Fridays are usually quite casual at DWPub. As a special treat for lunch today, Jake from IT made some of the best fajitas I ever had for everyone in the office. I sometimes join my colleagues to go to a pub next door after work to have a pint or two. Friday after work drinks unite many London workers for a casual get-together before the weekend starts. To escape the office during my lunch break, I often take a walk to the street market in Croydon, one of my favorite places in the area. London is one the most international cities I’ve ever been in, and the borough of Croydon is no exception. The daily street market has stalls that sell everything from seasonal fruits and vegetables, fresh fish and seafood, Thai produce, Afghan sandwiches, Chinese street food and fresh doughnuts to large groceries stores behind the stalls that cater to Polish, Turkish and Asian immigrants. The international nature of London is one of my favorite aspects of the city.
Street market in Croydon
This market vendor reassured me he was as cheesy as his cheese.
On my last day as a guest writer for PhDs At Work, I’d like to wrap up what has happened throughout the week: Monday was filled with final text revisions and website tweaking before we launched our company blog in Germany. I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday compiling emails and press lists and sending out messages to our target readers and users about the new blog. On all days, I communicated with prospective and existing clients and provided them with information on our services. I spent some time training and advising a junior colleague and our new intern in the office, and discussing projects with freelancers who work for us from Germany. Throughout the week, I have been in touch with our PR partner in Germany to discuss ongoing projects such as the blog and to coordinate upcoming activities and events. Like every week, I had a meeting with the founder of the company to give him a project update on the development of our new research platform for journalists that was launched last year. With all the preparations for the new blog, it was without a doubt a busy week, but nevertheless still quite typical of what my job looks like on a day-to-day basis since the launch of our research platform for journalists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year, we will continue to reach out and network with journalists and PR professionals and engage in ongoing debates on the future of journalism.
Blogging about my work week has been a great opportunity to reflect on my transition from academia to the business world, which has also taken me to different countries. As with most career changes, there have been difficult times, but I tried to learn from every experience and use the knowledge to gradually develop a new direction for my career. I still do a lot of what I used to do as an academic, which proved to me that academia is only one out of many great paths PhDs can take.
I’d like to thank Michelle for inviting me to contribute to PhDs At Work, which has been a fantastic experience. Thanks to everyone who has joined me at work this week. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The Queen and I wish you farewell.
Questions? Share your thoughts!