8. Confidence Chasm | Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi

Emily chats with Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi, who opens up about feeling the pressure to be perfect, the detrimental health impacts of a micromanaging Postdoc supervisor & how the deterioration of his confidence led him to leave academia for a few years.

CW: Weight gain, civil war, and a death in the family

This discussion includes:

Laughing about the challenges of switching from architecture to programming

The pressure to be perfect affecting ability to complete simple tasks

Trial by fire professors

No prior family members having done a PhD

The difference between studying for/passing exams and experimentation

Doing reports last-minute and redoing them because they weren’t ‘good enough’

A micromanaging postdoc supervisor

Weight gain during the first year of Nadim’s postdoc that made him unhappy

Nadim learning to do what he could and adjusting only if necessary

Making the difficult mindset shift of letting go of perfectionism

Working in consulting for 5 years

Using knowledge of ‘learning by doing’ in Nadim’s company outside of academia

Leaving academia for a few years, missing it, and deciding to return

Imposter syndrome

Lacking confidence to write funding grants

The soft skills learned while doing research, like juggling a million balls in the air at once, critical thinking, and problem solving

Volunteering in organisations to help you feel good about yourself – if you can find a low stress environment where you receive appreciation as a volunteer. You might also see the immediate impact of your input, which can often be difficult in professional settings

Acknowledgement of an unhealthy ‘workaholic’ coping mechanism

Regret for holding the mindset that taking time off after a death in the family wouldn’t leave a good impression

Nadim is also available on LinkedIn

The full transcript of the podcast is available here, with many thanks to Dan Ranson

For mental health support, please contact your GP or use the appropriate support for your country at https://checkpointorg.com/global/

If you’re interested in being interviewed, we’d love to hear from you. Please submit this brief form.

You can find out more about Voices of Academia & other personal stories at @academicvoices or our website.

Finally, if you feel there are additional content or trigger warnings you would like us to add to our database, please contact us!

Recorded 14/01/2021.

Sound: Mindset and Hard Sell by Ketsa is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, available through Free Music Archive.