Verkor

<p><i>Nikita Hall is a Senior project manager at Verkor, where she makes sure projects run smoothly and are delivered on time. Having done a PhD and postdoc has taught her many soft skills that she says she now applies on a daily basis.&nbsp;</i></p><h3><strong>From theory to practice</strong></h3><p>After my PhD in inorganic chemistry, I did a postdoc in battery materials — specifically, on synthesis and scale up of sodium-ion cathode materials. Then I moved from France to the UK and I started working on a pilot line, because I really wanted to help bridge the gap between universities and small startups that were trying to move the materials into actual batteries.&nbsp;</p><p>This gap between tech and innovation is called the Valley of Death, and I was fascinated by it. I wanted to help small startups bring their technology to market, so I worked in a prototype line for two years, and then I moved to Ricardo, which is a consultancy company. There, I was using my knowledge of the cell to put them into battery packs and vehicles.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, I’m working at Verkor as a senior project manager. I guess my journey into project management hasn't been a traditional one, but it fits really well because I know what the people in the upstream development are talking about, and I understand our product. Being able to use the knowledge that I have accumulated over the last 8 to 10 years feels great.</p><h3><strong>Problem-solving mindset</strong></h3><p>When you’re doing a Ph.D., you come across so many problems that you have to figure out. It’s a skill that can be used later, if you decide to go into the industry. It was only when I got to France that I realized that people have a different view of PhDs, as though you become so hyper specialized that you have to stay in academia. I don’t think we should be teaching our students that. Instead, we need to tell them that the soft skills they acquire while doing a PhD are transferable and highly useful.&nbsp;</p><p>As a project manager working at a startup, I think you have to be very flexible because there’s so much innovation and things get set up very quickly, so keeping agile and flexible is really key. If you’re too structured, you will lose the necessary flexibility.&nbsp;</p><p>And secondly, being a project manager is not really about making sure things are on time — it’s about knowing how to listen to people’s needs. You have to know how to talk to people who come from very different cultures, which is not always easy, and constantly adapt to get the best out of your team.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>Extra mental load</strong></h3><p>Personally, being a woman has never held me back in my career, but I do think we have to work harder. It’s the little things — for example, the fact that as there are fewer women we are more easily left out of stuff, so you’re always kind of pushing yourself or other women to be represented. We think about these things a lot more, and work harder to bring equality.&nbsp; Then there are many preconceived ideas: if you are too bossy, that's bad; if you're too soft, it's bad too. I think it's an extra mental load that women have to deal with.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>Inclusivity and wellbeing</strong></h3><p>When Gilles, one of Verkor’s cofounders, reached out to me before the company existed and explained the vision, the reason I was so happy to join wasn't just because we would make low carbon batteries — it was also because I could tell he wanted to really focus on inclusivity, the well-being of employees, and not just build a company that would exist for its shareholders. This was a big reason why I joined.</p><p>We have a good team dynamic at Verkor, and even though we have our conflicts, we are&nbsp; always trying to work together to find a solution. Regularly, we have a social time to celebrate the big and small things that we have been achieving here at Verkor, and it’s always nice to realize how far we've come.&nbsp;</p>

“Being a project manager is about listening to people’s needs”

Julien Londeix