Worthy of success in academia & business, with Dr. Luna Mu?oz, Luna Leadership

Welcome back PostdocTransformer,

for this episode of the PostdocTransformation Show, I am bringing you Dr. Luna Clara Mu?oz, PhD FRSA FHEA , a career and executive coach, who shares her journey from #psychology (yeah for my own #bachelor and #master students in real life) in #academia to #career coaching.

Born in #PuertoRico, she built a recognized research career in the US, Sweden and UK. She discusses the challenges faced by underrepresented individuals in academia (and hence I am happy to also serve the #latina in my community), and the importance of self-evaluation and values in career transitions.

Dr. Mu?oz also highlights her coaching services aimed at empowering individuals to leverage their skills and passions in business or new careers.

The episodes emphasizes the potential for fulfilling careers outside academia, supported by targeted coaching and resources.

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We just reached 7 k with our previous 50 episodes, half of them are interviews with leaders in science and mostly business, and we want to thank you for listening. I am building my own legacy as a professor by bringing diverse role models to your table, so you can be inspired as you deserve.

Please feel invited to suggest your role models with or without a doctor title who can inspire the underrepresented, underprivileged and underserved scientists leaping into business and my bachelor and master students in real life.

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Some highlights of this episode:

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[00:04:49] Dr. Luna Clara Mu?oz: So I got a job, at, an Institute for Juvenile Justice Services in New York. people kept saying, it's leaving academia. Yes, you'll be doing research, but you'll be leaving the academic world. You won't be a professor. Are you sure you want to leave that? Because you can never come back, which is just one of those myths, right? So I had gotten an offer from Sweden, to do a postdoc. And how often do you get to go to Sweden??

So I didn't have a plan. Passport. I didn't have anything. they arranged everything for me. They paid for my, flight, my visa. The pay was really good because it was Sweden. I had a child there without paying for healthcare which was, a dream for me. when I had my child and responsibilities, I knew I had to go to work I finished my postdoc, came to the UK and had been a lecturer, senior lecturer, which is the same as assistant professor and associate professor in the US doing research, 60 percent teaching, then add on top of that all the administration, there's like 150%, isn't there?

I kept moving around in the UK, thinking like, maybe this is going to be better than the tenure system in the US, like the whole publish or perish thing, the getting big grants, all of that, but I kept getting pushed by people who were full professors and professors before they were like 40. They were like, you need to strive even more, which hit all of my buttons of striving, with my gold stars that I had in school. I was like, okay, I'm going to be the good girl, get my grants, and get a prize.

I got a prize in parliament for my research. Then I published the paper from the prize, and, you know, came with prize money, which then I used to go around the country and talk about my research. and so I thought I was making it, like, all the good moves. but there started to come some issues with just feeling like there was a lack of fit.

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[00:13:53] Dr. Luna Clara Mu?oz: Yeah, I think a lot of the big challenges come from how education is sold as the American dream isthrough education. the way that education is structured is about, if you get a higher degree, you start up at a higher ladder and you climb up from there. But we know lots of white men that I'm thinking of right now that don't do that. They just get up the ladder by falling upwards, or failing upwards. I think there's this that narrative about education is valuable, there's this idea about achievement and striving that never ends and you never feel good enough and you never feel worthy. I applied to 16 PhD programs and I got into one, which was Penn State University, which is not, at least back in the late 90s, was not very diverse. And actually a black professor had only been there four months and he left and that was our only black professor in psychology. So, when I got there, I realized I don't really feel like I fit in here, and I feel like I was one of those diversity hires, basically, for my PhD program, right??

And so it made me feel like I'm not worthy, because I'm just here because I had a tutor, I worked every day, like hours and hours on the statistics, that then people were coming to me about statistics, and going, you're such a natural at it, it's like, no, I frickin worked my butt off until I could do it, work harder than everybody else to be treated the same.

[00:15:51] Right. And a lot of like ethnic minority or underrepresented groups, you're working twice as hard to get like the same treatment. And so I think that really wears on you and that kind of burnout as well. I think some of the things that I see when people are leaving academia who come from backgrounds that are first generation or they're underrepresented are. This innate worthiness, like I'm not worthy of whatever, whether it's financial or it's, I don't deserve this, but there's something about that. ? ??

Read or listen to the full transcript, you will really thank me later, LOL!

https://postdoctransformation.ac-page.com/show0054

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Prof. Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels, Founder, CEO, Creator and MomProf. Dr. Eleonore Soei-Winkels, Founder, CEO, Creator and Mom

@PostdocTransformation on Instagram, TikTok & Podcasts ?? I coach scientists leap into business according to their vision of life@PostdocTransformation on Instagram, TikTok & Podcasts ?? I coach scientists leap into business according to their vision of life