This episode is all about helping academics use social media to build their own personal brand so they can successfully shift from academia to industry.
Leslie:
Today I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Ashley Ruba onto your Words Unleashed podcast! Let me tell you a little bit about her. Dr. Ashley Ruba has a PhD in developmental psychology and is a UX researcher, career coach and founder of After Academia. Dr. Ruba’s career spans academia, industry and entrepreneurship.
She’s conducted research on everything from childhood emotional development to cutting edge AR/VR devices. Her most recent venture, After Academia, provides career services to graduate students, postdocs, adjuncts, and professors seeking a career change from academia to industry. Dr. Ruba regularly writes about the future of work higher education, neurodivergence and personal development for over 100,000 followers on social media.
So I’ve been reading Ashley’s post about leaving academia on LinkedIn for quite some time. I’ve been so impressed with how she consistently and sometimes quite vulnerably puts her thoughts, ideas, and experiences out there. And I’ve also witnessed her journey to becoming a career coach and business owner.
I wanted to chat with her about things like using social media to build a brand and dealing with visibility, things that academics tend to have mixed feelings about. So, why don’t we get into it? Ashley, thank you so much for being here today.
Ashley:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Leslie:
The first thing I love to ask people is, can you talk a little bit about your journey through academia and also maybe some of the reasons why you decided to leave it?
Ashley:
Yeah, so I started at Duke University studying psychology. I was really interested in becoming a clinical psychologist initially. As I moved through undergrad, I realized how much I enjoyed doing research. So right after I finished my undergrad, I worked as a lab manager for a year, and then applied for developmental psych PhD programs.
Moved from North Carolina, where I grew up, across the country to Seattle. I did my PhD in developmental psych at the University of Washington studying early childhood emotional development, and throughout this whole time was told that I was really good at research, I was really good at all things academia, and that I should be a professor at an R1 because that was the dream job– according to all the professors who wanted me to follow in their footsteps. And so that was my intention for the entire time I was going through grad school.
Until close to the end, I sat on a faculty search committee and saw the process from the other side. And after seeing people’s CVs get eliminated that were much better than mine, I thought, “there’s no way I’ll ever get an academic job.”
My mental health wasn’t great at that point, so I considered leaving then. But I ended up applying to one postdoctoral fellowship. It was a NIH T32 and I actually ended up getting it, and it was a really prestigious fellowship, so I kind of felt like I couldn’t say no. So I moved to Madison, Wisconsin at the end of 2019, which was not a great year to move.
Six months into my postdoc is when Covid shut down everything, and then fast forward three years, the faculty job market hadn’t really recovered. I was feeling even more tired of academia.
Just mental health, not having any control over where I lived, and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I had started kind of seeing the toxicity in academia as well, so that’s what prompted me to leave and to quit my fellowship in the middle of my third year.
And then since then, which was three years ago now, I’ve worked in UX research and usability research at a couple of different companies, including Meta where I’m currently working as a contractor. And then during this time, people started asking me for help making their own career transition out of academia.
So that’s when I started doing career coaching for free for a really long time. And then about a little over a year ago is when I started this formally.
Leslie:
Yeah. And so maybe we could talk about your usage of social media to kind of open people’s minds up and their mindsets around leaving academia or the reasons why they stay.
So can you talk a little bit about your entry into social media and how you’ve kind of grown with social media over the years?
Ashley:
Yeah, I started on when it was still called Twitter, when I was a grad student. And academic Twitter back in the day, I really liked it. I felt like I was at an academic conference.
There were professors on there who were talking about their research and I posted a couple of memes that brought some traction. But that was essentially the extent of me posting anything until I decided to quit my postdoc.
And at that point, I had just seen and talked to a lot of PhDs who had decided to leave academia and then were just kind of gone and I didn’t see anyone really talking about why they had left or still being like active in the space at all.
So I wrote a thread about why I was quitting my postdoc and posted that and that went viral, which was very, uh, it was a lot, it was a lot for me because I had probably like a couple hundred followers on Twitter at that point. And then that’s when people started reaching out to me and asking me for help, or just to talk more about what I did in terms of changing careers.
So then I just started on Twitter posting more threads about, “here’s how you write a resume.” “Here’s how you network.” Just posting my thoughts about academia and leaving. Twitter was… It’s more hostile now, but it was surprisingly hostile. Um, got a lot of pushback from some faculty, which was hard and surprising to me.
And then I think like shortly after Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter, I’d ended up popping over to LinkedIn and just copy and pasting my threads there because I just assumed that Twitter was going to die. And then within a month I had hit like 20,000 followers on LinkedIn. I don’t know how that happened!
And yeah, so I’ve just kind of like kept rolling with it and mostly doing it because people have told me over the years how helpful it’s been for them. There’s just very few resources at the university level for PhD students all the way up through faculty and making this career change.
Unfortunately, it had started becoming this more like informal network of people who are wanting to help, and I just wanted to make this process easier for folks because I think if I had seen anyone like me talking about this when I was a grad student, I wouldn’t have felt so bad about like, “if I leave, am I a failure?” Everyone I talk to seems like they were really sad about leaving. I didn’t see anyone who was just like, “no, I left and I’m actually glad that I left.” So, yeah.
Leslie:
Mm-hmm. And here’s how you’re not alone in this. There are structural things going on.
Ashley:
Yeah. There’s so many structural things going on.
And even now when I meet with people, there’s still like a lot of isolation that folks feel and it just makes me really sad. It makes me really sad to like talk to people who feel so alone and feel like if they leave or change careers, that they’re a failure. And on some level, all I do a lot of the time is just kind of validate people’s decisions to change careers if they would like to.
Leslie:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s so, so important. And I don’t know if you can remember back to that first viral post. Do you?
Ashley:
I, yeah, I remember.
Leslie:
What do you think are like the elements that made it go viral? Because there are actually are, you know, there’s lots of different people talking about leaving.
So what is it that sort of struck that chord, do you think?
Ashley:
Well, all posts start with a good hook. So I think I had figured out in a tweet thread for instance, and also in a LinkedIn post, you kind of have to grab people’s attention in the first two lines to make them want to keep reading.
So, mine was basically just saying, I don’t remember exactly how I framed it, but it was basically like, “I’ve been thinking about how to write this for a while now. I don’t really have anything clever, so just here it is, I’m leaving academia.” And then it was very clearly like a thread. So then it prompted people to be like, “why?” And then clicking and reading more.
But I also think that there is, I think it’s just like who I am as a person. I’m a pretty honest and vulnerable person, and that kind of personal vulnerability I think is not something that was really seen in this space so much.
So, I think also in this thread was just kind of going through all of my emotions of just feeling really sad and angry, but also hopeful. And what people have told me over the years is being able to describe how they are feeling. That’s what really resonates with people, and that’s why I think people continue to read my content.
Leslie:
Yeah, I think recognizing the emotional rollercoaster and that all pieces of it are valid.
And will probably happen all the same time. Like how do you feel simultaneously really angry and also really hopeful you can–
Ashley:
Yeah. There’s a— I didn’t realize it would be such a— in some ways it wasn’t that hard.
The logistical sides of things were easy for me in terms of like, I figured out how to write a resume and do LinkedIn kind of, but it was the emotional aspects of things for me and the identity loss and then also just grappling with how long I had stayed in academia because other people had told me to, as opposed to thinking about what I actually wanted.
And then that’s kind of been the big theme over my life for the past three years is trying to figure out, what do I actually want out of my life, independently of what anyone else might want for me? And that is a very, very hard question to answer.
Leslie:
Oh, for sure. And also, how much do you want work to determine that as well? What role do you want that to play? How much space do you want work to take up when it went from like a hundred percent to a different number?
Ashley:
Yeah. That’s also been a big theme over the last few years is trying to figure out what my relationship to work is.
I found that finally after cycling through a lot of different jobs, that entrepreneurship is ultimately the best fit for me. It took a while to arrive to that conclusion, but I think about The Good Enough Job is a really good book where it talks about people’s relationship to work, especially high achievers.
So that helped me get some perspective on the relationship that work has in our lives.
And then I also think about this book called The Five Regrets of the Dying. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but it’s written by someone who worked in palliative care. They talked to people who are at the end of their life and one of the biggest regrets that people have is, “I wish I hadn’t worked so much.” So I think about that a lot.
Leslie:
No, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to point out your sweatshirt. It says, “in my CEO era.”
Ashley:
I bought this literally two days before the United Healthcare CEO was killed. And so I’m just, I didn’t wear it for months because I was like, I don’t know that this is actually what I want, what I want to be broadcasting.
But yeah, I think entrepreneurship is really healing in a way. I think it forces you into this role where you are the one making all of the decisions, like it is all on you. And it kind of forces you to deal with any kind of confidence issues that you’re having or insecurities that you’re having in a good way.
Yeah, that’s part of why I bought the sweatshirt.
Leslie:
I totally agree with you and I share all the time that I used to blame academia for my overwork issues. My patterns towards grinding all the time. And then I left the academy and I was still doing it. And I still do it.
Ashley:
Yeah. I do. I do too.
Leslie:
So it’s like confronting… You know? And there’s pieces of that that are really good.
That’s like, work can be this place of true joy in learning and discovery. And I think that’s a big part of it for me. And then when you start your own business, wow, there’s a whole new thing to learn.
Ashley:
Yeah. There’s so many things to learn and it’s hard because sometimes when I’m working, some things I view it as work and not the most exciting thing in the world. But then last night I was just up really late redoing my website and I thought that was really fun and I was having fun doing it.
So I’m like, yeah, this is technically work, but I’m having fun. So is it work? That’s where the boundaries get blurry, and I think that’s what keeps people in academia is because they, on some level, genuinely like aspects of their work. Maybe not the entire job, but there are parts of your job that you really, really enjoy and it doesn’t feel like work.
Leslie:
Right. Right. Yeah. And that gets into one of my questions on, from your many, many thousands of conversations with folks, what do you think is really holding academics back from leaving? If we’re thinking more of internal kind of stuff.
Ashley:
Yeah, well my PhD’s in psychology, so I think a lot about the psychology that goes behind these things. So part of it is just, you know, sunk cost fallacy of “I’ve spent however many decades years in this career, and if I leave, then what does that mean?”
I’ve talked to faculty who feel like they’re too old to change careers and are worried about ageism on the job market, which does exist, but I don’t think is as a pervasive problem as people, it’s not going to prevent you from leaving. It is just something to consider. So there’s that, and I think there’s just a lack of confidence in being able to do anything else outside of academia. I think there’s little appreciation for how your skills do transfer.
But I think it’s just like really fear and understanding that any kind of change in life transition is going to be really uncomfortable. And humans don’t like feeling uncomfortable. Just from a neuroscience perspective. We’re trying to conserve as much energy as possible, and it requires a lot of energy to learn something new and to your environment in that way.
So there’s a lot of momentum keeping people in place, especially if you have tenure, because there’s nothing really pushing you to leave unless your university decides to cut your position, which we are going to see more of in the years to come, unfortunately.
Leslie:
For sure and possibly very soon. So when you’re working with folks in a coaching role, how do you help them see their skills as being transferable?
Ashley:
So usually when people come to me, they ask me like, “what can I do with my degree outside of academia?” And the unsatisfying answer is, you can do whatever you would like to do. It’s more of a question of what, what do you actually want to do?
Because most, I mean, most people don’t have a PhD. Most jobs don’t require a PhD. So I encourage people to think a little bit more broadly about, you know, what do you actually want out of the rest of your life? Like, where do you want to live? Are there things that you’d like to experience? Do you want to buy a house? Do you want to travel? What aspects outside of work are really important to you in your life? Like what’s on your bucket list, for instance?
And so usually from there then we can start adding some constraints. So when people are like, “well, I really, I don’t want to move.” Great! So now we’re just going to focus on what companies are in the area that you’re living. Remote work’s gotten competitive. So I usually encourage people to think in person or hybrid. But adding any kind of constraints definitely helps with this whole paradox of choice, where there’s just so many options available.
I also remind people that any kind of career change is extremely hard, especially the ones that most PhDs are making. Because not only are you changing roles, but you’re changing industries at the same time. And of all the kinds of career changes you can make, that is the hardest to do. So it is going to take time. You might have to learn new skills, you might have to upskill and all of that is totally fine, but it’s, I don’t know, like there’s a lot of grief and anger.
I think people feel, and I felt it in academia for spending 10 years on a degree that didn’t actually teach me how to apply for jobs or prepare me for a career outside of academia. I think there is a lot of anger and bitterness and sadness and you have to just kind of accept that that’s just how it is and you know, how are you going to move forward.
Leslie:
Yeah, for sure. And I feel like I went through an incredibly angry phase for a couple of years. Most of my public posts were angry. I think I passed through it. Yeah, I don’t think I’m in that space anymore.
Ashley:
So just knowing that there’s phases. There are stages. I feel like a little bit of anger still, but it’s more when people come to me and they tell me about really bad experiences they’ve had in academia, then that’s when I feel angry on their behalf of like, why are we still dealing with this?
But over academia as a whole, I’m just kind of like, if universities would like to partner with folks like me who are really invested in this kind of professional development, I am more than happy to do that. But I don’t know that that is a priority for.
Leslie: Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I don’t think so, unfortunately. I hope it, I hope it starts moving more in that direction. Yeah, because that’s just the reality that everyone’s facing.
Actually, you have a recent LinkedIn post I saw that lists the top advantages that PhDs actually have outside of academia, and I think folks would really benefit from hearing what you think those are.
Ashley:
Yeah, and I think about these advantages in terms of what AI is about to do to the workforce and, and these are based on data from the World Economic Forum, which was saying what the most valuable skills are going to be moving forward, and those are the skills that AI is going to have a harder time replicating.
So creativity, all these interpersonal skills, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, those are the skills that are going to be much harder for AI to replace. Most employers are actually looking at needing to upskill their workforce because most employees aren’t necessarily, they don’t have those skills developed, but those are all skills that you develop in a PhD program.
So you’ve been trained on how to think critically and problem solve, communicate–at least like within an academic audience. But you do have writing skills that you’ve developed over time, and active learning and being able to teach yourself. What I usually say is the most valuable skill because you will have to learn new things throughout your career.
Again, especially with AI and like what it’s about to do to the workforce. So yeah, I think if you understand how to translate those skills and your experience into language that people outside of academia actually understand, then you’re a really valuable hire. And I think anyone who’s worked with PhDs in industry can attest to just how quickly we can learn compared to people who haven’t been trained in this way.
Leslie:
And so along with being able to learn quickly, and that being an advantage, what do you think are some of the things that folks have to unlearn when they enter industry?
Ashley:
A lot of attitudes about business–so profit, sales, marketing, return on investment, all of these words that we either don’t talk about in academia or we view very negatively.
I think there’s just this misunderstanding that for-profit means exploitative, even when you have obviously non-profit universities who are pushing students into a lifetime of high interest debt. So there’s a lot of unlearning just about business and how ultimately, it’s not inherently evil working for a for-profit company.
But there’s also just the speed at which business moves. It’s much faster than academia. So for me, working with babies in academia, there are sometimes – start-to-finish a study from, I conceptualized it to the papers getting published – it would be years. And that’s just really not the case outside of academia. Things are moving really quickly. I have done studies start-to-finish in a week, and then I’ve moved on to the next thing.
And because of that, because you’re moving so quickly, you can’t really end up in this psych analysis paralysis mode. You have to be able to make decisions relatively quickly based on a limited amount of data. It’s not possible to analyze things from every angle. And there’s also, for that reason, a lot more persuasion and sales skills that you need to develop in order to convince people to, at least in my case, to implement your findings as a UX researcher.
Because just because you have data doesn’t mean that anyone is going to listen to your recommendations. So I don’t know. It’s a very different environment, but I find that it suits me better, I think, than academia, just like the pace of it.
Leslie:
Yeah. And I think for a lot of folks, their view of impact is their work getting out into the world somehow. And so when it takes so many years for it to happen, you know, I coach book writers, this is like years and years and years. And it can feel very much like, “why am I even doing this when the world is on fire right now and they need my, they need my findings right now.”
Ashley:
Yeah, no, and that’s a really big reason that, you know, I ultimately, part of the reason I wanted to leave academia, it’s something that, you know, a lot of folks come to me and they’re like, “I just want to have an impact.”
I was talking to someone last week, they’re like, “I just don’t want to work at the paper factory anymore. I don’t want to keep just turning out papers that don’t really help anyone.” And at the end of the day, I have helped more PhDs in my last couple years of running this business than I did in the entire decade plus that I was in academia.
My work has a very clear impact on people’s lives now and I don’t know, it just feels really nice to get messages of appreciation from folks. That’s why I do this. So an impact can look like in a lot of different ways. You don’t necessarily have to be directly helping people in your role. And I mean, you can be a manager, you can be mentoring people in your role and have a more one-on-one impact than a wider scale impact.
But I do find that you can have both of those outside of academia.
Leslie:
Yeah. And when it comes to social media, I mean, I personally feel like you’ve mastered the art of it, and I am just curious as you’ve grown in terms of people knowing who you are and what you do and what you talk about, your visibility has gotten bigger and bigger and, you know, academics very stereotypically are not that comfortable with visibility.
So how have you made yourself comfortable, or have you always been comfortable with it?
Ashley:
I’ve never been comfortable with it. I guess it’s the secret. Yeah. I still feel nervous every time I hit post on a post that’s never gone away. I think it’s from being, I guess, reared in Twitter, so to speak, where there were posts that went extremely viral and got a lot of backlash because that inevitably happens when a post reaches a certain threshold. Because it breaks out of the immediate sphere of people who are following you and would agree with you, and then gets into other kinds of people who are not following your content. But yeah, I, I wouldn’t say that I feel comfortable.
I think I have to not pay attention to how many followers I have and how many people are reading my posts. Otherwise, I’ll be like, wow, that post, got 6 million impressions. That number just, I can’t think about it too much, or else I’ll just stop writing altogether. I mean, I am an introvert.
I don’t really like being the center of attention. I think it requires me to put on this alter ego, but I’m kind of playing a version of myself on the internet. And yeah, it is an authentic version of myself, but it’s definitely a more confident version of myself than how I feel when I’m hitting the post button.
Leslie:
And I think that’s going to be so helpful for people to hear because you do it anyway.
Ashley:
Yeah, I do. And it’s because I built my entire business off of social media. I’ve never run ads, I’ve never done outbound sales calls. Everyone who’s worked for me has messaged me and said, “I want to work with you”. And I’ve gotten job offers from being on LinkedIn.
I’ve talked to professional organizations about implementing my work in their organizations, and that’s all been from LinkedIn specifically. So I think because I’ve gotten so many opportunities from it that that makes me more motivated to keep investing in it long term. I mean, clearly it’s working.
Yeah, and I think at the end of the day, our personal brands, professional brands are really the only kind of job security we have because we could get laid off at any moment, and it’s just a lot easier if you are already known and you’ve lost your job. If you’re looking for a new job, it’s so much easier to kind of get another job relatively quickly if people already know who you are, versus if you have no network. If you have no presence, then you’re kind of just starting over.
Leslie:
No, completely. So I think the concept of a personal brand is also something that many academics are going to have to have a mindset shift around.
First of all, what do you even think a personal brand is and what tips would you offer to folks who are trying to create one for themselves?
Ashley:
Yeah. I think branding is one of these words like “sales” and “marketing,” where people just have an immediate negative reaction. Like, “I don’t want to turn myself into a brand”. And that’s like totally fair, and I wish we had a better word for this, but is essentially, I mean, if you’re thinking about it from a business perspective, a brand for a business, is just how you present yourself to the world and what you want other people to know about you.
And the best brands are “authentic,” quote unquote, authentic is such an overused word, but what that means to me is. You are not pretending to be somebody who you’re not. People will see through that. So instead, for me, it’s thinking about like, what am I actually interested in talking about? I’m interested in talking about careers and academia, industry, business, neurodivergence, mental health.
Those are all things that I’m just interested in talking about anyway, and people will follow you and follow your content because you were talking about specific topics that are useful to them in some way. So that’s generally what I try to provide is just educational content, either my thoughts about different things or advice, and so that’s why people ultimately follow along with me.
But yeah, a brand is something that kind of just evolves over time. But you can easily start by just thinking about, what are two or three things that I would like to talk about and then just talk about those things for a while. You’ll get some signal in the noise over time. So for instance, in my case, I’ve seen how, when I talk about resumes, that seems to resonate a lot with people.
So that’s actually informed the direction I’m about to go in my business where I’m focusing a little more on. Writing and job applications, because that seems to be from my posts, what is resonating the most with other people and what other people are finding the most helpful. Mm-hmm. So you can kind of just change and morph what you’re talking about over time based on feedback from other people.
Leslie:
Right. And I also think that there doesn’t have to be anything strategic about it. It doesn’t have to be for any particular outcome-related reason to talk about what you care about.
Ashley:
Yeah, definitely not. And I think what I’ve realized more recently is that people will follow my content because they like what I have to say.
I think in the past I’d been like very worried about what if people don’t like this, et cetera, et cetera, and just getting more in my own head. But there’s this concept of a thousand true fans, where it’s better to have a thousand people follow you, who really love every single thing that you say, and then in business, that they will buy anything that you put out versus having, you know, a million people follow you who just don’t really care about you.
And so I think about that a lot and that’s also why I’ve been prioritizing my newsletter a little bit more, because it just feels more intimate and fun than social media posts. Email is not dead. So you can also just start and start a Substack. Just start writing on Substack and have people subscribe and just put out essays. And people will follow you if they enjoy what you’re writing.
Leslie:
No, for sure. And I think to start out, think about maybe 10 true fans!
Ashley:
Oh yeah. I mean, even a hundred people reading a post of yours is probably more than anyone reading your academic papers.
So I think about that a lot where I’m just like, wow, my posts generally will get at least 20,000 impressions, at minimum, and that’s way more reach than I ever had in academia for sure.
Leslie:
Yeah, it’s amazing actually. And one of the points that I like to make a lot is if you have haters, you are doing the right things. Like you are actually saying things that matter because you’re taking a stance, and it also means that your right people are going to find you.
Ashley:
Yeah. That’s a hard one for me to internalize, but it is true.
There’s a quote that I saw recently, where essentially, and if you are creating content, whatever that means, social media, post Substack, anything like that, you kind of have to be polarizing or be unknown. And polarizing doesn’t mean purposefully polarizing, but people won’t follow you if you’re like, “well, these people are right and these people are right and I don’t really have an opinion about this. And everyone’s right in their own way.” People want to follow for your opinions and your stances on things. And that’s why authenticity is important at the end of the day.
Leslie:
Yeah. And I think that’s like a big lesson too, I think for academics who’ve been very conditioned to like write for their critics and not write for their fans.
Ashley:
Yeah, no, for sure. And I wish that there were more people who were like really into science communication out there. I think it’s a really big shame that we put out papers that essentially no one will read. I mean, you can start a YouTube channel about your research area and just talk about that. People have built entire businesses off of just posting on YouTube and posting educational content on YouTube, and I wish there were more academics who were interested in science communication or viewed that as valuable.
Leslie:
I’m hopeful that things are moving more in that direction. And also that people recognize that as a potential avenue for themselves. I think sometimes just being aware that I could do that. Maybe I’ll try it.
Ashley:
Yeah. It’s definitely not something that I had ever thought about until I, I think about the book, have you read Atomic Habits by James Clear? James Clear, not a social scientist. His bachelor’s was in like engineering, and he just learned about habits through rehabilitating from a sports injury and then wrote one of the bestselling self-help books of the past 10 years, and I was just like, “wow, you don’t even have a background in psychology!”
You’re not a PhD, you didn’t study this professionally. All you did was take all of the scientific research and distill it down into concepts that other people can understand. I don’t know, I think that. I would rather write a book like that than win prestigious scientific awards. Yeah, that seems like much more of the impact that I would like to have.
Leslie:
Yeah. I think this is a great way to wrap up, is just really encouraging everyone out there to consider how do you personally define impact? What would be the most meaningful way for you to reach others? What does that look like, and are you doing that now? And if not, what are some ways you could be moving in that direction?
Ashley:
Yeah, I really like the website 80,000 Hours. It’s a job board, but also, it’s named for the fact that we have 80,000 hours give-or-take in our careers. So we should make them count. And it breaks up jobs by the most pressing global problems that we’re facing. And it has a board and kind of goes through like how you can really make an impact in your career.
So whenever folks are wanting a career that has the most impact, I usually direct them there so they can just kind of click around and maybe see something where they’re like, “oh yeah, I never thought about that as a career path, but that would make a really big impact in other people’s lives.”
Leslie:
Yeah, yeah. And be personally meaningful at the same time. Thanks for that recommendation, and also thanks for your time. What is the best way for listeners to connect with you and find out more about your coaching offers?
Ashley:
Yeah, LinkedIn! Also my website, ashleyruba.com. I am less active on, I guess X and Instagram these days, but I also have presence there.
But LinkedIn, I have a newsletter that I publish about once a week, and I’m in the process of updating my website. So my intention is to put a lot more resources on there in the next few months.
Leslie:
And are you going to be leading any kinds of group coaching programs or things?
Ashley:
Yeah, so I’m actually currently pursuing my ICF certification for coaching. So I am going to be moving towards doing one-on-one or extended coaching with folks.
And also pivoting. I had a program, but now I’m pivoting more towards doing a workshop series about how to fix your applications, if you’re applying for jobs and you’re not getting interviews and you don’t know why. I know why. And so I can help you fix your applications. And so that’s going to be the next thing that I’m currently working on, which should be, I am trying to get it done by the end of the month, but we’ll see, hopefully in the next month or so.
Leslie:
Awesome. And by the way, by the time this airs it will be done!
Ashley:
Okay. Awesome. Great. So, definitely go to my website, ashleyruba.com and check it out.
Leslie:
Awesome. Ashley, thank you so much for your time and for being here and for your insights and listeners, go find her on LinkedIn and her website. There’s tons of just incredible free resources and thanks for the impact that you’re making, Ashley.
Ashley:
Oh yeah. Thanks for having me here.
** If you want to read or listen to more podcasts on the topic of Leaving Academia, check out the other episodes in this series:
Episode 45 — Leaving Academia, Part 1: Assess Your Situation
Episode 51 — Leaving Academia, Part 2: Challenge Your Beliefs
Episode 52 — Leaving Academia, Part 3: What Keeps People Stuck
Episode 66 — Leaving Academia, Part 4: Grieving the Loss of Identity (with Dr. Chinasa Elue)
