Personal Perspective, Career Exploration, Life Advice
Approximately 2 years ago I was navigating a multi-pronged job search where I considered a variety of career paths to pursue after my postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. I am now approaching the end of my second year working in postdoctoral affairs at North Carolina State University, which I began in January 2019.
This piece about my transition from postdoc to working in postdoc affairs originally appeared in the National Postdoctoral Association's online newsletter, The POSTDOCket, in April 2019. I have added some additional thoughts and reflections in bold (red).
This piece about my transition from postdoc to working in postdoc affairs originally appeared in the National Postdoctoral Association's online newsletter, The POSTDOCket, in April 2019. I have added some additional thoughts and reflections in bold (red).
Like many postdoctoral scholars, I considered a variety of careers during my time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt University. I applied to tenure-track faculty jobs in fall 2017 and 2018, submitting nearly 25 applications each year (read more in my Tales from the Academic Job Market). I also talked with individuals in my immediate and extended network (via informational interviews) who worked in a variety of areas outside academia: medical writing, medical science liaison, & life science consulting.
Only since fall 2018 did I think that a career in postdoctoral affairs was both an option, and an area where I had the necessary qualifications. In retrospect however, I realize I had been steadily building a portfolio of postdoc affairs involvement and professional development knowledge over the past few years.
Involvement in the Vanderbilt University Postdoctoral Association
I got my first in-depth exposure to postdoctoral affairs while working with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) as treasurer in 2016-17 and junior co-chair (vice president) in 2017-18. During that time, the VPA executive board and I worked with our newly centralized Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) to broaden our programming for a wider postdoc audience.
Although developing programming to be broadly relevant and useful to postdocs from varying fields was a challenge, we made progress in reaching a larger and more diverse population of Vanderbilt postdocs through our social and professional development events. While interacting with postdocs in my VPA leadership roles, I began to understand the range of challenges they faced: international employment issues, family care issues, mental health issues, and lack of supervisor/mentor support, just to name a few.
I have subsequently written about some of the challenges postdocs face on this blog.
See:
I can't emphasize enough the value of getting involved in something beyond your work/lab/school while a graduate student or postdoc....you learn so much about other skills you have to offer and, through volunteering, have a chance to give back to your community.
Although developing programming to be broadly relevant and useful to postdocs from varying fields was a challenge, we made progress in reaching a larger and more diverse population of Vanderbilt postdocs through our social and professional development events. While interacting with postdocs in my VPA leadership roles, I began to understand the range of challenges they faced: international employment issues, family care issues, mental health issues, and lack of supervisor/mentor support, just to name a few.
I have subsequently written about some of the challenges postdocs face on this blog.
See:
- The Challenges of Being an International Researcher: Implications for Advanced Degree Labor Markets
- Call to Action: Measuring Postdoc Impact
I can't emphasize enough the value of getting involved in something beyond your work/lab/school while a graduate student or postdoc....you learn so much about other skills you have to offer and, through volunteering, have a chance to give back to your community.
Networking with Postdoc Development Offices at the NPA's Annual Conference
My exposure to the challenges and various levels of support available to postdocs at a national level was broadened by attending the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA)’s Annual Conference in 2017 and 2018. I learned from other postdoctoral offices and organizations about work that they were doing geared toward improving postdoctoral career readiness (i.e., thinking broadly about career options) and outcomes.
In speaking with NPA poster presenters, I learned how they successfully campaigned for higher starting postdoc salaries, organized joint events with nearby institutions to share costs, leveraged alumni networks, and tracked career outcomes. The importance of using data to campaign for change and track interventions was a key lesson I learned from these interactions.
In my current role, I have begun working on better postdoc career outcomes transparency. In fact, I present data on the subject during our mandatory new postdoc orientation at NC State University. By showing postdocs the range of career fields they can move into early in their tenure, I hope to prompt them to realize there are many successful "next steps" available to them after their time as a postdoc.
I have also led the development of a Postdoc Climate Survey we launched this year and hope to leverage this data to continue to advocate for initiatives that improve the postdoctoral experience here at NC State.
In speaking with NPA poster presenters, I learned how they successfully campaigned for higher starting postdoc salaries, organized joint events with nearby institutions to share costs, leveraged alumni networks, and tracked career outcomes. The importance of using data to campaign for change and track interventions was a key lesson I learned from these interactions.
In my current role, I have begun working on better postdoc career outcomes transparency. In fact, I present data on the subject during our mandatory new postdoc orientation at NC State University. By showing postdocs the range of career fields they can move into early in their tenure, I hope to prompt them to realize there are many successful "next steps" available to them after their time as a postdoc.
I have also led the development of a Postdoc Climate Survey we launched this year and hope to leverage this data to continue to advocate for initiatives that improve the postdoctoral experience here at NC State.
Writing/Blogging About Career & Professional Development
Around the time I was becoming more involved in the postdoctoral community at Vanderbilt and beyond, I became interested in a career in science communication and medical writing. At the NPA annual meeting, I learned about The POSTDOCket, the online newsletter for the organization. I began writing for The POSTDOCket following the 2017 NPA annual meeting, where I profiled a workshop I attended by SciPhD.
Over the next few years, I wrote twelve pieces for the newsletter and continue to contribute to it. My interview with Sam Castañeda, a pioneer in postdoctoral support services and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, was particularly inspiring as I learned more about the impact that postdoc offices can have on improving the postdoc experience through community building, personal and professional support services, and advocating at the state and national level.
In addition, I began writing about my own journey in career exploration for the NIH BEST blog in fall 2018, in hopes that sharing my experiences of the post-PhD job hunt would help current trainees on the job market.
I now serve on the NPA Board of Directors and liaise with The POSTDOCket team. If you are a postdoc or someone who supports postdocs, contributing your ideas and writing to The POSTDOCket is an excellent way to begin establishing yourself as a thought leader in the postdoc affairs space. Offering helpful advice to postdocs in The POSTDOCket is another excellent reason to write for this outlet.
Over the next few years, I wrote twelve pieces for the newsletter and continue to contribute to it. My interview with Sam Castañeda, a pioneer in postdoctoral support services and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, was particularly inspiring as I learned more about the impact that postdoc offices can have on improving the postdoc experience through community building, personal and professional support services, and advocating at the state and national level.
In addition, I began writing about my own journey in career exploration for the NIH BEST blog in fall 2018, in hopes that sharing my experiences of the post-PhD job hunt would help current trainees on the job market.
I now serve on the NPA Board of Directors and liaise with The POSTDOCket team. If you are a postdoc or someone who supports postdocs, contributing your ideas and writing to The POSTDOCket is an excellent way to begin establishing yourself as a thought leader in the postdoc affairs space. Offering helpful advice to postdocs in The POSTDOCket is another excellent reason to write for this outlet.
By hearing more about working in the postdoc affairs space from others involved in the NPA, I began to see how many aspects of this work were a good fit for my interests and values. I really enjoy helping others through information sharing as well as empowering them to tell their stories effectively. One way I do this in my current role at NC State is through a blog I launched in August 2019: ImPACKful. With other members of our Graduate School Professional Development Team, we use the blog to share advice and resources for graduate students and postdocs in addition to highlighting current and past trainees' work. It has been quite rewarding building this communication platform and my next goal is to have more graduate students and postdocs contribute to content development on the blog, including a new series featuring informational interview insights from trainees' conversations with NC State graduate school and postdoc alumni.
Establish a Connection with Your Local Career & Professional Development Team
I had many great examples of career and professional development resources available to me while a postdoc at Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET) offers an incredible array of programming to graduate students and postdocs. During my time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt I assisted in planning some of this programming. In fact, the people I worked with in the BRET Office at Vanderbilt were the ones who directed me towards a job advertisement for a postdoc program manager position for which they thought I was a good fit. After reading the job description they forwarded to me, it seemed to be a job where I could work to help postdocs feel more “career ready” and simultaneously try to improve institutional resources and support for them, which really appealed to me.
While applying to this and similar program manager positions, I learned from a contact who I met at the NPA Conference (and on her LinkedIn feed, no less—the power of networking and LinkedIn in action!) of the postdoc program manager position at North Carolina State University—the ideal job for me (based on geographic preference and being nearer to family). The story of my first “real job” offer, subsequent soul searching, and eventual acceptance of my current position can be read elsewhere.
One organization to keep on your radar if you are interested in a career in graduate or postdoc career & professional development work is the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
I joined GCC shortly after beginning my position at NC State and have found the community very supportive and collaborative. GCCers share resources and ideas about how to help those of us working in PhD career and professional development do our jobs better. Through various committees, GCC members are focused on important topics around grad/postdoc career outcomes as well as developing useful resources for trainees including ImaginePhD, a career exploration platform for the humanities and social sciences. GCC members also share advice on career planning for both trainees and the professionals who serve them through the weekly Carpe Careers column on Inside Higher Ed. In addition, the GCC member message board is great way to learn about job openings in this space. Finally, the GCC offers a trainee membership for grad students and postdocs interested in learning more about a career in grad/postdoc career and professional development.
While applying to this and similar program manager positions, I learned from a contact who I met at the NPA Conference (and on her LinkedIn feed, no less—the power of networking and LinkedIn in action!) of the postdoc program manager position at North Carolina State University—the ideal job for me (based on geographic preference and being nearer to family). The story of my first “real job” offer, subsequent soul searching, and eventual acceptance of my current position can be read elsewhere.
One organization to keep on your radar if you are interested in a career in graduate or postdoc career & professional development work is the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
I joined GCC shortly after beginning my position at NC State and have found the community very supportive and collaborative. GCCers share resources and ideas about how to help those of us working in PhD career and professional development do our jobs better. Through various committees, GCC members are focused on important topics around grad/postdoc career outcomes as well as developing useful resources for trainees including ImaginePhD, a career exploration platform for the humanities and social sciences. GCC members also share advice on career planning for both trainees and the professionals who serve them through the weekly Carpe Careers column on Inside Higher Ed. In addition, the GCC member message board is great way to learn about job openings in this space. Finally, the GCC offers a trainee membership for grad students and postdocs interested in learning more about a career in grad/postdoc career and professional development.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, my path to a career in postdoctoral affairs hasn’t been meticulously planned, but rather grew out of the various experiences I’ve highlighted in this article. As I reflect further on what pushed me to pursue this career path, I would say that it comes from my fundamental enjoyment in helping people. I found research mentoring to be personally fulfilling as a graduate student and postdoc, and am now a form of mentor to postdocs at NC State. To come (nearly) full circle, my first profile piece for The POSTDOCket focused on the importance of doctorally-trained individuals realizing they have transferable skills that are relevant to a variety of careers outside academia. In my new role, I am working to drive that point home to the postdocs here, helping them prepare for careers where their skills and experiences can have an impact—as I hope my position as postdoctoral program manager will.
Checking In Two Years Later
Now nearly 2 years into my current role as Postdoc Program Manager at NC State University, my day job is filled with many administrative tasks as well as work I find more engaging, including providing career advice and developing resources to support both postdocs and graduate students here.
I have also realized I can contribute to important national efforts focused on empowering postdocs via my work within NPA & GCC as well as through scholarship in the education research and career outcomes space.
I was fortunate to get involved with an amazing grass roots effort from the Future PI Slack community in Spring 2019 around better understanding the faculty job market in North America. This resulted in contributing to an ongoing collaborative survey of postdoc applicants on the faculty job market.
We published our first set of data from this work in June 2020 and are currently analyzing the data from this past faculty hiring cycle (2019-2020).
I realize that contributing my talents toward this and related work could have an enormous impact on the scientific workforce and potentially influence the future makeup of faculty at higher education institutions in the United States and Canada. Through data we can empower current trainees to better understand what it takes to land a faculty position. In addition, our work can help illuminate current issues in the faculty application review process that may bias search committees to favor some applicants over others.
This is critical work that I am glad to be a part of and that, frankly, I couldn't have imagined myself doing two years ago. However, I now see how my experiences, skills, interests, and values have led me to my current focus of supporting the scientific workforce, of which postdocs are a key constituent.
Life is surprising but in retrospect can often make sense. I think the key is to lean in to new experiences and expand what you think is possible for your work and life. You just might discover a whole new area where you can contribute your efforts and have a positive impact on the world.
I have also realized I can contribute to important national efforts focused on empowering postdocs via my work within NPA & GCC as well as through scholarship in the education research and career outcomes space.
I was fortunate to get involved with an amazing grass roots effort from the Future PI Slack community in Spring 2019 around better understanding the faculty job market in North America. This resulted in contributing to an ongoing collaborative survey of postdoc applicants on the faculty job market.
We published our first set of data from this work in June 2020 and are currently analyzing the data from this past faculty hiring cycle (2019-2020).
I realize that contributing my talents toward this and related work could have an enormous impact on the scientific workforce and potentially influence the future makeup of faculty at higher education institutions in the United States and Canada. Through data we can empower current trainees to better understand what it takes to land a faculty position. In addition, our work can help illuminate current issues in the faculty application review process that may bias search committees to favor some applicants over others.
This is critical work that I am glad to be a part of and that, frankly, I couldn't have imagined myself doing two years ago. However, I now see how my experiences, skills, interests, and values have led me to my current focus of supporting the scientific workforce, of which postdocs are a key constituent.
Life is surprising but in retrospect can often make sense. I think the key is to lean in to new experiences and expand what you think is possible for your work and life. You just might discover a whole new area where you can contribute your efforts and have a positive impact on the world.
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