Neuroscientist of the Mind, Coach at the Core | Purpose-driven mindset Coach | NLP Practitioner | Researcher & Lecturer | Founder of The Courage Quest | PhD in Cognitive & Behavioural Neuroscience

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place." – Nora Roberts
This quote isn’t just on my wall—it’s in every brave step I’ve taken. From leaving home to pursue a life built on science, service, and soul work, it’s been my anchor through fear, growth, and becoming.

Who I am:
I’m Dr. Srinidhi Desikan—a Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscientist, Lab Manager, Lecturer, NLP Master practitioner, and Life & Mindset Coach. My path bridges many worlds: the rigour of academia, the depth of the human psyche, and the quiet (yet loud) transformations that happen when someone remembers who they are.

What I do:
- I manage the VU Behavioral Lab, where I’ve built systems and community across faculties to support research in human behavior.
- I guide students through their academic and personal journey of discovery.
- I coach individuals—often those navigating identity, fear, and transition—through a non-profit, pay-it-forward practice that centers on growth over transaction.
- I write, speak, teach, and listen. And I hold space for people, even (and especially) when they don’t know what they need yet.

How I do it:
With both precision and depth. I bring together neuroscience, psychology, NLP, and lived wisdom.
My approach is raw and reflective—I go beneath the surface, gently but directly. We get honest. We get clear. We shift from “Why me?” to “Why not me?”

Why I do it:
Because too many people live beneath their truth. Because I’ve been there. Because I’ve watched science transform systems and life—and seen presence transform people.
And because I believe that courage, when met with the right support, creates lives that feel like home.

✨ Curious to work with me—on research, coaching, or something in-between? Just send a message.

Dr. Srinidhi Desikan

Rima Dey Ph.d  📘

Smart Dumb club

●	Generated $20,000+ in revenue through strategic implementation of coaching programs and career development workshops, resulting in successful placements of Ph.D. professionals in Fortune 500 companies including AstraZeneca, Nokia, and Siemens. 
●	Led 7 community workshops on key competencies such as team management, effective communication, and career transition strategies tailored to STEM professionals. 
●	Coached over 100+ international scholars, providing tailored guidance on navigating career pathways in academia, industry, and government sectors. 
●	Organised 15 + career panels via LinkedIn, bringing together diverse stakeholders worldwide from varied industries to provide real-world insights into non-academic career trajectories with participation of 2000+ Ph.D’s worldwide.
●	Established strategic partnerships across 4+ countries, designing industry-aligned career accelerator programs integrating hiring managers and global leaders. - (https://learn.rimadey.com/stemcareeracceleratorprograme). 
●	Created digital career resources, including 500+ posts demonstrating thought leadership that has sparked more than 25000+ engagements on posts from experts worldwide. 

Want to know any further? Connect @ rima@rimadey.com

Founder 

Rima Dey Training & Consultancy

Rima Dey Image consultancy is a state of the art consultancy focussed at empowering professionals & aspiring students. Be it professionals looking to better themselves for lucrative career opportunities that leads them to the ladder of success or be it students, wanting to be career ready by working on their employability skills, or even organisations looking for tailored solutions to train their employees, Rima Dey Image consultancy provides customised sessions for, accelerating growth & impactful results

Consultant

National Metallurgical Laboratory

Research Associate & Postdoctoral Researcher

●	Selected for prestigious Quick Hire Fellowship, awarded to exceptional scientific talent, recognizing pioneering research as the first woman globally to specialize in multiaxial fatigue of stainless steel
●	Led development of competitive research grants and technical proposals valued at approx. $55,000, demonstrating ability to secure funding through compelling technical and commercial justifications
●	Successfully managed multiple concurrent R&D projects under strict timelines, coordinating with cross-functional teams across 3 departments while navigating complex regulatory requirements.
●	Designed and executed 100+ advanced biaxial/multiaxial fatigue testing & characterisation experiments for 304Ln stainless steel, resulting in 6 high-impact publications and 1sponsored international conference proceeding in International Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture 2019.
●	Spearheaded industrial collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on industry funded projects of national importance. Collaboratively worked in the field of multiaxial fatigue & fracture of stainless steel, structure property relationships & structural integrity of the materials.
●	Implemented Six Sigma methodologies for root cause analysis and process optimization, resulting in 30% improvement in experimental efficiency and data quality. Performed Failure analysis studies using various microstructural studies including Scanning Electron Microscopy-SEM, Transmission Electron Microscopy- TEM, X-ray diffraction -XRD & Electron Backscatter Diffraction-EBSD.

Fellow Scientist

General Electric

●	Received GE's Inclusiveness Award for successfully bridging laboratory innovations to commercial scale, serving as key liaison between R&D and pilot plant teams across 60 stakeholders in 3 continents, demonstrating ability to drive cross-functional collaboration 
●	Authored 4 comprehensive internal technical reports translating complex R&D findings into actionable insights, facilitating informed decision-making for senior leadership and manufacturing teams
●	Developed & optimised formulations to make fire retardant grade of commercial plastics, in addition to working with thermoplastics & composites for assessing structure property correlation for diverse real time engineering applications 
●	Demonstrated expertise in Six Sigma methodologies through successful completion of Green Belt certification, applying principles to optimize laboratory workflows and improve operational efficiency
●	Led technical benchmarking initiatives, analysing industry best practices and proposing innovative solutions that reduced product development cycle time by 25%

Scientist 

GE Research

Analysis of fatigue performance in engineering thermoplastics
Optical properties (birefringence) evaluation in fatigue specimens 
Interpreting the effect of impact modifiers on fatigue performance in engineering thermoplastics                                    
Fundamental studies of polycarbonate/polyester blend compatibilization
Micro patent analysis (basic understanding)

Student intern pursuing M.Tech Project

Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Elaborate idea of the various process operations involved in manufacturing tyre both Radial and Bias tires.
 Reverse engineering to analyze competitor’s tires with various analytical equipment's such as Thermogravimetric analyzer, IR Spectroscopy, High performance liquid chromatography.

Graduate Engineering Trainee

Transforming careers for Ph.D's, Eng’s & researchers | Scientist (Ex-GE) by default People's Engineer by Choice | Career Elevation Coach | Founder Dynamic Professionals Hub | Spoken @ IITs & corporates|

They asked me what I do for a living.

I said: “Some days I coach Ph.D.s out of imposter syndrome.
Some days I run training workshops that make engineering grads say, ‘Why weren’t we taught this earlier?’
And some days, I am on vacation yet helping someone from hotel room to negotiate a leadership offer with more confidence than they thought they had.”

So what do I do? I'm Rima, ( and some know me as Dr Rima - courtesy Ph.D ) once a scientist at General Electric, now a training consultant, career coach, and project manager of people’s turning points.
A Ph.D. in engineering sciences who traded lab coats for laptops, and technical fatigue studies for the emotional fatigue of brilliant minds stuck in the wrong roles.

Over the last 3 years, I’ve coached 100+ international STEM professionals, placed researchers in companies like AstraZeneca, Siemens, GE, Oracle, and built the Smart Dumb Club a community of scientists, scholars, and seekers who are done living invisible lives behind citations.

What makes me different? I don’t teach from textbooks.
I teach from trenches: being rejected, pivoting mid-career, writing grants worth $55,000, and still wondering if I belong, until I claimed the stage.

I don’t just help people find jobs.
I help them find their voice, redesign their self-concept, and become visible in rooms they never imagined being in.

I combine project management, business development, psychology, and communication to design transformative training programs used across IITs, XLRI, and colleges across India and Canada.

Whether I’m hosting a career panel for 2000+ Ph.D.s, creating a negotiation playbook, or building a course on Ikigai and Clarity using AI one thing stays the same:

💡 I believe your career should be a mirror, not a mask.
And I help you polish it until the reflection feels finally, fully like you.

Ready for your turning point?
Book a 1 on 1 call with me. Not someday. Today & so head to my featured section right away!!

Because this might be the conversation your career has been waiting for.
And if you scroll past it… you might miss the one moment that changes everything.

Founder

Dynamic Professionals hub is founded in the year 2022 to help science and engineering professionals both aspiring/current to, become dynamic  job attractors capable of creating opportunities for themselves through the RRAPID Framework. 
The dynamic professionals hub helps you become more confident in your dream job search by implementing 4 c's which are
Coaching (BiWeekly)
Challenge
Courses
Community Support 
& certification.
Want to know any further? Connect @ rima@rimadey.com

Rima Dey Ph.D📘

3 things missing on Ph.D. resumes that actually get interviews and how to fix them with AI (and most importantly HI).

I’ve reviewed resumes from over 200+ Ph.D.s across 7+ countries, & Ph.D's working with me have landed interviews at Astrazeneca, Clarivate, Nokia, Seimens, Oracle, & Many more, so I can tell you this:

95% are missing the same 3 things and without them, the “no response” loop continues.

Let’s break it down:

1️⃣ Metrics.
Most Ph.D.s can calculate error margins to the 4th decimal but forget to add a single number on their resume.

Numbers = proof. Proof = credibility. 
(Want examples of what metrics to include? Check the comments, I’ve dropped a link there.)

2️⃣ Section headings.
“Academic Experience”? “Research Experience”? Meh.
Those are fine, but they don’t guide the reader. 

Customize headings to the role you’re targeting - Industry Projects, Strategic Collaborations, Innovation Leadership… these reframe how your work is seen. It has landed by clients multiple interviews.

3️⃣ Bullets that show impact.

Most bullets just list responsibilities. But hiring managers don’t want to read your job description they want to know what changed because you were there.

So how do you fix this without rewriting your resume 20 times? Simple !!

Here’s a prompt I wish more Ph.D.’s used with AI tools like ChatGPT:

“Hi, As a Ph.D. I will be applying for this job role [insert the job description], and here is my resume. Based on the job description, consider yourself the hiring manager for this role with 10 years of experience. Give me 3 resume bullets that don’t overlap, use metrics, show impact, and use varied action verbs in the format: Did X, using Y, accomplishing Z, that would make you call this candidate immediately.”

❌No, this won’t magically fix your resume. 
But it will give you a mirror a peek into what hiring managers actually look for.

Because resume is a persuasive tool built on psychology and empathy written from hiring managers/recruiters point of view, not yours.

And AI alone won’t solve that. You will.

That's why I always say: don’t forget to add HI to your AI. (HI = Human Intelligence 😊) 

screenshot this. Save it. Repost it🔁.
Because the next time you're stuck rewriting your resume, 
this is the prompt you will need.
 
You’ll thank me later - maybe not out loud, but definitely in your head. 😊

#rimadey #phdcareertransitions #smartdumbphd

P.S: Want to get your resume reviewed ?? My career clarity slots are open. Limited slots so, book yours through the link.

When a Ph.D. tells me one of my free resources helped them get started on their career transition journey --yaaaayyyyyy that makes my made.
 
Because I do get Dm's - but Dm's about how my content is specifically helpful is not that frequent. 

So if you are a Ph.D getting started this this carousel might be your nudge.

 with 10 roles across industries hiring Ph.D.s 

And if you're thinking, “But it’s not that simple…”
 You’re right it isn’t for many of you!!

Because getting hired isn’t just about having the Technical skills.
It’s about learning to speak the language that hiring managers & recruiters understand easily.

And That’s where I come in.
 I have helped & helping Ph.D.' in life sciences, nano-materials, AI, neuroscience, chemistry, and even astrophysics from 7+ countries make the switch.

A once Scientist in corporate & a Ph.D myself.. I was dumb enough to quit academia & smart enough to have survived two career transitions :).

Hence I now call myself a smart dumb Ph.D.

And if you need 1 on 1 help in your. journey along with a community, then my career clarity calls are open. Link in comments.

#rimadey #phdcareertranstions #smartdumbphd

11 Job roles for Ph.D's & A Prompt to get started

One of my clients in Europe wants to land a role in a FANG company.
 
The skills are there. The record is there.
But the belief that they belong in those companies was low.

This is where I begin with the RRAPID system.
 With the first R: Rewire.
 Because no amount of strategy works when the belief system keeps saying,
 “Not me. Not at that level.”
So we started small. Found out One decision maker.
 Wrote one thoughtful cold email.
 Despite no job opening, no referral, but just the right intent of adding value.

They heard back in a day. 
This was the first cold email they ever wrote for their job search.

Most Ph.D.s think people in FANG roles sit behind walls that only a perfect resume can cross. But cold email done right reaches rooms your resume can’t.

That one reply, I know has changed how my client sees their own path.
 They now know these roles are not “for others”.
 They are within reach. This is the work inside Smart Dumb club.
 
To be smart enough to act.
And dumb enough to question the old story you keep telling yourself

#rimadey #phdcareertransitions #smartdumbphd
P.S. Cold emails only work when they are written with intent.
 The generic ones never get a reply.

P.P.S. My cold email methods come from years of studying how people think and decide. I used the same skills to land interviews and offers that were never meant for me on paper. I now teach the same inside RRAPID.
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Hey this is Rima, a scientist turned Ph.D career coach, helping Ph.D from 7+ countries land roles in pharma, tech & consultancy, & my starting point of career trasition was not resume or linkedin, but belief that I can do it :). it was hard but worth it.

It is super heart warming to see when Ph.D"s in India are taking the initiative to extend the impact of their Ph.D in real world through their starts ups.
Kusumika Sinha Roy best wishes. 

If you are from biotechnology bioinformatics or related field, please reach out & share it anyone you know, needs this opportunity.

Hiring an intern to join me on an exciting research project this December!
We are an early-stage, grant-funded startup incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore. I am looking for someone with prior experience in molecular docking or molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
Students pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, or related fields are encouraged to apply.

The most harmful belief Ph.D.’s inherit from academia that keeps them stuck and here’s what replaces it👇

Many Ph.D.’s that I work with carry this belief that for a career transition they have to know everything in great depth and detail.

Listen, academia teaches you to explore depth of knowledge, and
honestly that is super valuable. 
However everything has an upside & downside too.

So when you are deep into something, for a good 4-5 years –
you also become prone to the downside of doing it for that long.

And that is you believe in researching a lot, before acting on it.
Science has a term for it named as enantiodromia, where the exact opposite happens.

Like in your career transition - You believe that collecting more information & doing more research will help you figure out things – but you are in a constant loop of collecting free resources, free advises but that is never executed or yielding results.

I did hear this from one of my client who told me “ I was drowning in information and had no clue how to act on it “

And so this is where you need to understand, researching is a precious skill,
but research without implementation is a wasted one.

You need to move from less research → to → more execution.

This is exactly what one of my clients did to land her industry job in telecom sector.

However it wasn’t straight forward at the outset. 

She had to understand what were her foundational skills (FS) & what were her Minimum Viable skills (MVS).
She worked with petabytes of data, & radio transmission which were the foundational skills required for the role of data scientist in telecom sector.

And we then worked on the MVS to build on top of the FS - which are skills that are an absolute requirement for the job she was pivoting into – in her case it was Power BI & SQL.

Now she didn’t need to know every use case of Power BI & SQL, but built something relevant for the role – validating further you don’t need to know everything in  great depth & details as you did in your Ph.D.

And that is your super power as a Ph.D. to quickly  learn things because you have the foundations for many skills.

So this Monday ask yourself, What are the Foundational skills required for the job I want to pivot into ?

Do I have it ?  If yes, what are the MVS required for the same & how can I build it at the earliest ?

And I repeat – you don’t need to know everything in great depth & details for you career transition.

You just have to act & move fast with what you know.
That’s your Monday reminder :).

#rimadey #phdcareertranstions #smartdumbphd

4 Ph.D.s. 4 domains. 4 different transition outcomes.
 
But one question kept coming up in every coaching call:
“Should I make a work sample or portfolio for my industry transition?”

Let’s decode this using real data from my community.

Here’s what actually happened 👇

1. The AI Scientist
 He built a portfolio, and it helped him land initial interviews for leadership roles.
 Those interviews didn’t convert into offers.
 He eventually moved into fintech through the larger job search process, not because of the portfolio itself.

2. The Computational Biologist
 She built a portfolio too.
 But for her job search, the portfolio didn’t play any meaningful role.
 She landed a consultancy role that required a case study, and later moved into pharma.
 
3. The Network Engineer
 Her portfolio genuinely helped in the interview.
 We used it to show how her Ph.D. work connected to the company’s goals.
 That clarity strengthened her conversations and made her positioning much   sharper.

4. The Astrophysicist
 Her work sample played a central role in getting the offer.
 And the company later featured her work sample publicly on their pages.
 This was one of those rare cases where the work sample wasn’t just useful — it became a highlight of her onboarding.

So… do portfolios work?
Sometimes yes. Sometimes not at all.

It depends entirely on the role, domain, and hiring process.

But here’s what stood out across every case:

Nobody regretted making a portfolio.
Even when the portfolio wasn’t used in hiring, the act of creating it helped them:

 • understand their work better
 • articulate impact more clearly
 • connect their research to business needs
 • interview with stronger confidence

And for most Ph.D.s, that clarity alone changes the game.

So here’s the real question:

If creating a portfolio gives you clarity, confidence, and sharper interview answers… is it still a wasted effort?
Tell me below , Would you create one for your transition?
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If you’re new here, I’m Rima a Smart Dumb Ph.D. helping researchers from 7+ countries move into pharma, tech, and consulting roles.
(My clarity call slots for this month are listed in the comments. Apply to book a slot for your free 1 on 1 call )

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Dr. Srinidhi Desikan

Rima Dey Ph.D📘

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The Battle

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Rima Dey Ph.D📘

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Posts

Engagements

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