Stop Chasing Happiness
Frank Martela Allen & Unwin (2025)
In 2025, Nature searched for the world’s happiest PhD students, anticipating that they might be in Finland. The Nordic nation of long winters and, apparently, the most heavy-metal bands per capita globally is consistently crowned the world’s happiest country, according to the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, UK. Happiness researcher Frank Martela explores what distinguishes the “land of quiet satisfaction” from others. Martela, based at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, says his fellow Finns “accept life as it is, not making a fuss about what is bad or good” and shunning overt displays of wealth and success. His mantra is “energized contentment”, pursuing chosen projects but not chasing specific job titles or awards. A research career enables him to indulge a love of writing and to be part of a community that embraces discussions with the brightest minds.
Martela urges us to stop caring what others think (being disliked by some, he says, proves “that you are exercising your freedom to be you”), expose ourselves to different viewpoints, not be ruled by our emotions and let go of our egos. Chasing success is also pointless. He quotes Iikka Kokko, a Finnish mathematics prodigy who started university at age 16. When asked what he wanted to accomplish, Kokko said that he would be happy with the life of an average researcher — for him, doing maths was an end in itself.
Navigating the P.I.V.O.T.
Gertrude Nonterah Gertrude Nonterah (2025)
In 2018, Gertrude Nonterah lost a postdoctoral position after her laboratory leader’s research funding ran out. Later that year, the Ghanaian researcher landed a role at a biotechnology company, but she was laid off two months later. Losing two jobs in a year left the then 35-year-old despondent. But Nonterah turned what felt like a failure into a career opportunity. As an international researcher in the United States, her focus had been climbing the academic career ladder, gaining a second degree, then a PhD in microbiology and immunology. But having multiple degrees didn’t guarantee her anything.
She now works in medical communications and career counselling through the Bold PhD, a consultancy set up in 2021, and a podcast, which she launched in 2025. Nonterah helps researchers to step off the academic hamster wheel and seek opportunities beyond their specialty.
The first half of the book addresses “mindset” — avoiding the trap of thinking that your career is all about your degree. The second half focuses on the practical: how to network, learn industry language and build a portfolio that showcases your talents and skills.
One story she shares is that of Mary, who, after gaining a PhD in social psychology, realized that she did not want to stay in academia. As a lover of Japanese animation, she decided to apply for a data-analysis job for the California-based company Crunchyroll, one of the biggest streamers of anime. Although the role is a long way from her PhD, the research skills she learnt during her postgraduate study helped her to get the job.
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