Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all of the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Matthew Leeper, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Education Evolved. You can find Dr Leeper on LinkedIn here, and Education Evolved here.
Name: Matthew Leeper
Doctorate subject area and year of completion: Medieval History, 2021
Role and employer: Co-Founder and Managing Director of Education Evolved
Approximate salary bracket for this type of role: £60,000
In 2008 I began my first business back in the US. The company was called BNL LLC. And we provided lawncare and landscaping services to people around central Oklahoma. It was at this time that my journey in Higher Education began as well at the University of Central Oklahoma with a declared major in Business Administration. Fast forward 19 months later, and after the business being successful, I found myself in a disagreement with a lecturer that drove me to drop my business administration programme and pick up a focus on history. My thought process at the time was that if I was going to be at University for a few more years, I was going to do something I enjoyed as I felt I had proven I could run a business that sustained my lifestyle.
I graduated in 2012 with a degree in in history from the University of Central Oklahoma and went to work at a tech startup in Oklahoma City. It was a massive learning curve from my own experience of starting a business and in those 10 months I learned more about startup life and culture than I ever could have at University. Nevertheless, I burned out from the incredibly long hours and long weeks and having been married that year, we moved to France which eventually led us to the University of Glasgow where I studied an MLitt in Latin Linguistics (I loved Ancient History), and eventually a PhD in 12th Century Diplomatic History which I completed in 2019, I undertook my Viva in January of 2020, and my corrections were submitted in October 2020, with a six month extension due to lockdowns and graduated in 2022 (Covid really stretched out that examination period).
I began my job hunt intending to stay in academia. However, applying for jobs during Covid was a mess and emotionally draining, and there were more uncertainties than normal in the HE sector making hiring even more of a prolonged process. I also was looking to stay in the UK which meant I had further visa complications being an American.
I also knew from previous experiences that events like the Covid pandemic often led to significant shake-ups of how things were done, and so my entrepreneurial side began to rise back up, after sitting dormant for so long.
I explored the problems academics and institutions were having with lockdowns and transitions to online learning. I looked for opportunities these problems created and in January 2021, with the support of the University of Glasgow Student Enterprise Team, I founded Education Evolved Ltd. and became the Managing Director of the company, a position I still retain to this day almost 4 years later.
In a startup your job is a bit of everything. Some days you are talking to customers, some days you are organising your financials, some days you are trying to figure out how to make a marketing video, and some days you are meeting with your team trying to make sure projects are being delivered on time. All while trying to continue to make the business grow. It can be stressful, but going through a PhD has certainly extended the tools in my toolbox to be successful. A PhD is a massive 3-4 year project, so you come out with project planning experience, it also requires a deep level of engagement, something that you most definitely need to do as someone who is starting a business.
In my own experience, I find that the skills I developed in my PhD greatly helped me achieve success in my business. The ability to know how to find good, reliable information and analyse it to identify key takeaways is huge. The ability to organise, plan, and execute on a timeline is also incredibly useful as a business owner. Public speaking, which I worked on at conferences has helped me at networking events, pitching competitions, and showcasing the company’s projects at launch events.
Moving into this role was stressful, because I was leaving the security of not only the institution but also of a consistent pay check. The first year was tough between the anxiety and stress of making it work, also knowing that my supervisors, fellow cohort, and the academics I know were looking at me like I was a bit crazy taking this sort of leap out of academia. However, looking back, I am incredibly happy I took the leap of faith. The benefits have not only been financial, but I have had an incredible number of opportunities become available to me through this process. I now guest lecture in the EIT – European Institute of Innovation and Technology business school, I work with Student & Graduate Enterprise at the University of Glasgow, I have recently joined the steering committee for the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Award funding, I have talked to students across multiple universities about the value of entrepreneurial education and mindset, and I have also had the chance to work with other academics who are interested in making the switch to industry from academia, often supporting them to start their own businesses.
If you are looking to make a switch from Higher Education to Industry, whether that is starting your own business or joining a company I would say don’t think of your limitations but of your values and the skills you have developed while in higher education. You may have to think more abstractly about your skills to make a strong CV. For example, conference presentations are public speaking skills, the whole PhD is project management, you will have written and oral skills that are hard to beat. You will also have so many other soft skills you develop by being a GTA, research associate, the list only goes on. The best advice I could give though, is to get out there and ask. In our team we call it ‘go for no’ if we haven’t heard the word no, then that means there are still opportunities to be had, and we should explore them. You should too.
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