Behavioural Science

I'm often asked about how I transitioned from academia to industry. My career started in the fields of Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience, where I completed a PhD and spent years as a lab researcher working with rodents. Even though I was successful enough to be named one of Forbes' 100 Most Influential Women in Mexico, I realized in 2019 that my dream of having my own lab might not happen. This made me look for new opportunities. Leaving my academic career was scary, but it also started a new journey full of learning. If you're thinking about making a similar move, here are some insights from my experience: - Leaving academia is not a failure: It took me several reminders that moving on to something new is a step forward, not backward. - Academia is not the only career option: I started my PhD with a single goal in mind: leading my own lab. It was only later that I discovered the opportunities available outside academic research. Your skills are valuable in many oth...

Have you ever found yourself tirelessly working towards a goal, only to be met with failure time and time again?  This relentless cycle of effort and disappointment can lead us to a dangerous conclusion: no matter what we do, we're bound to fail. This feeling, known as learned helplessness , was something I became familiar with during my psychology studies at UNAM in Mexico. The concept not only deepened my understanding of human behaviour but also evoked profound empathy, especially for the dogs involved in the foundational experiments by psychologist Martin Seligman. Seligman's experiments in the late 1960s involved dogs that were exposed to electric shocks they could not escape. Eventually, even when given the opportunity to avoid the shocks, the dogs didn't attempt to escape. They had learned to be helpless, believing their actions had no impact on their circumstances.  Learned helplessness doesn't stop at an interesting psychological phenomenon; it has profound imp...