Today, I am discussing ‘The wealth trap of academics’ with Dr. Hannah Roberts, an ICF PCC Certified Coach who is a career coach and professional skills trainer with clients spanning six continents. She is one of the Top 10 UK Podcast Women in STEM Career & Confidence with over 18K downloads. Since 2018, she has been a qualified and regulated coach; trained in Talent Dynamics profiling specialising in career planning, online networking, social media skills and embedding commercialisation into research design. She has a particular passion for diversity, inclusion and women’s leadership development. She is helping STEM women move up or move on through a 6-stage purposeful career design strategy.
It’s so typical that looking at academics, people can’t help but think how clever others are comparing themselves. And the reason behind would be the tendency of people to have Comparisonitis. Comparisonitis is about our inner critic that’s comparing those cells unfavorably to other people, no matter how well we’re doing in our own capacity, thinking that we are worse than the other person in this particular characteristic. And the only way to stop it is simply going in comparisonitist diets by actually listening to that inner voice. Acknowledge it and reassure it that you are going to do something about it.
Academia has all kinds of hierarchical structures making it a very highly competitive environment and a lot of highly academic women, male or female, are massive perfectionists, because they have very high standards. It all boils down to having imposter syndrome where a whole collection of thoughts, beliefs and limiting emotions lead to a feeling of being smaller than we would like to be, or stuck in some way. 95% of women in academia suffer from frequent, moderate or intense levels of imposter syndrome.
Most people who go into academia don’t give so much focus on the money. It’s about making a difference, making an impact in some way, or helping other people. They are really driven by creativity, curiosity and making a difference. From a wealth perspective, the trap for academics is when money and wealth are not taken into account in making decisions which is the case for a lot of women in careers choosing to have children. It also happens if you go for an academic career pathway straight through and you don’t realize the importance of knowing and having a pension component in your life, so you miss to plan for it until it’s too late.
When making decisions and choices, consider time and energy to work on your career, not just in it. Make sure to balance multiple different competing areas of your life and not let go of health, relationships, wealth, personal development over career.
It is about setting intentions each week in each of those different pillars of your life. Booking and blocking the time for each to be able to maintain the balance. Otherwise, you end up being so busy with one and sacrificing time for the other. Remember to plan all the other pillars first in your life before any career activity goes in the calendar.
Listen to the full podcast here.
And don’t forget to connect with Hannah:
Website: https://hannahnikeroberts.com/
Facebook Page: @drhannahroberts
Facebook Group: @breakthroughunleashed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drhannahroberts/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HannahNikeR
Listen to her Top 10 UK Podcast ‘Women in STEM Career & Confidence’
🎙️ iTunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/women-in-stem-career-confidence/id1563574394
🎙️ Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/5YDSgcBVq72iqy0YyWONVk?si=rHH58vJBQmOSqcJiPKq7-g
And check out her Free Guides & Events
