Hi!
Emma here…
(she of Emma Williams PhD fame…)
Emma Williams PhD
I want to gift the world the brightest and best.
Our world needs researchers in every sphere
Universities are places of learning. At their best, they create people curious about their world with the tools to challenge, investigate and solve the big problems we are all facing. Climate change, global uncertainity, disease, poverty … the list goes on.
Those researchers who take their university careers to the next level through research masters and PhDs are not only deep experts in their topics but are qualified problem solvers.
Postdocs then turn the dial to max and professionalise the skill set adding management and leadership into the mix.
Their careers are vocational and seldom straightforward. That’s where I come in.
My mission? Unlocking our researchers talent base to fulfil their potential Researchers are super numerate, super literate, problem solving, project managing warriors
I’d wanted to be a scientist since around age 4.
Fast forward 24 years and I’d been there, worn the lab coat.
I felt it was time to move on from my postdoc. But I also felt tethered by sunk costs, my expectations, other people’s expectations and my physicist identity. Way back then there was no support for someone like me. Postdocs weren’t students and ‘staff development’ provision rarely fitted.
Fast forward at least the same again (gulp!) and I’ve made a career in that empty white space. From ad-hoc teaching skills trainer, to Graduate Development Programme Lead to co-Head of Academic Development. Becoming freelance helped me realise my potential as a business owner and consultant whilst unlocking the potential of a larger, diverse pool of researchers in the UK and beyond.
Researcher developers often say ‘ I fell into this career’. We can be as guilty of not seeing how an opportunity matches our skills as those we serve! My work with individual researchers, ‘res dev’ teams and university departments gives me a great overview of the research culture landscape. Universities are complex, bonkers places. But I love them.
Academia is only one possible route forward out of a myriad of careers. My agenda is to help researchers move forward. They are too talented to be stuck.
My vision is that researchers master their careers
Get into the driving seat of your career with my three key ingredients
Proactively
Waiting for good things to happen isn’t a career plan. Fixed term research needs long term planning. Proactivity not only boosts careers but well being too.
Working with researchers to take that first step. And then the next.
Working with, not talking at
Postively
Researchers are too talented to be stuck. No career choice should be the last resort. Exploring should feel safe and fun.
Present the facts as opportunities for creative career thinking
Build confidence and self respect
Timely
Seeds flourish in the right season. Development that comes at the right point in our careers is powerful. Experience helps target interventions to the right groups at the right time.
Tailored development across research careers
Interventions mindful of busy research diaries
My values and strengths
I’ve taken time to understand mine as I’ve evolved. They guide me in my work with researchers and my approach to business. But they also make me smile because they are true to me. We spend a lot of time in the world of work. Let’s be happy there.
Understanding your values and strengths are key to every career puzzle
Unlock every puzzle with creativity
Careers are complex. Universities are doubly so. Constraints can confound us. Or we can harness the creativity that is at the heart of research to unlock new routes forward.
Solve every puzzle with data
You wouldn’t plot a graph with just one point. Academia or bust isn’t a strategy! Careers, like research, thrive on data. Using my experience and insight to work in partnership with universities to unlock their researcher talent base.
Cultivate autonomy
Career mastery demands we sit in the driving seat. Researchers or their developers need the three key ingredients of proactivity, positivity and timeliness. These are central to everything we do. Let us be your co-pilot.
Embrace your UNIqueness
Researchers often come from a scarcity place – “I’ve not done this, I’ve not got that”. Each researcher is a UNIque mix of skills and experiences. Understanding and unlocking those helps move us beyond the labels of discipline or sector.
Harness the power of everyone
Research needs diversity of thought from people able to operate at the top of their brain game. Working in partnership with universities’ so that research and those that undertake it thrive. Embracing diversity, inclusion and positive cultures because solving the world’s problems demands everyone’s input.
Emma in 10
Academic credentials (because, uni)
Degree in Natural Sciences specialising in physics with Emma Williams PhD born in Medical Physics specialising in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) both from University of Cambridge. The second was much more fun than the first.
Jamas
I got to wear scrubs during my postdoc at The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. Science in pyjamas with a very large magnet.
The dark side
The University of Cambridge was also home to my professional services experience working in development from graduate students to academics. My old research boss claimed this was ‘turning to the dark side’.
Hit by bus
My career low point realisation happened during a committee meeting.
Coach
I am a qualified Level 7 executive coach. My dissertation discussed whether executive was a good word in HE circles!
No I in team
I am acredited to help people find out more about themselves using Belbin Team Roles and MBTI. Profiling can be great data to unlock career puzzles with.
Bestseller
I have written three books: What Every Postdoc Needs to Know (with Drs Elvidge and Spencely) 2017/2024, The UNIque Guide for Women 2023 and Leaving Academia 2024. The last two were Amazon bestsellers.
The house of nerd
I have three ‘grown up’ sons, a mathematician husband (Richard Williams PhD to go with Emma Williams PhD naturally), four chickens and two house rabbits called Frodo and Gimli – all fighting for supremacy in a nerdy household in Cambridgeshire.
Hawkeye / Katniss
I am an archer. I shoot recurve and more recently longbow. My longbow’s name is Joy. I made her. I also coach beginners for my club (transferable skills and all that!).
Jigsaw addict
I love jigsaw puzzles. There is something magical about patterns and shapes coming together. It has taken me a while to realise that this is a tangible manifestion of how my brain approaches things.
