Coaching

Elite athletes have coaches.

So do musicians.

And artists.

Not to mention those people aspiring to be great musicians, artists or athletes.

Yet, elite thinkers (academics) and elite thinkers in training (PhD students)
are not privy to the advantages of coaching.

However, this could all be about to change for you!


I definitely got some insights into industry and learnt how to better position myself to get there.

Darnel Prakoso, Research Fellow
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences


PhD students

Because a PhD was not meant to be this hard, this emotional, this taxing. Yet, undertaking a PhD is challenging, fulfilling, exciting, rewarding and inspiring – all in one day! Richard works with small groups of PhD students who are keen to develop and grow beyond their PhD.

Established Researchers

You’ve joined the 1% of PhD graduates who become Professors but now what? What will be your legacy? How can you make that happen? Dr Huysmans helps established researchers answer these questions and more.

Transition from Academia

With one in one-hundred PhD graduates staying in academia, the transition out is common. Yet, the only advice we tend to get is from academics who are still in academia. Dr Richard Huysmans works with individuals (at any stage of their career) to identify transferable skills and job opportunities to smoothly transition from academia.

Early Career Researchers

You joined for the challenge and have stayed for the experience. But now what? 50% of your PhD colleagues have left. What about you? Richard works with ECRs to help them answer the question what next? and then make it happen.


Great session on social media and academia with @RichardHuysmans today @CQUni. Very informative and thought provoking.

Rob Stanton


So much of the PhD is “learn on the job”. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By joining a group coaching program, you can learn and progress with other PhD students. Find out what is “normal” what is “acceptable” and how to improve your PhD.

You’ve been in the game for a while. You’ve won your fare share of grants – maybe more. You’ve published a few papers. You’ve stayed in academia when your peers left.
But…
There’s something missing. You’re not sure what.
Maybe it is taking your research to that next level – becoming fully independent?
If you’d like to work with Richard, to he’d love to hear more about you.

Leaving academia is one of the hardest decisions to make and subsequent actions to take. Unlike many other careers, academic research draws people in for reasons of passion, purpose and feeling. Yet, success is measured in grants and publications. You can be an awesome researcher, but not great at grant writing or not great at English (most journals are written in English) and your career will suffer.

50% of people doing a PhD in Australia DON’T WANT an academic career. And indeed, (internationally) the data show they pretty much leave academia upon graduation.

BUT..

If you WANT an academic career what can you do? How can you increase your chance of success?

What’s involved in coaching?

Well, Richard runs three programs:

Groups – operating for 12 months with between 10 and 20 people. Everyone has their own goals. We meet monthly as a group via Zoom. Each month we discuss your goals and progress towards them. There are also 3 one-on-one sessions with me. In those sessions we set and track your individual progress. <- this is the most popular for PhD students. Especially in their 3rd year. It is cost effective and impactful.

Three months 1:1 – as the name suggests. It goes for 3 months. It is 1:1. So just you and Richard. You meet fortnightly. There are tasks each fortnight as well as other stuff you might set yourself. Dr Huysmans keeps you accountable to your own goals and progress. Together, we’ll set a high-level goal for you, as well as more immediate things to achieve. Sessions are via Zoom, and are recorded. You can review and revisit as you see fit.

Six months 1:1 – also just like the name suggests. And much like the 3 month coaching, meetings are fortnightly. Recorded. You’ll be held to account. We’ll set high-level goals. And weekly tasks.

And, of course, you could just book an ad hoc session or series of sessions.

Prefer Richard to contact you? No problem. Fill your details in below, and he’ll get in touch in a day or two

[hubspot portal=”2509621″ id=”bb07220d-9b69-4a5f-9eea-1d0628ab3a77″ type=”form”]

As someone who benefited from Richard’s expertise, I can highly recommend this! Keep up the good work DRH!

Dr. Allegra Schermuly, Research Assistant

I recently saw the recording of your ‘leaving academia’ webinar. It was very insightful. Thank you so much for doing it and also for personally reaching out about career coaching.

Anonymous ECR, UNSW

Academia: Want to know more about other industries and sectors? Talk to your family their career pathway, and skills.

Dr. Gaelle Batot

Just wanted to drop in and mention that I follow your PhD related content closely. Thank you for sharing more information in this field as it is so helpful for students like me.

Shruti Verma, PhD student

I am happy I could attend this Zoom session. I learned a lot about networking using LinkedIn and phone, and the expectations of hiring manage and recruiters. Thank you Dr Richard Huysmans for taking out time and helping us with your valuable insights! And thank you Oishee Chatterjee for organizing this. PS: I would be happy to have more sessions as well, a little bit later would be better though!

Lokapriya Nandan Basavanna

Thanks a lot, Richard. It was a great session.

PhD Student, UNSW

I have been reading through your book though and must say I am very impressed. You’ve put a lot of conscious thought into the things early career researchers are trying to do without any training or support, so it has opened my eyes to some of the things I have been doing without realising, and also some of the things I haven’t done but should have.

I’ve recommended your workshop next week to our lab group (and to a meeting today about the internal Monash professional mentoring scheme).

Dr David Hocking
www.dphocking.com

I really would like to thank you, Richard, for that 1-hour conversation I had with you – it gives me a lot of perspective on a career. I would also like to thank you for all the content you have put up. I do read it and forward it to my postgraduate friends.

Dr. Stephanie Cheah, Lecturer Monash Malaysia

It was really kind of you to offer the opportunity to me. It was a really great and enlightening session for me and your advice was so helpful.

Shruti Verma, PhD student

I’m so so grateful that we did this. I learned a lot from these sessions about academia, about research in general, and of course about my academic writing.

Aditi Gupta, PhD student

Thank you again for all you have provided so far you have been great to work with and your tips were really useful.

Kostas Knoblich, ECR, Monash University

Thank you for your advice though, I’ve broadened my net and found some interesting new companies and sectors to keep an eye on. Applying for jobs has gone a lot better since we last spoke.

Julian Atchison

Thanks for connection, and for the meeting – greatly appreciated.

Rachel Hicks, PhD student

I have just had a chance to view the video and the resources that you have offered. I found them very helpful for expanding views on strategy. This video has helped reinforce the value of networking in particular which I will focus on to assist with identifying opportunities.

ECR, Monash University

Brilliant work, Richard. Thanks so much for presenting today. I have started the legend file and referred several people to your website to check out your other presentations.

Dr. Katrin Gerber, PhD (Psych) Research Fellow, NARI & MARC

Thank you, that was an amazing call, and what you’ve succinctly recapped above is ‘chef’s kiss’ perfect!

Dr. Vinita Ling, Author of FESS Up!

Thanks for the session – it was very helpful in terms of clarifying what is important and what is not.

Victoria Lister, PhD student

Thank you for your email and for making the time to chat with me – I found it very beneficial. I am going to start implementing the things we talked about and see how I go.

Nethmi Yapa, PhD student, Monash Univeristy

I took stock and addressed my day doing my PhD.
I streamlined and batched my experiments differently.
I introduced flexible hours and brought in more thinking times.
Addressed the need to ppt present every fortnight and thought your suggestion to summarise my work instead to my group was a better option.
I did my experiments one week and imaged the next week.
I introduced a OneNote template of work done.
Thank you for the suggestions and they have been most helpful.

Satya Amirapu, PhD student and MBBS graduate, Auckland University

I had one hour, very enlightening and informative session with Dr Richard Huysmans yesterday, and I found that he is very easy to speak to, very practical in strategy, understands what the requirements and realities are (especially in business), and quick to provide solutions.

Ray Attanayake, Business Owner and prospective PhD student

Richard has been a wonderful mentor during the last stage of my PhD and provided very helpful advice on the process of securing a postdoc.

Phuong Hua, PhD student, Monash University

I really enjoyed your seminar. I particularly like your ideas on planning for where I would like to be in 10 years, I like that I should consider my personal and career in that plan.

Dr Kimberley Crawford, Senior Lecturer, Monash University