Career Development and Transitioning from Academia to Industry with Ashley Ruba, Ph.D.

When Science Speaks

This week's episode features Ashley Ruba, Ph.D., developmental psychologist and UX researcher. We discuss a range of career-related, life experience, and transition-from-academia issues, including:

- Growing up, did Ashley have mentors, teachers or family members who influenced or nurtured her interest in science

- As a first generation college student, Ashley's comments on my hypothesis - after 200-plus episodes of the show - that first-generation scientists in their families tend to be highly-skilled science communicators overall

- Ashley's research on how humans communicate and highlights and themes Ashley found from her research

- Common writing challenges Ashley helped her students address and overcome as a writing tutor during grad school

- Writing extensively about her own professional transition from academia to industry - and quickly attracting a large and growing following on social media - Ashley's advice for listeners who may be thinking about leaving academia, either during their program or after graduating, particularly when it comes to navigating the emotional and logistical issues involved in the transition

- Ashley's work as a UX researcher at Meta

- Ashley's recent selection by AAAS as the inaugural representative of psychologists with non-academic careers, a position created to help improve professional development for non-academic careers at national and international levels

- Looking ahead, Ashley's goals for 2023

Resources mentioned in the episode

Connecting with Ashley on LinkedIn

Beyond the Professoriate