
research Jason freelancerscommunity is to create an online
public directory of freelancersand small businesses who offer
services in support of research.And so creating that directory
(22:55):
will make it easier for researchorganizations to find them,
easier for them to get hired.Everybody gets more work.
Research organizations getbetter support. So it feels like
it should be a win win foreverybody. So that is something
that's in the pipeline as well.And I am also planning to create
(23:15):
a guide, or course of some kindfor new research adjacent
freelancers to help them tonavigate this weird and
wonderful world.
So now that I've said it all outloud, that is a lot, and it is
going to keep me busy in 2025but I do hope that there are
things there which sound likethey will be useful. I've tried
(23:39):
to make sure that there issomething there for everybody in
the research adjacent community,more broadly, not just that
online community and whatevercareer stage that you're at. So
thank you for listening to theend. I do feel like this episode
in particular has just been meemptying my brain.
(24:00):
Don't forget to sign up for themailing list, as that is the
best way for me to stay in touchwith you. And if you don't
currently follow me on socialmedia, then come and find me
there. It's @researchadjacent,almost everywhere, mainly
LinkedIn, me personally, I am@SarahMcLusky again, mainly
LinkedIn. Do the quiz. Join thefreelance community, if they
(24:21):
sound like they might be rightfor you. Get in touch if you
want me to come and do sometraining for you or your
colleagues. Send me yourquestions or suggestions, and
most importantly, pleasecontinue to join me in 2025 as
we travel along this researchadjacent journey together. Happy
(24:41):
New Year and I'll see you nexttime.
Thanks for listening to ResearchAdjacent. If you're listening in
a podcast app, please check yoursubscribed and then use the
links in the episode descriptionto find full show notes and to
follow the podcast. On LinkedInor Instagram. You can also find
(25:03):
all the links and other episodesat www.researchadjacent.com.
Research Adjacent is presentedand produced by Sarah McLusky,
and the theme music is by LemonMusic Studios on Pixabay. And
you, yes you, get a big goldstar for listening right to the
end, see you next time you
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