In my last post, I touched a bit on some of my challenges in my first role, post-postdoc managing the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at NC State University. As the year 2021 began, certainly there were challenges in my workplace in terms of feeling supported and appreciated, which only grew into the Spring. I realized I owed it to myself to start exploring other opportunities.

A cynic would tell you the grass isn't always greener on the other side...that changing employers will not necessarily change the challenges one encounters working in a specific space or just working in general. All work contains its challenges and annoyances. So, even if we think a change may be needed there is no guarantee a change will be good for us in the log run. All that said, applying to other positions while you remain employed can serve a variety of useful functions:

• It forces you to keep your application materials (resume, cover letter) up-to-date and ensures these materials are ready to go when you see a truly amazing opportunity. It ensures you are prepared to seize opportunities.  
• Part of keeping those materials up-to-date involves revisiting your past successes and impact. This process can remind you of your accomplishments and that you are a great employee...ie, it improves your self confidence. 

I applied to several different types of positions in Spring 2021 including some very close to my current sector of postdoctoral affairs, some tangential to it (graduate student career and professional development), and some further removed but still of interest to me (science communication, project management). 
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Importantly, I leveraged people in my network for their advice and consul and reached out to others to learn more about open positions. As with any job search, I didn't hear back from some of the positions I applied to while others I made it through a first-round interview but no further. That is just part of the job application process. Fit is a tricky thing and you will often not be the right person with the right skillset for many roles. And some roles you think you might not be a good fit for or "ready" for might lead to interviews and offers. You can never really tell until you put yourself out there. 

One position I ultimately applied to I saw advertised back in December 2020. When I read the job description I thought to myself that it was a really BIG JOB. Was I prepared for such a role that involved leading the creation of a program that didn't really exist at the institution? It seemed daunting and so I put it out of my mind. A about a month later, I was chatting with a colleague from the Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training who worked with while a postdoc at Vanderbilt University. I told them a bit about some of the struggles I was encountering at NC State and they asked if I had seen that job advertisement in December. I mentioned that I had but that it seemed "too big for me". They immediately countered that I could do that job and would be great at it. They also mentioned that they were consulted by that institution about building support for their graduate student population So, she had inside information on the attributes they were looking for and could provide me with the knowledge that the employer knew they were asking for a lot in the position. She mentioned they understood that the person hired would be building toward many of the goals listed in the job description. Finally, she offered to reach out to the search committee and inquire on whether they were still taking applications and that, if so, she could put in a good word for me if I was interested. 

An important side note here, virtually all job descriptions are an employer's wish list of all the attributes of the ideal candidate. This ideal candidate rarely, if ever, exists. You don't need to meet every qualification in a job description to apply for it. 

After my Vanderbilt contact put in a good word for me and I formally applied through the application portal, I was fairly quickly offered a screening interview followed by a more formal interview with the search committee chair and key faculty leadership. The final step was an intensive, day and a half virtual visit to campus to meet with stakeholders, present a vision talk, and engage with the search committee. It was a long process but I felt I did well. A few weeks later, the search committee chair called to offer me the position...a position I originally thought was too big for me just a few months ago.

While the job title was great and I felt it would be an amazing opportunity to build programming and resources from the ground up, I have to admit it was a challenge to see myself accepting a job offer at a place I had not visited in person. I had been to the city before and it certainly had some great attributes going for it in terms of weather, the state tax structure, and overall "good vibes" associated with the area. I even started imagining my life there...I thought it would be pretty awesome. 

I also tried to keep perspective on this opportunity, though. It was a city many people were moving to during the COVID-19 pandemic and I knew housing costs would be high. Was it worth uprooting my life in the Raleigh area to make that move?

Then came the job offer...a number so below my expectations that I felt I needed to turn it down out of principle. I was shocked that they would offer someone with the responsibilities associated with this "director-level" position that salary. ​

As a result of both the final salary offered being low relative to the cost of living and a feeling that resources might be more limited than I realized when applying for the position, I ultimately turned down the role. Even if I could have imagined an amazing life at that locale, I was not going to accept a salary below what I believed to be a competitive, market-rate. ​

While the saga was going on with this employer I also interviewed and received an offer from another employer at a very well resourced "prestigious" institution. It certainly would have been a place others would have been impressed you worked at. You could name drop: "I work at X", and everyone would think "Wow" or "Impressive" or something along those lines. Despite the strong employer "brand", I had some reservations about the role I interviewed for.

First, I would be inheriting a team that would have reported to me and that made me pretty nervous for a lot of reasons. Managing people is no easy task and I debated with myself whether I was ready to take on that type of role. In addition, the structure of the office included a faculty director and an administrative director, which was the role I applied to. It became clear to me that the faculty director was the individual really in charge. That wasn't necessarily a problem, though, as I felt the faculty director and I got along well during the interview. I think my nagging worry was that I would be stuck carrying out someone else's vision for the office. 

That "prestigious" institution gave me a very strong initial offer, though,...so strong that I didn't see the need to counter it. I was most interested in negotiating some flexibility around when I would start and initial remote work options, which seemed like a possibility. I told them I need to think about it for a week.

With such a strong job offer from "prestigious" institution in hand, I realized now was the time to try to obtain more resources and support from my current employer. While NC State University had a salary action "freeze" in place (as a result of COVID), it was not a "hard" freeze. Retention counter offers were still allowed to take place if the Dean of the unit signed off on them. So, I figured it was worth asking for a retention offer and, following my supervisor's advice to me, additional resources to assist me in my work leading the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs there.

It wasn't just about making more money. We had been asking for an open line on our team to be filled since January 2020 (this was now June 2021) and had received very little traction on that request. Our team recently had presented the position as an administrative support role as we all were feeling underwater with our administrative tasks. We presented the idea to the Dean and he seemed supportive of it. So, I figured now was the time as part of my counter offer to ask for the administrative position to be posted. In addition, I asked for a dedicated office budget (I hadn't had one previously) and the creation of a working group of leaders from across campus to assess support for postdocs and the office in an attempt to ultimately increase resources for myself and the office.

First, it is critical to research what is the procedure or standard practice, if any, at your institution. At NC State University, there were pretty clear classification and compensation guidelines that outlined the types of salary adjustments that were possible. While many of these areas, including market and equity adjustments were on hold during the pandemic, the university was still authorized to allow retention adjustments to salary, not to exceed 20% of one's current salary or $15,000, whichever was larger. I had done my homework and knew this was possible.

So, when we had our meeting between the Dean, my supervisor, and our unit's finance officer, I clearly articulated that I knew that the retention salary adjustment was possible, should the Dean be willing to sign-off. This request was met with some pushback that the unit "could only do" an amount smaller than the 20%. Since my offer in hand was a good bit higher than even my retention ask, I felt confident in standing my ground but in the moment did not want to respond in a rash way. Frankly, I found the initial counter offer around my retention salary insulting but instead of saying that, I simply reiterated that I felt I was doing good work and wanted to keep the momentum going with my office but would need the full retention offer and other contingencies to be able to stay and feel confident in that decision. 

I left the Zoom call with the rest of the leadership planning to continue the conversation. From what I have heard, my supervisor really advocated for me and the work I was doing after I signed off the call. Despite what I and others on the team may have thought of her ability to lead (which, as I mentioned in last month's post, was probably due to a variety of environmental challenges), I have to say she was a strong advocate for me that day. 

Long story short, I did receive the full retention offer (20% salary increase) plus most of my other asks: dedicated budget for the office, the creation of a working group to examine how to improve the postdoc experience and support for the office at NC State, and promises that the administrative position for our team would be posted. Given all of this, I was determined to try to make things work for me at NC State.

​I conveyed this information to the "prestigious" institution who had offered me the administrative director role and told them that I felt I needed to continue in my role at NC State given their increased commitment to both me and my work there. They were disappointed but understood. I think I showed some character and loyalty in my exchange with them that could be helpful in future interactions with that group and employer. I offered to be of assistance on relevant topics, should they be interested in the future, and even shared a copy of my NC State Postdoc Climate Survey with them.
​On the whole, I think I exited the situation as gracefully and amicably as possible. 

There were several reasons why I decided to try to make things work at NC State. First, moving is a pain and the grass is not always greener on the other side. Despite many of the challenges I encountered in my role there, I did have a great deal of autonomy and felt like the work I was doing was making an impact. I also believed this newly-formed Reimagining the Postdoc Experience at NC State working group of campus leaders I assembled could lead to greater institutional buy-in for what we were trying to do to support postdocs at NC State. 

Also, to be candid, I was half-way to my 5-year service requirement to vest in the state pension plan and that was a pretty larger incentive to stay. The state benefits are excellent in North Carolina and their pension plan and retirement benefits (including subsidized retiree health care insurance with 10 years of service) provide a large incentive to stay employed with them long-term. This plus the knowledge that I could get a job offer if needed (I had received two offers in the past few months) gave me the confidence that I was not sacrificing too much by staying. I would give myself time to see if my situation would improve before abandoning the progress I was making. 

We hired the administrative support person for our team in October and I began training her to support me in postdoc human resources functions. I was happy about this as I knew we really needed coverage of these functions beyond myself. Had I taken one of the job offers I received in the summer of 2021, I don't know what the unit would have done to cover postdoc HR. They may have been able to make it work but part of me felt like I owed it to my coworkers to ensure someone could carry on the tasks I was performing should I leave. In a way, this assuaged my guilt in keeping my options open. You can't perfectly plan for or anticipate opportunities, after all. 

In fact, during the retention offer saga, I was also interviewing for another position which, in my eyes at the time was my dream role.... 

In April of 2021, I learned from a colleague that she was moving into a new leadership role at a different institution and vacating her postdoc office director-level position at her current institution. From prior interactions with her, I knew she was setting her former office up for success with a new staff member being onboarded and increased financial support from her institution. In addition, the postdoc community at that institution was vibrant, engaged, and, in my view, very well-treated and supported (paid parental leave, salaries tied to the NIH NRSA stipend level, etc...). As an outside observer, I viewed the position she was leaving as one of the best opportunities available for an individual wanting to work in postdoctoral affairs. It seemed like whomever occupied that position was going to be setup to succeed given the strong foundation there. I scheduled a time to chat with her about the institution and role and, after her confirming my understanding of the situation there, she said she would let the recruiter know I was applying. 

I felt pretty good after the first-round, online interview for that position, which was occurring in the midst of me turning down prior offers and negotiating my retention offer at NC State. It was all very awkward and uncomfortable. I felt like I was cheating on my current employer in spite of the retention offer but, to be fair, I had applied to the position before that came through and thought it would be an excellent move for me, should I be their top candidate. I think it is important to not close yourself off to opportunities or be too loyal to an employer, especially one that has not been the most supportive of you. I don't think there is ever a perfect way to navigate these types of situations but in the end you have to lookout for what is in your best interests. 

I had my on-site interview at my "dream" employer in August 2021 and I thought it went really well. I met with a lot of stakeholders at the institution from faculty to postdocs and thought I conveyed my past experience and ideas on making continued progress in postdoc support there effectively. To be frank, I expected to get a job offer from them. Wasn't this what I was building toward? I had done good work at NC State...I knew it and other potential employers could see it. It had led to prior job offers earlier that summer that, while not perfectly ideal for me, gave me confidence that I was a hot commodity. But it wasn't meant to be...

One thing I remind the postdocs and graduate students I advise when it comes to a job search is that it is more subjective than anyone would like to admit. You can be an ideal candidate but that does not mean you will get the job for a whole hosts of reasons. It is best as a candidate to try not to overly analyze a rejection as you will never really know why you weren't selected and, furthermore, there may not be much you could have done to change the outcome even if you knew what was really wanted by the employer. For example, you can't change who you are. If an employer prefers a candidate with a different background from you, that was their preference but not your fault. ​

Quick coda to my dream employer story: I later learned who was hired for that position and think they are an amazing choice for that institution. So, in the end, it is hard to hold any bad feelings there. ​

In Bill Burnett and Dave Evans' Designing Your Work Life book, they make a point that it is worth tryin to redesign and shape one's role at a current employer before deciding to leave. With my retention offer in hand, I attempted to do this at NC State University.  

I pushed on with my Reimagining the Postdoc Experience working group and thought we had a good initial meeting to discuss compensation and benefits for postdocs at NC State. I also think leadership in our Office of Research and Innovation was taking notice. I was even encouraged to draft a strategic plan for postdoctoral affairs at the university. While this was occurring, our new team member was getting up to speed on learning the various postdoc HR processes, which I was pushed to document more extensively for her. I felt like that burden would soon be lifted from me and that the documentation would ensure postdoc HR would be able to operate without me.

​Doing all this assuaged my gilt of having flirted with other employment opportunities. I believed I was leaving things better than I found them, which I think is about all one can ask of an employee. The big unknown lingering in the back of my mind was: was change possible at NC State?...would these efforts lead to increased institutional support and resources for me and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs? I knew change would be slow and difficult and part of me thought I just needed to see some movement in the right direction to be convinced to stay. Another part of me thought things would never change. That is the thing about the future, it is hard to predict. So, making decisions about the future state of things in one's life is challenging if not impossible. We must act and decide with incomplete information and come to grips with our decision. Living in the what ifs or what could have beens is not healthy of productive...we must sometimes act and move forward. And I was approaching one of those pivotal moments in the fall of 2021. 

I didn't know it at the time but I was establishing a relationship with my now current employer nearly two years before accepting a job with them. 

Back in late 2019, I received an email from the head of Human Resources in the Research and Innovation Office at Virginia Tech inquiring about postdoc benefits and salaries at NC State. At the time, I was compiling my own list of peer institutions' postdoc benefits and happily shared not only my information but that from my peer institution sheet with the HR lead. That one act showed a lot...that I was collaborative and helpful and also knowledgeable about this area. It planted a seed of goodwill that led to other opportunities to provide value and demonstrate my expertise. I am generally a helpful person and so engaged in this information sharing with no sense of what I would personally get out of it.

​I also generally want to see recognition and support for postdocs improve at a national an international level. So, when Virginia Tech reached out in late 2020 to ask me to speak over Zoom with a working group they had established on improving support for postdocs there, I happily said yes. I shared with those on the call some of the things we were doing at NC State and my general thoughts on what ideal postdoctoral support would look like. Many of the individuals I interacted with on that call would sit on the search committee for my current position. Obviously, it was difficult to predict this at the time but it goes to show you that anytime you have a professional interaction with others it can set the stage for future interactions where the stakes can be much higher. It pays to say yes to opportunities to engage with those in professional areas you are interested in as you never know where those engagements will lead.  

Flashforward to my 2021 summer of job searching and I received a message from one of the members of the Virginia Tech working group asking for a sample postdoc office budget as they were planning to stand up a postdoc office there. I kept that info in the back of my mind and happily shared a budget I proposed to NC State but was never awarded. Again, I showed value and expertise in this area and also gained knowledge about a future position that might be worth pursuing.

​Indeed, Virginia Tech did post their Postdoctoral Affairs Program Administrator position in Fall 2021 and I reached out to my HR contact there about it before applying. Again, this was the same individual who reached out to me about data over a year ago and now I was reaching out to her to learn more about the position, expected salary range, and more. After talking with her, I realized I had to apply for the Virginia Tech position despite trying to make it work at NC State. First off, they were compensating this individual at what I believed to be an appropriate level which was substantially higher than what I was making at NC State even with the 20% retention increase (wow was I underpaid my first few years there!). Second, the Virginia Tech position would involve helping to establish a new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs there. I saw it as an amazing opportunity to grow professionally and make an impact. I also knew there would be latitude to build the office with intention and that I would not be inheriting preconceived notions of what the office did (which was the case at NC State where I believe many saw OPA as a purely administrative unit). Long story short, I had a series of video and in-person interviews at Virginia Tech and was extended the job offer in late Fall. It was now decision time.  

As I mentioned earlier, my work with the GCC allowed me to benchmark what a director-level salary level should be. When I applied for my "dream" job back in Spring 2021 I had bracketed by expected salary range around the median director-level salary from the GCC's benchmarking survey. I realized throughout the search process, however, that one has to value oneself appropriately. Emboldened by my retention offer and past string of offers, I made sure in my initial screening interview with Virginia Tech HR to bracket my expected salary higher than the director-level median. Not wildly higher but higher. I realized I needed to know my worth and ask for more than "average". If an employer wants you and your salary expectations are based in reality (ie, benchmarked), they will probably meet you at a higher level than you might think. This may be especially true in the hot labor market we are experiencing as I write this in Spring 2022. Now, all this said, you need to be a reasonable person when you negotiate your salary. Perhaps unsurprisedly, Virginia Tech initially offered a salary at the lower end of my desired range. To be fair, it was a good salary and they offered to pay for my moving expenses. I also knew their benefits were quite good. While some might advocate for pushing toward the top of the salary range, I thought it prudent to meet them in the middle of the range I proposed. You don't want to start off a professional relationship with an employer be being seen as inflexible and unreasonable. I was satisfied with where we ended up and felt well compensated and supported in the new role.   

So, after spending several months in 2021 navigating interviews and job offers and retention negotiations and generally trying to make things work at my current employer, the year was winding down with a final choice I had to make. Stick it out at NC State or take on a new opportunity at Virginia Tech? You would think this decision would have been an easy one, right? Virginia Tech was going to pay me more, I would have more responsibility there, I would be removed from day-to-day HR administrative tasks, able to think big picture, grow my leadership skills, and make a difference. And while the leadership environment and interpersonal conflicts above me in the Graduate School at NC State were certainly not great, I knew the lay of the land there. I had made a lot of progress in supporting postdocs at NC State and believed we might be turning a corner in better supporting them and my office. It came down to a decision of whether I wanted to stay at NC State with the hope things would get better or make the move to Virginia Tech to take on new challenges (and opportunities) and have to, in a sense, capture momentum and support all over again. 

Over my three years at NC State I was also a member of the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC)'s mentoring program. Each year, I was paired with another more senior professional in the graduate-level career and professional development space. These mentors and other individuals I grew close with as part of my service with GCC became important sounding boards as I navigated my situation at NC State and decision on whether to move on to a new position. While a big life decision like changing jobs is ultimately a personal one, it is often valuable to talk through things with individuals outside your working environment to gain their perspectives. I had often complained to my original GCC mentor about my frustration in my current role and he would tell me as our conversations progressed over the years that he could tell I was not in a good place and needed to leave. He was also a helpful confident to discuss negotiations and the pros and cons of the various offers I obtained in 2021.

I also relied on my National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) and GCC network to serve as references for me during my job search, demonstrating the importance of developing professional relationships outside one's coworkers. My leadership within NPA and GCC and the willingness of these individuals to speak to it certainly were helpful in my job search. Reminder: you must build professional relationships before you need them. They often will come in handy later on. 

Reflecting on other career conversations I had with my mentors and other professional colleagues, many encouraged me to aim high in my job search and not sell myself short. Also, when I told my current GCC mentor about my Virginia Tech offer he encouraged me to take it, seeing it as a great career advancement opportunity for me. While I also saw this, it was helpful to hear another person confirming my belief that this was a great opportunity. And my original GCC mentor encouraged me to write about this career search journey in the hopes of helping others see there are opportunities beyond the struggles you may be encountering in your current role.
Thanks, Dinuka Gunaratne, for pushing me to share my job search journey in this post! ​

After accepting the Virginia Tech position, I was determined to document as much as I could from my role at NC State. I did not want to leave them in a bad spot as I generally want to see the Professional Development Team and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs there succeed. I also met with many stakeholders and leaders on campus to explain why I made the decision to leave. I really hope they reflect on some of the challenges I and others in the Graduate School encountered and find ways to better support people doing good work there. As I said in last month's post, I don't harbor any bad feelings. They gave me the chance and latitude to grow as a professional in a new career area for me, post-postdoc, and my work there allowed me to demonstrate the expertise needed to move into a new position with more leadership opportunities and upside. 

I think I left on good terms. I hear from a colleague there now that my name is routinely mentioned around the office with an air of appreciation. It is good to know I made a difference there and hopefully began to change people's perceptions of what could be done to support postdoctoral scholars at NC State. 

So, what should you take from this rambling account of my 2021 year of reflection and job searching? I hope a few things:

• Applying to positions, getting interviews, and hopefully an offer or two can give you the confidence to know you have skills and experience employers value, even if there are times when you think your current employer doesn't see or recognize them
• A strong network is crucial to your job search
  • Colleagues from the NPA and GCC served as key references for me
  • Colleagues made referrals to recruiters and hiring managers on my behalf
• Be of value, expecting nothing in return. It can buy you goodwill in the future.
  • As mentioned, I provided value and engaged with Virginia Tech years before taking this position. Doing this made me more of a "known quantity" with them, which probably helped my chances when interviewing for this job.
• Know your worth
  • I think I undersold myself early in the job search when asked my desired salary range. As I become more confident during the job search process, I realized I could and should ask for more. I ultimately got it.
• Don't get caught up in the moment...carefully weigh the pros and cons of a new role.
  • It would have been easy to focus on the role at the "prestigious" institution as some sort of status symbol or the fun-in-the-sun lifestyle of the other role I was offered in the summer of 2021. However, carefully considering whether those roles truly aligned with my career goals and needs allowed me to decline each. Eventually, I found a role more in alignment with my strengths and other priorities (proximity to family, autonomy, ability to build something). If you can, consider waiting for the "right" opportunity to materialize and try not to jump at the first offer, unless you feel pretty confident it is the right role and environment for you.
• Give real effort to try to make it work with your current employer
  • It is so easy to bolt when things aren't working out. However, if you don't articulate your challenges and then make a concerted effort to improve things, if only for the rest of your team or next person in the role, are you showing true commitment to your craft? People will respect you more for not giving up right away and doing your best to improve the situation...it takes character to do that.  
• Know when to leave
  • At some point, though, you must objectively assess your options and make difficult decisions. It is never easy to leave a place and move into a new role, with all its unknowns. Talking it out with family, friends, and trusted mentors and colleagues can help.
• Things can work out, in the end.
  • While I didn't take the role at the "prestigious" institution or land my perceived "dream job", I found something better, something I was not expecting.

This role at Virginia Tech checks so many boxes for me from professional growth opportunities to the ability to make an impact through building a dedicated office to support postdoctoral scholars.
I also learned during my interview process that Virginia Tech postdocs have access to the same employee benefits as faculty and staff, something I can feel good about as I promote the value of postdoctoral training here.
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In addition, the pay and benefits here are great, I am able to focus more on the things I love (building programs, interacting with postdocs, and helping faculty recruit and support postdocs), and am close to family and friends in North Carolina and Tennessee. It would have been impossible to imagine in early 2021 this is where I would be now and, little did I know, I may have been laying the groundwork for my own success by answering that initial email about postdoc benefits and salary from Virginia Tech in 2020. I engaged with them in 2020 because I wanted to be helpful and assist them in thinking about what effective support of their postdoctoral population could look like. Now, I am working toward that goal with them while also growing as a leader and strategic thinker.

​I hope to build a positive legacy for both myself and postdoctoral support here at Virginia Tech in the years to come. Our aspirations and goals are ambitious, in a good way. We are striving towards building something impactful and innovative for our postdoctoral population, including the recent launch of a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship program this Spring.
Stay tuned for additional exciting announcements and developments in the months ahead!

​In closing, I truly believe that if you put yourself out there (ie, apply for positions you think may be a stretch for you), volunteer for causes you care about, build your credibility and network (which I did through leadership roles and involvement with NPA and GCC), and know what you are looking for in a role (turning down good but not great opportunities), you can land at a place that meets most if not nearly all of your needs.
​It might take a year or it might take longer but all good things, as they say, are worth the wait.  

North Carolina State University’s athletic teams have a wolf pack as a mascot. “Wolfpack” is obviously not a singular character (which makes creating a mascot tricky but I digress…) but a group of wolves who live and hunt together.

All over campus you see the quote from Rudyard Kipling:
“The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”

Reflecting on my transition into my first post-postdoc role as Postdoc Program Manager at NC State and now in a new role leading the creation of an Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Virginia Tech, I am appreciative of the supportive group of advocates, colleagues, friends, and mentors I have assembled over the years from my postdoctoral training time at Vanderbilt, professional associations (the Graduate Career Consortium in particular), and work. They helped me land my position at NC State and gave me the confidence to pursue this new opportunity at Virginia Tech. 

When I received my first job offer to join NC State, I turned to colleagues in the BRET Office of Career Development (especially Ashley Brady) and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA, Irene McKirgan) at Vanderbilt University, where I worked as a postdoctoral researcher from August 2014 to January 2019. They encouraged me to negotiate for a more competitive salary (which you can read more about here). They were also instrumental in serving as references for me as I applied for the Postdoc Program Manager position. It was important to have advocates for me who knew more intimately about the work I did with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) and the National Postdoctoral Association. Ashley and Irene saw me assist in a variety of career development and other programming offered at Vanderbilt through BRET, OPA, and the VPA. They could convey to the hiring manager my passion and commitment to postdoc support and career development. I had established relationships with the two of them over a 2-3 year period before they ultimately served as references. So, I believe their recommendations were genuine and from a place of truly knowing me and seeing what I could contribute in the postdoc development area.
​
The key point here for current graduate students and postdoctoral scholars is that you should establish relationships with individuals outside your main research advisor, especially if those individuals are in areas you might be interested in pursuing as a career. But, regardless of whether you go in a particular career direction, just get involved with organizations on your campus, in your community, and/or nationally. You will need broad advocates for you who can speak to your commitment, teamwork, organization, and ability to get things done and those you work with in these non-work/lab capacities will be able to do that. They may also be able to emphasize the soft skills of people management better than your research advisor can because they see you function in a different capacity. Critically, you should be cultivating these relationships before you need them.

Hopefully, the lab you are training in as a graduate student or postdoc is also supportive of you and your career, even if it is not a faculty career path. I was initially hesitant to discuss my interest in a non-faculty career with my postdoc advisor, David Zald (now at Rutgers). When I did bring up the subject to him, though, he was very supportive. I think most Principal Investigators (PIs) understand the competitiveness of the faculty job market necessitates the need for their trainees to explore non-faculty careers. Most, I think, want to see their trainees succeed in whatever endeavor they undertake after their time in the lab. That being said, many PIs have limited knowledge of how to best position oneself for a career in industry, the government, etc.,  but that doesn’t mean they can’t connect you to people in their network that may be able to help or allow you time to take part in activities that will assist you in learning more about your career options. My postdoc advisor was supportive of me taking part in professional development activities while at Vanderbilt as well as participating and taking on leadership opportunities in the VPA, which, as mentioned above, was critical in leading me to my current career path.

Transitioning to a new work environment is always a challenge, especially if it is in an area that is outside your previous one. In early 2019 I went from a research-focused position as a postdoc to an administrative position as a program manager. My new role required interacting with a variety of individuals at NC State: postdocs, faculty, department administrators, college/university administrators (in HR, international services, ombuds office), colleagues in the Graduate School, potential outside speakers, etc… Communication and building relationships was key in this new role. Thankfully, my colleagues in the Graduate School worked to introduce me to key individuals at the University. I also was proactive in establishing these relationships: emailing individuals suggested by my colleagues to meet up for coffee, lunch, etc… Establishing personal relationships with the people you work or interact with professionally is critical to building trust and respect, which will be vital when complex or difficult situations inevitably arise. You don’t want your first ask to be coming from someone that the person has never met and/or heard from previously. People are more likely to help you if they know you.

Another key component of a positive work environment is a supervisor that gives you autonomy as well as support. They also need to provide direction and leadership to ensure a team is working together toward a common set of goals and objectives. In my role at NC State, the first attribute was excellent (autonomy in my work) while the later (leadership) left much to be desired. Being a leader is different than being a boss or supervisor. It isn't easy to lead, though, especially if the environment prevents one from driving projects and initiatives forward either via bureaucratic roadblocks, resource limitations/inaccessibility, or lack of transparency. Acknowledging all of that, regardless of the cause of a situation where one does not feel supported by leadership, at some point one must decide if they think the situation can improve or if they must improve their situation either through pushing for change or searching for other opportunities. I tried both. ​

Throughout my time in the role at NC State, I felt I went "above and beyond" my job description as I sought ways to add value to the team and unit. For example, during my first year on the job, I worked with a graduate student assistant to launch a new blog on the Graduate School's website - ImPACKful - to better highlight campus resources, career and professional development tips, and spotlight current and past graduate students and postdocs. I felt it important to provide another outlet to reach our constituents and tell stories around the impact our career and professional development programming was having as I didn't think the broader campus community knew enough about us and our work. By my last count, our ImPACKful Blog had received 41,000+ unique page views since we launched it in August 2019. It is something I am very proud I developed and supported even if there was very little acknowledgement from Graduate School leadership of its value.

​In short, this experience epitomized a recurrent feeling I had during my time at State: I felt I went above and beyond and no one in leadership really cared. There was certainly a "nice job" comment but I don't think leadership saw the potential of what we could do with the platform. I envisioned it as a way to have current trainees learn about informational interviews and then tell alumni stories via the blog. It seemed like it could be a great platform for student/postdoc learning, networking, and brand building but it was never a unit priority. In the end, we produced less frequent pieces as I failed to see any future where leadership would support these efforts (ie, give me the bandwidth to pursue organizing content with more intention). And the COVID-19 pandemic certainly made any attempt at asking for more resources and support even more challenging. ​

An edited version of this piece appeared in a Carpe Careers column on Inside Higher Ed in early January, 2022. 

Many will use the start of a new year to begin making plans to better their lives including eating healthier, exercising more, or reducing screen time. And while plans are great, leaning into unplanned experiences can sometimes produce unexpectedly positive results for your personal and professional life. Cultivating serendipity, then, should also be a goal for 2022. 

Serendipity is defined as an unplanned fortunate discovery and is often cited as being influential in career choices and transitions. Past studies have shown that well over half of individuals acknowledge serendipitous events play a role in career decision making  or are influential on their careers. There is more than luck involved, however. In fact, an entire theory of career exploration and discovery centers around planned happenstance. The central notion of the planned happenstance theory of career exploration is that an individual must acknowledge the value of unplanned events as potential opportunities and be willing to act on them to realize potential upsides to their personal and professional development. 

Five skills have been hypothesized to aid people in benefiting from chance events according to this theory: 

• Curiosity - be open to and explore new learning opportunities
• Optimism - view new opportunities as possible & obtainable
• Persistence - exert effort despite setbacks
• Flexibility - adapt to changing attitudes & circumstances
• Risk taking - take action in the face of uncertain outcomes 

I encourage you to exercise these skills and embrace the moment in 2022 despite not knowing your ultimate destination. That is how you will cultivate serendipity and be able to take advantage of the unexpected opportunities you will surely encounter to enhance your professional life and career. 

​The past nearly two years of COVID have forced many of us to retreat inwards, focused on more immediate personal and family concerns and remaining physically distant from others. As vaccine rollout and new therapeutics arise to curtail the risk of COVID, I think we all hope Spring 2022 will bring a return to more in-person interactions, including community events.

And your community is so much more than your current work or school environment. In fact, expanding your participation in a variety of communities, organizations, or groups will undoubtedly expand your network, potentially allow you to gain new skills and self-knowledge, and may open the door to new and exciting opportunities you can not yet imagine. 

I will share my own serendipitous journey to my current field working in postdoctoral affairs to illustrate how you can create unexpected opportunities for yourself that could lead to destinations that, while unplanned and unforeseen at the outset, are rewarding and fulfilling landing places. 

​Getting involved in my local postdoctoral association changed the course of my professional career. I didn’t know it at the time, though.

​I served in the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) as Treasurer in 2016-17 and Junior Co-Chair (Vice President) in 2017-18. When I decided to volunteer in my first leadership role, I didn’t really consider myself leadership material. I am pretty quiet and reserved but realized this group was doing important work including building a community of support for postdocs and linking them to resources on campus. My curiosity and desire to give back and contribute to an important cause pushed me to take the risk of getting involved in a leadership role in the VPA, which introduced me to postdoctoral affairs as a potential career path. 

Working with the VPA, I also met many awesome people doing amazing things, including some postdocs with whom I would never have interacted if I stayed in the lab or only attended departmental events. The VPA leaders I worked with over my three plus years in the association have gone on to a variety of exciting careers: Director of Data Science at Healthcare Bluebook, AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow now working as an Environmental Protection Specialist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Program Manager at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Assistant Scientific Director at AbbVie, and Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Having this expanded network helps me in my current role as I can connect current postdocs interested in pursuing these career paths with my former VPA colleagues. 

​I bring up the careers VPA leaders obtained post-postdoc to demonstrate that the leadership and teamwork experience one gains from working with a community organization or group looks great to potential employers. 

You don’t have to get involved with your local postdoctoral association to find volunteer opportunities that can be useful for you both personally and professionally. Graduate student associations or volunteer opportunities in scientific or professional societies are other options to explore. You can also take advantage of opportunities to hone specific skills through volunteering. Like communicating science? Why not volunteer at your local science museum or join a community like NPR Scicommers? Interested in a career in medical writing? The American Medical Writers Association has local chapters across the US. 

​It is critical to your mental health to seek out activities beyond your lab/research environment (or any workplace, really). Volunteering in local organizations can provide you a broader community of social support and sense of accomplishment in the work you do in them that is independent of how things are going in your graduate or postdoctoral research. You can also use volunteer opportunities to develop new skills that may be outside your current comfort zone and try bold things without your performance being tied to your current salary or stipend.

​Prototyping potential alternative careers through volunteering or other experiential learning opportunities can be very helpful as you explore what to do after your graduate or postdoctoral training. Getting involved in specific activities that allow you to pursue a line of work you might be interested in will help you test them out as a potential career path for you. You can self-reflect during these activities asking: Do I enjoy doing this?, Do I need to develop some specific skill before seeking formal employment in this area?, etc... 

You may discover you can build a fulfilling career out of the skills and experiences you exercise outside the lab or your scholarly work, combining them with your other strengths to do something you are both good at and enjoy. ​By venturing outside your school/work, you will also meet a more diverse group of professionals (expanding your network) and start to learn about the many career opportunities out there in the world. 

My involvement in the VPA and National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) – I began by volunteering to write pieces for The POSTDOCket in 2017 – opened my eyes to another career path beyond academic research and allowed me to better understand some of the major issues affecting the postdoctoral population. I also came to realize I could make an impact working to improve the postdoctoral experience as a career. I landed my current role as Postdoctoral Affairs Program Manager at NC State University in early 2019 and encourage you to check out this piece in The POSTDOCket to learn more about my decision to pursue a career in this area. My current role is both challenging and rewarding, allowing me to lean into my mentorship and empathy strengths to support postdocs both individually and as a community.  

An organization whom I volunteered with after starting my new role, the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC), offers a variety of resources and opportunities to support professionals working in the graduate student and postdoc career and professional development space. GCC members also contribute to this weekly Carpe Careers blog, which allows us to share our expertise and advice with a broad audience. The GCC has many exciting committees and initiatives to get involved in and offers trainee memberships available should you be a graduate student or postdoc interested in exploring a career in this area!  

Just a few months into my role at NC State, I volunteered to assist a team I met through the Future PI Slack group in analyzing important data from a faculty career applicant survey. While contributing to this project resulted in significant “after hours” work over the course of several months as we drafted a publication and responded to reviewers, we were ultimately able to publish our study in eLife in June 2020. I continue working with some of my co-authors on this work during my “free time” developing more detailed, future surveys to understand factors that lead to a successful faculty job search. We are also currently looking at how COVID impacted the faculty job market in 2020 & 2021. 

Engaging in this “extra” opportunity allowed me to develop additional knowledge of metrics associated with faculty job market success that enhance my ability to support postdocs in their career preparation. In addition, this experience allowed me to produce scholarly work in my new profession, despite it not being possible in my day job. Furthermore, it demonstrates one can contribute meaningfully to creating new knowledge that has an impact despite not being a faculty or research staff member. It opened my eyes to the fact that doing impactful scholarly work in the area of education and outcomes research was possible for me in an administrative role.    

While you should certainly not over-extend yourself with too much extracurricular work, I believe taking on additional opportunities when you think they will help you learn and grow in a new area is worth it. 

​Over the past few years, I have taken on leadership opportunities in my new profession of postdoctoral affairs and career and professional development. One was planned and one was not. I actively chose to run for the NPA Board of Directors in 2019 as a means of staying informed of and contributing to new developments and initiatives to support postdocs. My role as GCC Communications Chair involved cultivating serendipity, however. An administrator whom I worked with while a postdoc at Vanderbilt University nominated me for the GCC role in Spring 2020, seeing something in me that I didn’t quite see in myself. I leaned into the opportunity, accepted the nomination, and was elected by the membership in May 2020. I have now been in the Communications Chair role for two years and vastly expanded my network and skillset – managing social media and YouTube accounts, running meetings, and motivating volunteers – as part of it. I believe my involvement in GCC and NPA allowed me to leverage best practices in postdoctoral affairs and career and professional development to excel in my role at NC State. Ultimately, these experiences also gave me the confidence to seek out new roles in the profession that offered more leadership opportunities and growth potential. 

​This week, I started a new position leading the creation of an Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). In retrospect, perhaps all these “extra” experiences added up to this amazing opportunity? It certainly could not have been planned. However, I believe leaning into experiences that seem exciting and a bit of a stretch ultimately allows us to grow and discover something new about ourselves and can ultimately prepare us to take on new, future challenges. 

I have found a great sense of confidence and competence through my volunteer and extracurricular efforts over the past several years. I also went beyond the bounds of my day job at NC State to demonstrate leadership and expertise in a new profession that will serve me well as I take on the task of instilling best practices in postdoctoral affairs and career and professional development for postdocs at Virginia Tech. I will be looked to as a leader and expert, which just three short years ago I would not have considered myself to be. As a postdoc four years ago, I couldn’t even imagine this is where I would be in my career. 

One’s future path is difficult to see at the outset but in retrospect there is often a thread you can follow that connects you to your current situation. Leaning into your curiosity, taking risks, and having confidence that your skills, interests, and values will align to yield amazing results is critical.  

You never know where the choices you make, that at the time may seem outside of your “plan,” can ultimately lead. Acknowledging the need to be open to new opportunities to build skills, try out new tasks, and grow your network can help diversify your career prospects. But ​if you don't put yourself out there, it certainly will be a challenge to take advantage of serendipitous opportunities that could result in you arriving at an exciting destination you can’t yet imagine today.  

The Power of Compound Interest
Albert Einstein purportedly described compounding as the most powerful force in the universe and compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. 
​
We most think of compound interest in the form of finances and growing wealth. And compound interest in that domain is, indeed, quite powerful and important. The crucial aspect of this type of growth is that it relies heavily on time. The more time one has to allow their money to grow at some rate of return (3%, 5%, 8%), the more money they will have at the end of some specified period of time. The earnings that accrue each year (or day, or month, depending on how interest is paid out) adds to the amount the individual invests themselves and also, itself, produces interest and earnings over time.

​An example from the investment learning blog grow illustrates how much of a difference 10 years can make: if a person starts saving $5,000/year for their retirement at age 25, they will end up with more than twice as much retirement savings ($1,300,000) by age 65 as someone who waits until 35 to start ($565,000), assuming an 8% rate of return, compounded annually.

​So, don't wait to invest in your retirement...even if it is $50 or $100 per month. That adds up over time. 

Exponential Growth & COVID-19
Time matters so much in the world of compound interest as the growth of money in this case is exponential.

You might have heard a bit about the power of exponential growth as it related to the spread of COVID-19 within a population. While pure exponential growth is not the best way to model the spread of COVID-19 infections, using it as an example demonstrates the point that, again, time matters when it comes to compounding growth of, in this case, a viral infection.

​An example used in the Forbes article linked above nicely illustrates the point of growth in viral spread: if just 1 person is infected on January 1st and the number of infected people doubles every three days (1 person has the ability to infect another in three days time from casual interactions, etc...), 1,024 people will be infected on January 31 (as each newly infected person also infects someone else every 3 days), 2,048 on February 3 (doubling of infections every 3 days), and by March 19th (78 days after the initial infection), 67 million people will be infected! Obviously COVID-19 didn't spread this fast due to various measures to slow the spread but, clearly, exponential growth is scary.

​The point here, and that we learned all too well in 2020, is that if one does not intervene early to stop the spread, the growth of viral spread will produce levels of infection that are nearly impossible to deal with barring some major new intervention like a vaccine, which thankfully, is coming in the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease that is COVID-19. 

Another interesting bit of research that resurfaced in the media during the spread of COVID-19 was the concept of exponential growth bias - the fact that most people ​consistently underestimate how fact value increases exponentially. In fact, an interesting study published in PNAS found that helping individuals better understand how impactful exponential growth can be for COVID-19 transmission led to increased support for measures to slow the spread of the virus.

So, while we may struggle to comprehend exponential growth initially, understanding this process better is critical to taking actions that can affect this type of growth, whether we want to harness it for good (i.e., saving for retirement) or combat its negative effects (viral transmission).

Big Things Come from Small Beginnings - Growing Your Professional Presence & Career

​What does exponential growth have to do with your career?

Well, I believe we build our expertise and personal brand over time and can experience outsized returns in our careers if we start early and seek out means of increasing our rate of return, which could include:

1. Publishing your scholarly work (if you are a researcher)
2. Building an online brand and presence (via LinkedIn and/or a personal website)
3. Sharing your work & expertise via online platforms (LinkedIn posts, articles, or blog posts on other platforms)
4. Growing your professional network & reach
5. Developing relationships with professionals in your current or desired career field
6. Communicating your value, expertise, and story broadly, including learning how to communicate to general audiences  

Continuing to publish both my graduate research and postdoctoral work during my time as a postdoc (which ran from August 2014 to January 2019) ultimately led to 20 publications (11 as first author) and 92 total citations in 2019. It took 5 years from my first publication for me to reach 45 citations/year (in 2017) but only two additional years to double that citation amount (92 citations/year in 2019). Again, returns on your research productivity take time but can accelerate as you continue to produce good work.  

It is a bit unfortunate that scholarly productivity metrics like published papers and citation indices (h-index) ​are delayed measures as they cannot reflect the potential of younger researchers. It takes time for these measures to accumulate and grow for any scientist. So, the old adage of publish early and often is still relevant to increase these metrics.

​In fact, one study has shown that the number of publications pre-Ph.D. predicted publication productivity over a period of 10 years post-Ph.D. In addition, another study of biomedical scientists who graduated with their Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus between the years 2000 and 2015 found that the number of first-author publications published pre-Ph.D. were higher in those who ultimately landed academic faculty positions. So, if you goal is to pursue a faculty career the earlier you can begin establishing a publication track record, the better.   

What other metrics are associated with success on the biological science faculty job market? ​Read our e-Life publication from the 2018-2019 faculty job market: ​

​Network Early & Often
Network effects also compound over time. As your network grows so does your reach. Think of your LinkedIn network: the more individuals you are connected to, the more likely your updates are to be shared with those in your connections' networks, increasing your reach. Growing your LinkedIn connections and presence takes time, though.

​Plotting the number of LinkedIn connections I have amassed from opening my account in April 2013, the growth looks pretty exponential from a total of 43 connections in 2013 to 2,302 connections by the end of 2020.

You shouldn't just seek to grow your connections on LinkedIn but also your presence on the platform. A great way to begin establishing a brand on LinkedIn is to not only post updates and thoughts but also author articles on the platform. In addition, data have shown being an active LinkedIn user (keeping abreast of what is happening with your contacts or organizations you follow) is more important than the sheer number of LinkedIn connections you possess. ​

Your professional network also grows with time. As you meet and get to know individuals working in a space of interest to you, they will introduce you to more like-minded individuals and opportunities and your network will grow. A great way to locate individuals interested in professional areas you are interested in is via national societies and organizations. There is nearly always an opportunity to get involved in these organizations and doing so can really help you expand your network and diversify your skillset. Collaboration, teamwork, communication, and leadership skills can all be developed by volunteering in these organizations. 

Don't Under-Estimate the Personal Touch
Clearly online tools like LinkedIn are extremely powerful and useful in growing your brand and professional network. Don't forget, however, the importance of personal, human connection. People have to know and like you before they will trust you (these are key concepts in building client relationships, too). So, building a personal rapport with others be they potential future colleagues, mentors, or influencers in your career of interest is critical.

Developing personal connections is admittedly difficult in the current COVID-19 pandemic. When life begins to return to normal, though, I encourage you to really work to meet more people. Volunteering is one way to do this as is working with a society or organization in an area of professional interest to you.  

I started this personal website when I began my postdoc at Vanderbilt University in August 2014 and it took 5+ years for it to really take off, in no small part due to this blog. In addition, I realized sharing documents I used in my funding search (my successful NIH F31 & F32 applications) as well as job search (resumes, CVs, cover letters) would be of great value to current trainees. I really wanted to offer resources that I thought would have been useful to my younger self. ​

The combination of the blog posts and resource sharing has led to this site seeing increased visitors. In 2015 I averaged 20 to 50 unique visitors a month. Upon adding the resources and blog content in 2019, unique visitors per month ranged from 35 to 305 and in August of 2020 I reached 962 unique visitors in a single month which was more than the cumulative visitors I received in all of 2018. It helps that during this time I was also sharing updates from my blog and website across my expanding LinkedIn network. Again, returns compound over time.  

Closing Thoughts
Building a personal brand and reputation as a researcher or thought leader in a space takes time. I feel like my journey as a professional working in postdoctoral affairs and graduate-level career and professional development has only just begun. I have only been working in this field full-time since January 2019 and so far have one publication in the education/workforce research area. I know it will take time to build recognition for the work I do now just like it did to build recognition of my neuroscience research that began back in 2008 when I started graduate school.  

I think the key piece of advice to take from my past experience and the research highlighted in this piece is to start early and make small steps to increase your visibility in relevant spaces for your career goals. LinkedIn is a great place to begin generally but you can certainly expand from there. 

My final thought to leave you with is that in an increasingly noisy and distracted world, you have to be sure you tell your story clearly and effectively. This includes clearly communicating your skills, interests, and values and understanding yourself and your goals well enough to articulate them. 

Stay tuned for more on the topic of communicating your value in a future blog post.

Don't miss my latest blog updates and additional resources, news, and notes. Subscribe to my monthly Reflections Newsletter to get all this and more on the last Thursday of each month. 

Readings & References

How to Build Your Network

Networking via LinkedIn: An examination of usage and career benefits

Is LinkedIn making you more successful? The informational benefits derived from public social media

​Presentation with Tips & Examples: Crafting an Effective LinkedIn Presence

​LinkedIn Profile Writing Guide from Jobscan


Other Relevant Readings from the Reflections Blog

Career Exploration Series                                 
​Career Development Series

Why You Should Get Involved in Things Outside the Lab/Work

​The Power of Human Connection

Career Exploration 101

​The Power of Compound Interest
Albert Einstein purportedly described compounding as the most powerful force in the universe and compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. 
​
We mostly think of compound interest in the form of finances and growing wealth. And compound interest in that domain is, indeed, quite powerful and important. The crucial aspect of this type of growth is that it relies heavily on time. The more time one has to allow their money to grow at some rate of return (3%, 5%, 8%), the more money they will have at the end of some specified period of time. The earnings that accrue each year (or day, or month, depending on how interest is paid out) adds to the amount the individual invests themselves and also, itself, produces interest and earnings over time.

​An example from the investment learning blog grow illustrates how much of a difference 10 years can make: if a person starts saving $5,000/year for their retirement at age 25, they will end up with more than twice as much retirement savings ($1,300,000) by age 65 as someone who waits until 35 to start ($565,000), assuming an 8% rate of return, compounded annually.

​So, don't wait to invest in your retirement...even if it is $50 or $100 per month. That adds up over time. 

​Exponential Growth & COVID-19
Time matters so much in the world of compound interest as the growth of money in this case is exponential.

You might have heard a bit about the power of exponential growth as it relates to the spread of COVID-19 within a population. While pure exponential growth is not the best way to model the spread of COVID-19 infections, using it as an example demonstrates the point that, again, time matters when it comes to compounding growth of, in this case, a viral infection.

​An example used in the Forbes article linked above nicely illustrates the point of growth in viral spread: if just 1 person is infected on January 1st and the number of infected people doubles every three days (1 person has the ability to infect another in three days time from casual interactions, etc...), 1,024 people will be infected on January 31 (as each newly infected person also infects someone else every 3 days), 2,048 on February 3 (doubling of infections every 3 days), and by March 19th (78 days after the initial infection), 67 million people will be infected! Obviously COVID-19 didn't spread this fast due to various measures to slow the spread but, clearly, exponential growth is scary.

​The point here, and that we learned all too well in 2020, is that if one does not intervene early to stop the spread, the growth of viral spread will produce levels of infection that are nearly impossible to deal with barring some major new intervention like a vaccine, which thankfully, is coming in the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease that is COVID-19. 

Another interesting bit of research that resurfaced in the media during the spread of COVID-19 was the concept of exponential growth bias - the fact that most people ​consistently underestimate how fact value increases exponentially. In fact, an interesting study published in PNAS found that helping individuals better understand how impactful exponential growth can be for COVID-19 transmission led to increased support for measures to slow the spread of the virus.

​So, while we may struggle to comprehend exponential growth initially, understanding this process better is critical to taking actions that can affect this type of growth, whether we want to harness it for good (i.e., saving for retirement) or combat its negative effects (viral transmission).

Big Things Come from Small Beginnings - Growing Your Professional Presence & Career

​What does exponential growth have to do with your career?

Well, I believe we build our expertise and personal brand over time and can experience outsized returns in our careers if we start early and seek out means of increasing our rate of return, which could include:

1. Publishing your scholarly work (if you are a researcher)
2. Building an online brand and presence (via LinkedIn and/or a personal website)
3. Sharing your work & expertise via online platforms (LinkedIn posts, articles, or blog posts on other platforms)
4. Growing your professional network & reach
5. Developing relationships with professionals in your current or desired career field
6. Communicating your value, expertise, and story broadly, including learning how to communicate to general audiences