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Reflections Blog

From First Job Post-Postdoc to Growing as a Professional - Daring to Lead and Leave

3/31/2022

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Life Advice, Personal Perspective, NIH BEST Blog Rewind
Part 1 of 2
In Fall 2018, I started writing a series of pieces for the NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Student/Postdoc Blog. As these pieces are no longer accessible online, I wanted to re-share them in a continuing series: NIH BEST Blog Rewind. Here, I will add some additional thoughts to what was originally authored in early 2019, denoted in bold (dark red) throughout the piece.
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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. 
Establishing Personal Advocates & Advisors for Your Career Search and Advancement
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.
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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.
More from the Blog: Why you should get involved in things outside your work/lab
​Most Research Advisors Will Support You in Whatever Career Path You Choose
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.
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The Importance of a Positive and Supportive Work Environment
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. ​
A Foot in the Door
To reflect a bit, despite negotiating a higher initial salary than was originally offered, I started in my position at NC State with the feeling that I was being underpaid. I tried to rationalize to myself that I had to "prove" myself to leadership for them to see my worth to the organization. In some ways, I think this line of thinking was reasonable. I was fresh out of a postdoc and working to support postdocs as a postdoc (which I had done at Vanderbilt) versus performing this work as a full time staff member (which I would be doing at NC State) are quite different things. In essence, we all have to start somewhere and the first job you land right after graduate school or postdoctoral training is most likely going to be a stepping stone to other positions in the future. Typically, you can only develop skills relevant to your line of work by being involved in the work. And once you obtain some experience working in a sector, that makes you more marketable for other opportunities in that sector. In addition, working in a professional role allows you to begin to see what aspects of the work you enjoy versus dislike, are good at, and need to improve in. My experience at NC State was no different. 
Learning About Myself as a Professional
In my role at NC State, I realized I did not like the human resources (HR) oversight function that comprised about 5-10 hours of my typical working week. I performed that work diligently and tried to find ways to create better resources and documentation to assist department, unit, and college HR representatives with the goal of lessening my HR burden in the long run. A big aspect of this work was fielding HR questions and requests from various representatives across campus and trying to take a customer service approach to that work. People come to HR when they need something done or solved and as such it can feel very transactional. I personally found it quite unfulfilling and gained a new respect for individuals that work in this space.  
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Early in my time at NC State I was also encouraged to offer more career and professional development programing for graduate students and postdocs and worked to develop and launch a career exploration series in Fall 2020. In addition to this, I often gave guest presentations or co-presentations for or with other members of our Graduate School Professional Development Team. It was nice to hear from my colleagues and supervisor that they saw me as an effective presenter and facilitator of these workshops and programs. I didn't have much pedagogical training going into the role at NC State and so hearing from those with that expertise and experience that I was good at
program delivery gave me increased confidence in that skillset. 
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To summarize, my first few years at NC State helped me realize what I didn't want to do in the postdoctoral affairs space (HR) and that I could be an effective facilitator and teacher in the career & professional development space. I grew as a professional during my three years at State and I am grateful they gave me the opportunity and autonomy to shape the role in a way that benefited me professionally and the postdoctoral community I served.

​Despite all this, during my second year in the role I began to feel that I was reaching a point where I needed to see a future at the institution where my impact was recognized and supported and I spent most of 2021 wrestling with my future there.
Campaigning for Change
As I began to offer more programming and continued to add to the various processes and offerings of the NC State Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, I realized I could not continue doing all the added work (at least not sustainably). I discussed with my supervisor the need to diminish my direct involvement with postdoc HR administration. I argued it took away time for potentially more impactful programs and initiatives I could be leading for postdocs and graduate students at NC State. I even wrote a white paper asking for administrative support that highlighted how much time I was spending on "routine" HR processes and what I could have been doing instead (developing resources for faculty to assist in postdoc recruitment and mentoring, for example). I was told the request would be brought to the Dean for consideration. Hiring restrictions and budget uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in it taking over 1.5 years for that administrative support to come and only as part of retention offer - more on that in next month's post. 

What made the experience of asking for administrative support so frustrating to me wasn't that it took so long or that they didn't do it initially...it was that there was ZERO communication about where the request stood. There was no constructive dialogue with leadership around my request and what it would take to address it or further discussion of current limitations that prevented them from addressing it. Some of this may have been inferred (COVID-related restrictions) but I could have benefited from a more direct discussion of the issues and how we could work together to plan to address them in the long run. I can take "no" for an answer but I need to understand the justification...the why...behind a decision. It seemed to me leadership did not want to engage on this topic. I think they thought silence on their part was an answer, which I guess in a way it was. The answer it sent, as I interpreted it, was "don't ask for things and be happy with what you have". In my eyes, there was very little future thinking or foresight in what we could do at NC State but rather a focus on what we had done (ie, stay in your lane; keep doing what you're doing). Many organizations think this way but it was important to me that I could see a bright future for myself, the office, and team at NC State. 
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Go Above and Beyond?
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. 
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Read ImPACKful Blog
That experience left me wondering if there was value in going "above and beyond" in this workplace. I began to sense the culture preferred everyone stay in their lane and not do too much. Now certainly this culture could have been the result of limited resources that meant leadership could not incentivize exceptional performance or that they did not want to deal with how such actions might be perceived by others in the unit (ie, introducing "inequities" in compensation between teams or individuals within teams). In a way, I understand their motivations. In the end, though, one has to decide if they are OK with the work culture they find themselves in. 
Waiting for Resources and Support
The COVID-19 pandemic made accessing resources and support more difficult than it had already been in my first year on the job. Again, I don't hold any particular individual at fault for our situation back then but our team was understaffed (we lost a team member in January 2020 who was never functionally replaced) and felt unsupported during those long 16 months between March 2020 and July 2021 when we worked 100% virtually. 

What I learned in those tough months in 2020 that bled into 2021 was that I really needed to engage with my work colleagues, hear their perspectives of the situation, and find solidarity in working together to create a better environment for all of us. It was easy to feel isolated as we moved to remote work but I felt engaging with my colleagues during the spring and summer of 2020 in particular allowed me a better understanding of the professional situation we all had found ourselves in.

Through discussions with them, it became apparent that no one on the team felt very supported and many of us did not see much leadership happening above us. We all struggled with setting priorities as our work seemed to be never ending. Many of us have a service mindset and it was difficult to not feel like we needed to respond to students and postdocs or campus stakeholders asking for help and support during those many months of COVID-related uncertainty. And while we were all "adults" with some agency over our work situation, without a clear strategy of where we were trying to go, what we were trying to accomplish as a team, and our ultimate priorities and goals (specifically as they related to university and unit priorities), we felt increasingly despondent. Hope is a powerful thing and we increasingly were losing faith that things would get better.

​I am a pragmatist and so understood COVID made increased support and resources an issue at the moment but what I needed to hear from leadership, and never did, was how we could begin planning and prioritizing for the future. What did institutional leadership care about and how could our team work toward providing and communicating value so we would be better supported in the long run? We never got a straight answer here either because Graduate School leadership did not know or did not have the bandwidth to find out as it wrestled with other COVID-related issues. Regardless of the reasoning, as the situation showed no signs of improving, I realized I needed to start considering other opportunities. 
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The Importance of Trust in a Professional Relationship
While there were several issues that influenced my decision to begin looking for another opportunity (some of which I highlighted above), the biggest one was a lack of trust. Lack of trust in my boss, her boss, and the university. This isn't meant to point fingers and I still don't know what parties were at fault but what was clear to me was that communication and trust had deteriorated severely over the course of the pandemic. 

I don't think our team was alone in experiencing this loss in trust, especially during the pandemic.  

Trust is central to psychological safety. If we don't trust that the topics and issues we raise will be dealt with, why raise them? If we don't trust that the leadership above us can work together to support us as professionals but also our work and those we serve, why rely on them?


Communication is key to building trust and understanding. I think the major issue that emerged during my time at NC State was poor communication between leadership and staff in our unit. Certainly Zoom meetings and not seeing colleagues and leadership in-person made it difficult for open communication to take place. And I am sure my boss and her boss were dealing with a lot during 2020-2021. However, they never really communicated to our team what there professional challenges were. Perhaps we could have helped them respond to some of them? Maybe the Dean needed to better justify to the Provost how the Graduate School could be a hub of resources and support that increases the efficiency of financial resources at the institution? I think our team could have been a model for that...we served all colleges and units and, I believe, added value by bringing together students and postdocs from different disciplinary backgrounds to learn from one another. Yes, each college or unit at NC State could offer career and professional development programming (and many do) but is that the best use of our limited resources?

​It is hard to provide real value to leadership when leadership does not communicate to you want they value. Working toward a common goal is impossible without communication and understanding around what that goal is. 
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Daring to Lead
Many have heard of Dr. Brené Brown and her work on leadership. There is a lot to unpack in her work and I encourage you to checkout the Dare to Lead Hub on her website for readings and resources. 

She defines great leadership as:
  • Recognizing potential - Leaders elevate and support others in realizing their potential; they should not be threatened by the potential of those that report to them but rather see them as an asset to the organization.
  • Taking responsibility - Leaders must lead by owning their decisions and responsibility as a leader. 
  • Being:
    • Vulnerable
    • Honest
    • Courageous 

Reflecting on this and my own experience working at NC State, I think I better understand what it takes to lead effectively and how difficult it can be through times of stress and uncertainty. Leadership is tough and giving leaders and supervisors the tools and resources they need to lead teams and organizations effectively is critical.

During those tough months in 2020-2021 I also obtained the courage to take ownership and leadership of my own career by searching for opportunities at institutions that valued me and my work. More on that job search journey in next month's post.

​Until then, try to be both vulnerable, honest, and courageous in all you do. And realize, sometimes an environment is just not working for you and change is necessary to grow and thrive in your work and life. Taking that first step toward change can be really scary but with the right support network and attitude, it is possible. 
For more, see:
  • The End of Trust (from The Atlantic)
  • WFH Is Corroding Our Trust in Each Other
  • Four Skills You Need For Courageous Leadership
  • The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, Role Clarity, and Work Engagement: Evidence From South Africa
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NIH BEST Blog Rewind: Find your passion? Finding meaning and purpose in your work & life

4/29/2021

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Career Exploration, Personal Perspective
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In Fall 2018, I started writing a series of pieces for the NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Student/Postdoc Blog. As these pieces are no longer accessible online, I wanted to re-share them in a continuing series NIH BEST Blog Rewind. Here, I will add some additional thoughts to what was originally authored in 2019, denoted in bold (dark red) throughout the piece.

Original Publication Date: March 2019                           NEW Perspectives, Comments, & Insights
Part of a series revisiting my NIH BEST Blog pieces. 
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“Find your passion. Do what makes you happy.”

We hear this advice all the time and think, yeah, it would be great to find a career one is passionate about, that makes one happy, pays one well, and fits one’s skill set and interests. But is it reasonable to expect this out of one, single job? Maybe, but we Americans are, too often, allowing our careers to define us (termed “workism” in this Atlantic piece and see also this piece by the New York Times), which can be problematic.

The challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic that have persisted over the past 13+ months are many and further highlight the fact that work should never come first. People have had to juggle many priorities this past year:
  • Trying to stay healthy, physically & mentally, in the face of so many unknowns (though perhaps that is changing with vaccines rolling out at higher numbers)
  • Taking care of loved ones, physically & mentally, sometimes at a distance
  • Assisting their children with virtual learning
  • Striving to stay "present" in their work while often working virtually and juggling the priorities mentioned above
  • Having to decide that trying to maintain a job and balance the priorities above is not feasible and needing to take a step back from their career (a major issue for female workers this past year; see also)
  • Setting boundaries between "work" and "home" when you work from home, etc...
As we begin to reset our lives as we emerge from this unprecedented event, many are looking to redefine their work lives to achieve greater balance and flexibility. 
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In this blog post, I will talk about some of the key aspects of work we find fulfilling. According to the book Drive by Daniel Pink, and based on research by Edward Deci in the 1970s, we perform best when we are intrinsically motivated. The three key factors that determine intrinsic motivation are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I will break down those three concepts in terms of work satisfaction (I will use my new job as an example; with new reflections 2+ years into it added), but other activities can also fill these human needs.
Autonomy

By autonomy, I mean feeling in control of your situation in life, work, etc. Autonomy in terms of work means not feeling micromanaged in your job, having the ability to prioritize your schedule, and choosing to do things in an order and manner that work for you.

I can say in my current position that I have a lot of autonomy: I decide how to prioritize and order my day, the tasks I need to accomplish, and my larger goals for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at North Carolina State University. This is great and a huge plus for my current role.

Now, it isn’t like I have complete autonomy and one shouldn’t expect such autonomy, unless you are self-employed and, thus, your own boss. In my current role, there are still somewhat mundane tasks that I have to do.
For me, that is human resources-related tasks associated with the postdoctoral appointment and hiring processes at NC State. Would I say completing human resource actions in the multi-layered systems at NC State is my passion and makes me happy? No. Is it an essential component of my job and the function of my office (at least as currently defined)? Yes.

Over the past year, my administrative load has INCREASED by at least 30% as we now have additional processes that must be undertaken to hire postdocs given UNC System-wide restrictions on new hires. There have also been more requests by faculty to extend postdoctoral appointments past our 5-year limit this academic year. I have worked to accommodate these requests as these are unprecedented times we are living through and pauses to research projects have necessitated a need for many postdocs to stay in their position longer. In addition, many faculty advisors want to shield their postdocs from a tough job market or a need to move to secure other employment and so I am supportive of them staying here longer until conditions improve. Note, though, that many of our postdocs were able to land jobs in 2020 despite the pandemic. 

The blurred lines between work and home have certainly not helped detach from work...I think I work more now than pre-pandemic. This challenge of disconnecting from work started long before the pandemic but like so many things was exasperated by it. The ability to always be connected to work via one's phone (I probably should discount my work email from my phone Gmail app) has led 
our leisure time to be turned into what some researchers describe as "time confetti". Time confetti are the little bits of seconds and minutes lost to unproductive multitasking often aided by our devices and super connected world. The term was coined by Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. 

We live in an age where our attention is increasingly fragmented, which often prevents us from focusing on high-value work AND our personal lives. It is so easy to let those work email pings distract us from being present at home and with our loved ones. We all need to work on being more present and our employers need to more effectively encourage us to disconnect after 5 PM or on the weekends (in fact, France has a law seeking to restrict after-work emails).
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Back to my administrative work: I take the approach of framing my human resource tasks as critical to the purpose of my job – to improve the postdoctoral experience. This is important because it ties to another key factor of intrinsic motivation – purpose. I need to review these hire actions to be sure the institution (and the faculty supervisors) are treating postdocs in an appropriate way that both follows our institutional policies but also ensures the postdoc’s best interests are considered.

Despite a taxing year in 2020-2021, I am proud of what my office and our postdoctoral association have been able to accomplish this year to support NC State postdocs from virtual social hours to professional development awards geared toward online learning or networking experiences. Many other institutions have also taken efforts to support their postdocs during COVID. So, in spite of the increased workload and administrative burden, I know I am making a difference by facilitating needed processes to keep our postdocs employed, supported, and connected during a difficult year.   

Life is a matter of perspective and having the right mindset of WHY what your doing is important/necessary can get you through some mundane tasks and tough times.
Mastery

People want to feel like they are making progress in their lives; that they are improving and getting better. Humans seek mastery in their work.

As a Ph.D. student or postdoc, you have spent years mastering your experimental, analytical, and communication skills to produce a dissertation, publications, and conference presentations. It feels good to know you are making progress and, as a Ph.D. student or postdoc, you are keenly aware of how frustrating it feels to not make noticeable progress. And this past year of COVID have certainly interrupted early career researchers' progress and job prospects, which we much seek to address at our institutions (for more see this article & this one).  

​A career is also filled with both sides of the mastery coin: moving forward and spinning one’s wheels. Sometimes it is very clear you are progressing toward mastery in a key task/component of your job or nearing completion of some large project or deliverable. Sometimes, though, you feel like you are not progressing. That is life and sometimes measuring progress is tricky.
So, while a sense of mastery and self-improvement is important for fulfillment, you can define what that means to you. If you feel like you have learned a little more than the day before, that you are a little more comfortable in your role than the day before, then you are making progress. It is often dangerous to put too much stock in measurable progress as it doesn’t usually capture subtle aspects of one’s job. As anyone in the sciences knows, the number of papers one publishes does not, in and of itself, denote the degree of mastery or accomplishment one has achieved in your training. I have only been in my new role for a few months, but I feel like I am making progress in understanding the key responsibilities of my position, including learning how to best interface with key people at NC State and how to interact effectively with our postdoctoral community.
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In some ways, progress has been made over the past 2 years on the job and in some ways not. It helps, I think, to look back at accomplishments of my office and our postdoctoral population. So, I started at the end of each calendar year to construct a "Postdoc Year in Review" document to highlight the impact of my work. Constructing this document each December and looking back at the 2019 & 2020 versions remind me that much progress has been made by my office.
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I know much more needs to be done to improve the postdoc experience here and nationally but progress takes time and effort. I have worked over the past 18 months to advocate for more resources for myself and the postdoc office here and those efforts have been only minorly successful (and further budgetary challenges due to COVID have certainly not helped). I hope that as I continue to build awareness of myself and my work on campus and make connections with more stakeholders, more resources will follow. I continue to persist and strive for what I believe is possible for our office and our postdocs in the future.   ​
Please define mastery and self-improvement in a way that makes you appreciate the slow, incremental progress that accompanies much of work.   ​
Purpose
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Working toward a larger purpose can help one persevere when times are tough. It allows you to keep in perspective the reason you do the work. Ideally, your career fills your need to be doing work that has a purpose. In my case, I focus on improving the postdoctoral experience at NC State University. I know firsthand that the postdoctoral years can be challenging and filled with uncertainty (even more so now after living through a pandemic that threatens progress and potential job prospects for postdocs), and I hope that I can help current postdocs identify the unique skills they can bring to the workforce and match that to a career that fits them. I will know if I am successful if I see our postdocs moving on to satisfying careers of their own. And that is certainly happening as evidenced in the career outcome data reported in our 2019 & 2020 NC State Postdoc Year in Review documents mentioned earlier. 
All work does not have a higher purpose, though. Sometimes you are in a bull*hit job (which are common in academia, too) or, as others have labeled them, a rent-seeking job—jobs that don’t produce tangible products or results. These jobs are plentiful and involve processing transactions, moving money around, lobbying, etc. While it could be argued they produce something, their value to society is debated. I won’t get into economic theory, but the point here is that it is difficult to find purpose or feel like one is making the world a better place in some careers. That is OK, though, because you aren’t just your career.
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Don't let your career alone define you.
Too often in America, we allow our careers to define us. I am as guilty as the next person; I often ask at social or networking functions, “So, what do you do?”. This question doesn’t specifically ask about someone’s job function, but often that is how individuals interpret the question.
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Perhaps even worse than that question is the awkward response, “well, I am between jobs right now.” A paying job doesn’t have to define what we do with our lives. You can volunteer for an organization you are passionate about, you can stay at home spending quality time with your kids, or you can take time off to travel the country with your loved one(s), making memories along the way. COVID has forced many to reconsider their life priorities and make difficult choices, which while tough in the moment, may ultimately lead people to lead happier, more fulfilling lives. And a new YOLO (you only live once) movement post-pandemic is emerging as younger workers seek greater meaning, autonomy, and real-world experiences (travel).  
I took my new job to be closer to the people who mean so much to me. I plan to frequently visit my aging parents who live on the coast of North Carolina (a 2.5-hour drive from my new job), I will reconnect with old friends from Furman University and UNC-Chapel Hill who live in the area, and I want to see more of my sister who lives a couple of hours away. I also am plan to take the time to visit my other sister in Memphis, TN, from time to time. The flexibility of my new role gives me all these opportunities and I am thankful for that. Furthermore, there is data suggesting recent graduates who value time over money report greater well being and more intrinsically motivated activity pursuits—pursuing work that they find meaningful in itself versus work they seek for financial/status reasons.
The past year "working from home" has truly been a blessing for me, particularly as a result of my choice to take this job in North Carolina. I have essentially been working from the home my parents retired to on the NC Coast (the home my mother grew up in) since March 2020. I occasionally go back to my actual home in Cary, NC, to check on things, pick-up mail, and go to various appointments. But being able to spend most of my free time with my parents this past year has been an unexpected treat. I know it wouldn't be for everyone, living with your parents, but I have really enjoyed it. It is the little things that truly matter in life. It is not like this year of COVID on the NC Coast has been eventual. We, ironically, have only been to the beach a few times given initial visitor restrictions at the start of the pandemic but also as a result of a general contentedness in staying home, watching TV, talking, laughing, and just being together. I have enjoyed (mostly) every minute of it. Time is something you can't get back and I have appreciated these 13+ months of extended family time. 

If I had chased another career opportunity further afield geographically after my postdoc, this year together with family might have been far more difficult to achieve if not impossible with the challenges and risks traveling via plane. Obviously, we can't predict the future but we can try to prioritize what is important to us when making big career decisions. In retrospect, I now know I made the right choice 2 years ago taking this position, motivated in large part by the location and proximity to family.   
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My parents on the Beaufort, NC, waterfront.
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My sisters, Amy & April, and me on the Beaufort, NC, waterfront.
​If you allow work to define you, then when work isn’t going well you won’t feel well.
You Are More Than Your Work

It is essential to have activities outside of work that give one’s life meaning. What those are will vary from person to person, but you should seek out activities that fill the key components of intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

If you can’t find purpose in your job, you could volunteer for an organization whose mission statement aligns with your interests: tutoring, helping the homeless, advocating to Congress regarding some issue, etc.
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If you don’t feel like your job allows you to achieve mastery, take up a new hobby and learn how to knit, build a chair, speak a new language, etc.
​If you don’t feel like your job gives you autonomy, take control of some other aspect of your life. Maybe you decide to take up a new exercise routine or re-connect with an old friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Do something that gives you a sense of control and brings with it self-fulfillment.

Keep that COVID hobby you started this past year (it's great for your health) and lean into the increase in empathy and volunteerism that has emerged during and as a result of the pandemic...you will never regret finding ways to help others.  
Final Thoughts

In closing, be careful in your search for the elusive “dream job.” Finding a job that fills the needs of autonomy, mastery, and purpose, plus pays you well and fits your interests and skills is a tough, perhaps an impossible order. The good news is that your job doesn’t have to define you as a person nor should it be your only sense of self-worth or fulfillment. Even the best job has its tough moments, and that is when you need to have other activities (volunteering, hobbies) and roles (sibling, parent, son/daughter, friend) that give your life meaning and purpose. You are more than your job, and you can define what a successful, fulfilling, and meaningful life looks like for you.
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Hopefully as we adapt to a "new normal", post-COVID, we will be able to find increased flexibility in our work with potential hybrid roles where we spend some time physically in the office and some time working from home. We need some balance of in-person human connection with our coworkers while also having the capability to work virtually to balance family and personal needs with those of work. And, as the ability to engage with others face-to-face returns, we should also look for ways to collaborate and contribute to something bigger than ourselves by joining groups or volunteering for organizations with a mission we can get behind.

If the past year has taught us anything it is that life is too short to not find purpose in something and seek each day to grow, evolve, and make a difference if only in the smallest way. 365 days of making a 1% improvement in some aspect of the world results in it being 37x better at the end of each year. Whether you make that difference via your job or in the  community at large through volunteer or other efforts, just be sure that you do.
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“Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.” - Carl Sandburg

Additional Resources
Find a Local Meetup Group
Activate Good (Raleigh, NC)
Volunteer Match
Volunteer Match (Virtual Options)
For Further Reading
The Impact of COVID-19 on Boundary Management, Work/Life Integrations, and Domestic Labor for Women in STEMM, report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine

Designing Your Life
  • The Book
  • Resources
  • YouTube Video
  • New: Designing Your Work Life Book

The Future of Work Post-COVID
​
Prudential's Pulse of the American Worker Survey (March 2021)

The new negotiation over job benefits and perks in post-Covid hybrid work

Other Blog Posts of Interest
  • Why you should get involved in things outside the lab/work
  • ​The power of human connection
  • Giving thanks: Finding personal fulfillment
  • More from my NIH BEST Blog Rewind series


0 Comments

NIH BEST Blog Rewind: Exploring a Variety of Career Paths

9/1/2020

2 Comments

 
Career Exploration, Personal Perspective
​

In Fall 2018, I started writing a series of pieces for the NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Student/Postdoc Blog. As these pieces are no longer accessible online, I wanted to re-share them in a continuing series NIH BEST Blog Rewind. Here, I will add some additional thoughts to what was originally authored in 2018, denoted in bold (dark red) throughout the piece.

Original Publication Date: December 2018                           NEW Perspectives, Comments, & Insights
Part of a series revisiting my NIH BEST Blog pieces. ​
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A career journey is often like a winding road with unexpected turns.
In my last post, I mentioned I would talk about exploring available career paths that may interest you based on your personal skills and values. An important thing to mention up front is that I believe there isn’t one ideal, career fit for each of us. I think people can find many, relatively different careers interesting and fulfilling. I think this is a good thing as it puts less pressure on us to find that perfect career. You should rather, I believe, explore several career options and then narrow them down to the two or three that you think would fit your interests and preferences in terms of salary, work-life balance, location, etc…and then aggressively pursue them.

This brings to mind the Life Design work coming out of Stanford University. One of their main points in life design is that there are many potential "yous" out there...a variety of things you could do with your life that would be equally fulfilling. I talked a bit about the Designing Your Life book in an earlier post but you can also check out this excellent presentation from one of the book's co-authors, Bill Burnett, below.
Another key point from Life Design is to "try stuff"...which includes talking to people about their current career so you can visualize whether it might be a good fit for you (Informational Interviews). Better yet, try to intern (see also) or volunteer in an area you might be interested in moving into.
Thinking About Potential Careers
Over the past several months I have thought a lot about my career. I have considered roles in life science consulting, as a medical science liaison, in medical writing, and, most recently, in career & professional development services. In this blog post, I will focus on what I learned about these particular careers and my personal evaluation of their fit for my life. Hopefully walking through this process lets you learn a bit about these careers (which may be useful in your own exploration) as well as how I have weighed the pros and cons of each career path to narrow my options to my final two.
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Life Science Consulting
Life science consulting is a growing field that includes companies such as Clearview Healthcare Partners, Putnam Associates, L.E.K., Clarion, and Triangle Insights Group. You can read more about consulting as a career for Ph.D.s and about one Ph.D.’s journey to life science consulting here. Many of these companies hire MBA graduates, but they will often hire Ph.D.s with domain expertise. While the compensation for Ph.D. trained consultants in these companies is normally quite good ($80,000+ (in Dec 2018), now ~$90,000 according to Glassdoor), that comes with expectations of long hours and, often, a lot of traveling.
​Many Ph.D.s transition from consulting to work in the biotech or pharmaceutical industry as the hard life of a consultant is difficult to maintain for more than a few years. I think this type of career can be particularly straining on someone with a family and often is more appealing to single individuals. These impressions are my own and while the consulting life certainly can work for some people, I realized pretty early on that it wouldn’t for me. If you are interested in trying out the field, though, both Clearview & Putnam offer summer programs for Ph.D. students and postdocs to learn more about the consulting role and visit their offices.
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Medical Science Liaison
The medical science liaison (MSL) role is also a growing one for Ph.D.-trained scientists. The career involves establishing relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs), typically clinicians, to learn more about their therapeutic needs. MSLs most often work for pharmaceutical companies and are tasked with educating KOLs on the advantages of their company’s products. While the position is not directly in “sales,” it is hard for me to disentangle the MSL role from selling a product (if only selling via education). MSLs often travel to meet with KOLs in their designated geographic area/territory and spend considerable time on the road, and the compensation is typically excellent ($90,000+).
MSL experience is highly desirable for potential employers, which brings up the Catch 22 problem of breaking into the MSL role if someone doesn’t have experience as an MSL. I think one’s first MSL job is often about therapeutic area fit. For example, if your Ph.D. and postdoctoral research have focused extensively on glioblastoma and Company X is about to launch a new drug to treat that particular type of cancer, they are more likely to hire you to be an MSL for that product.
​There are programs that will help train you in the language of the MSL field that may help you secure a position, but I can’t personally speak to their value. In the end, I found it difficult to find MSL positions that fit my research expertise in neuroscience (many pharmaceutical companies have moved out of this therapeutic area, though this appears to be changing) and also was a bit uncomfortable with the “selling” that went with the role. I know many MSLs, though, and they all seem very satisfied with the role. Check out the MSL Society’s website for more resources.
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Medical Writing
Medical writing is a diverse career field encompassing individuals focused on regulatory writing, manuscript services, and broad-based science communication. Regulatory writing for the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and other government bodies is a niche area in high demand.
Read more about Regulatory Affairs as a career in the excellent UNC TIBBS Career Blog.
The medical writing occupation is nice due to its flexibility—many writers work from home or remotely. The average compensation for a medical writer is ~$75,000 but note there is a large range of variability in the duties and salaries associated with these roles. In my personal experience, regulatory affairs writing roles are in particularly high demand.
If you are interested in this career path, consider joining the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), which provides a variety of useful resources, offers a very reasonably-priced student membership, and has local chapters across the country to facilitate networking.

Want to learn more about medical writing?
​AMWA's Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Medical Writer is an excellent place to start!
The key to finding a medical writing career that fits your interest is to be sure you understand how a company you are interested in views that role. For example, some companies are focused more on regulatory writing while others do more medical communications work. So, be sure to talk to medical writers who work at companies you are interested in about the duties associated with their role via informational interviews. 
​A great way to show competency as a medical writer is to get experience writing more than scientific papers. I have personally blogged for a local organization focused on advances in the healthcare industry. In addition, writing for a local newsletter on your campus or via an organization like the National Postdoctoral Association (The POSTDOCket) can give you experience preparing pieces for broader audiences and under a timeline. If you can’t work with an existing media outlet, you can publish your own articles on LinkedIn (see an example here), which is a great way to build a portfolio of expertise not just in writing but also in whatever scientific/medical area you focus on. For example, you could write about particular therapeutic areas that you want to work in as an MSL (dual-purpose activity!). After speaking with several people in the field, I have continued to pursue the medical writing career path. It sounds like a great mix of scientific rigor and work-life balance.
For another perspective on medical writing as a career, see this interview with Dee Rodeberg from the UNC TIBBS Career Blog. ​​
I am now actively involved in the Carolinas Chapter of AMWA. So, if you live in the Raleigh-Durham area and are interested in this career path, check out the events page of our website for upcoming information sessions & networking opportunities!  And find your local AMWA chapter here.
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Ph.D. Student & Postdoctoral Fellow Support & Professional Development
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Ph.D. Student & Postdoctoral Fellow Support & Professional Development is a career area that I have been pursuing of late. Individuals in this field work for universities (often in the Graduate School or Office of Postdoctoral Affairs) and assist trainees in their professional development and career exploration. A person in this role can be seen as a type of career coach and often leads workshops on using LinkedIn, resume writing, networking, and job negotiation. These roles are often multifaceted and can include liaising with faculty who have questions about the appointment process and trainee benefits as well as building connections outside the university for potential trainee internships or shadowing opportunities.
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The story of me pursuing the graduate student/postdoc career & professional development career path was born out of an email I received from someone in Vanderbilt’s BRET Office who thought a job like this would be a good fit for me. I have been very active in the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association and the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) but didn’t consider working in graduate student & postdoc affairs as a reasonable career path due to what I assumed to be a small number of available jobs. While the number of jobs is small, it is a growing career field. Having a network of individuals in this area (whom I met at the NPA annual meetings and often post job opportunities on LinkedIn) also helped me learn about job openings as they become available. In addition, the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC) maintains a member area where job opportunities in the career/professional development space are shared.

Note, the GCC now has a trainee membership for graduate students and postdocs interested in being better connected with professionals working in this space.

This is a career area that I am definitely passionate about and could see as a good fit for me in terms of being a rewarding career with excellent work-life balance.
Update: I did end up moving into the graduate/postdoc career & professional development career. Since January 2019, I manage the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at NC State University. Read more about my transition from postdoc to postdoc affairs professional in this POSTDOCket piece here.
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I have also taken on leadership positions with the NPA & GCC. Both organizations have bright futures ahead. The NPA recently announced the hire of a new Executive Director and GCC membership is rapidly growing (~15% increase in membership since 2018)...now with over 450 members. It is a great time to get involved in both organizations either as a postdoc (NPA) or budding career/development professional (GCC). 
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Final Thoughts
I will talk more about the challenges of navigating a multi-prong career search in the future.

What I will say in closing is that the keys to performing a comprehensive career exploration search are to:
  1. Start early
  2. Talk with people in the role you want via informational interviews (use LinkedIn to find these people—I love the alumni tool as you have an instant connection with alumni from your current or former school)
  3. Make use of national organizations that are focused on a career area of interest to you and go to their social events to network with and learn from professionals
  4. Stay in touch with people at companies or in careers you are interested in who may be able to let you know of job openings as they become available
  5. Keep an open mind

As mentioned earlier, there are many lives you can live and feel fulfilled. The key, then, is to realize that fact early, explore multiple career options, and find a few paths to pursue with intent. You may be surprised to discover where it all ultimately leads but by keeping a few options open, you will leave room to pursue exciting opportunities as they arise (Planned Happenstance). 
Further Reading
Career Exploration Series on PassioInventa

The Rewards of Life Sciences Consulting: A Conversation with Putnam’s Remco op den Kelder
Top 10 List Of Alternative Careers For PhD Science Graduates
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What Informational Interviews Can Do for You
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What do we know about Ph.D. scientists’ career paths?
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       Highlighting data from the Council of Graduate Schools' PhD Career Pathways Program
Association of American Universities (AAU) PhD Education Initiative 
       Activities & Reports

From the Reflections Blog
Start Here (using Design Thinking in career exploration)
Career Exploration 101
The Future of Work (and the transferable skills you build pursuing a PhD)
​NIH BEST Blog Rewind Series
Pondering the "next step" as a late-stage postdoctoral fellow
Is a postdoc worth it?

Resources
Designing Your Life worksheets ​
(Informational) Interviewing & Networking Tips from PhD+ (UVA)
Explore Careers via Vanderbilt's Beyond the Lab Video Series
2 Comments

NIH BEST Blog Rewind: Is a Postdoc Worth It?

8/18/2020

1 Comment

 
Career Exploration, Personal Perspective
In Fall 2018, I started writing a series of pieces for the NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Student/Postdoc Blog. As these pieces are no longer accessible online, I wanted to re-share them in a continuing series NIH BEST Blog Rewind. Here, I will add some additional thoughts to what was originally authored in 2018, denoted in bold (dark red) throughout the piece.
Original Publication Date: November 2018                           
​
NEW Perspectives, Comments, & Insights
Part of a series revisiting my NIH BEST Blog pieces. ​

Is a postdoc worth it? It can be, if you use it strategically.

Recently, I came across a passage in the book Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover that I think perfectly captures the nature of finding one’s place in the world. When talking about all the decisions that go into making a life, Westover makes the following analogy:

“Decided. Choices (that people make, together and on their own), numberless as grains of sand, had layered, compressed, coalescing into sediment, then into rock, until all was set in stone.”
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The Fundamental Post-Ph.D. Choice Point: To Postdoc or Not? 
Truly, the choices we make throughout our life ultimately shape and define us. Some choices may seem small and trivial (grains of sand) but they compound over time. The choice to pursue a postdoc is certainly not a trivial one but some of the experiences that accompany it can add up to have an impact on one’s career trajectory, often in unexpected ways.

The most pressing decision for the majority of late-stage graduate students is whether to pursue postdoctoral training. Long the default for those Ph.D.s interested in faculty careers in academia, the postdoctoral fellowship, especially in the sciences has become ubiquitous and a virtually expected next step after graduate school. According to NSF data, ~61% of US life science Ph.D.s with post graduation commitments are pursuing a postdoc and ~38% of all Ph.D. recipients surveyed pursue a postdoc. Even for graduate students interested in careers in industry, many are told that employers want to see postdoctoral experience before offering them a job. Nevertheless, graduate students should definitely consider the value of a postdoc to their own career goals before committing to a few (or often more) years of training.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unstable labor market (including in academia), now may be an excellent time for Ph.D.s to spend a few years in a postdoc to strengthen their skills as they wait for economic conditions to improve. Postdocs will, at least for the foreseeable future, be needed to help drive scientific research and innovation at US universities. In fact, data on postdoctoral hiring trends collected in May/June 2020 by the Professional Development and Career Office at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found 35% of responding institutions have not changed their postdoc hiring practices at all post-COVID-19 and only 3% have stopped hiring postdocs completely.
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Data collected from 31 postdoc offices across the US in May/June 2020 indicate postdoc hiring is still occurring, if primarily in a modified form (requiring additional levels of approval or verification of funding source for the positions).
Furthermore, having an advanced degree may insulate Ph.D. holders from the main shock to labor markets post-COVID-19. And one can imagine the demand for life science Ph.D.s working to assist companies developing COVID-19 therapies and vaccines could be high. Additionally, as companies and industries use this time to rethink their workforce, the skills you are developing in your Ph.D. and postdoc - critical thinking, information synthesis, hypothesis testing, and presentation skills - will have you prepared for the future of work.
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Why Pursue the Postdoc Path? Pluses & Minuses
If you love doing research, a postdoc can seem like a great thing as there are no longer pesky classes and dissertation committee meetings that go along with being a Ph.D. student. Rather, a research postdoc is all about the science. However, there are clear short-term financial costs to pursuing a postdoc as a well-publicized 2017 study found, estimating that 15 years into their careers, former postdoc researchers earned a total salary ~20% less than non-postdocs across a variety of sectors (non-tenure track academic research, government/nonprofit, industry). While this number is somewhat depressing, I am about to use a cliché but one I whole-heartedly believe in when it comes to the postdoctoral experience: it’s not all about the money.
Obviously, it is not about the money while you are in a postdoc and clearly one’s particular family situation may prompt you to look for a higher salary than that of a postdoc after you complete your Ph.D., which is completely understandable. However, the postdoc time can be useful to allow you to continue to explore your career options and diversify your skill set. 
Use Your Time as ​Postdoc to Build Skills & Expand Your Career Options
I realize my perspective as a mobile, single, relatively young man is different than many others. To summarize my personal experience on the matter, I have found my 4.5 years as a postdoc to be a great experience that helped me grow as a person. During this time I have done cool science that will hopefully have an impact on human health, learned a variety of new techniques and skills (both “hard/technical” and “soft/transferable”; including leadership skills in the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association), and discovered more about what I desire for my life.
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In addition, I used my time as a postdoc to explore a variety of career options via informational interviews and on-campus sessions as part of Vanderbilt’s BEST Program: ASPIRE. I also greatly expanded my professional network by attending a variety of local and national conferences on topics ranging from Healthcare to Data Science to Neuroscience. I honed my written and oral communication by volunteering to write/blog for a variety of outlets and never saying no to an invitation to talk about my research work, which I have done at conferences, universities, on Twitter, and at a local science club in Nashville. These varied experiences have shaped who I now am. I didn’t come to this postdoc thinking all of these experiences would happen to me but they did and I am a better person for experiencing them. From these experiences, I know I can write effectively, speak publicly, organize meetings, work as part of a team, and plan and execute a variety of projects, all skills that will be valuable in whatever career I pursue post postdoc.
A Postdoc Can Provide Life Flexibility 
Furthermore, and while it will vary from lab to lab, I have to say that my postdoctoral experience has also given me the ability to live a flexible life. I can take a few weeks off between Christmas and New Years to visit with my parents and sisters, take a week off in the summer to go to the beach with family and friends, or take a Friday off to get a jumpstart on a weekend trip. As long as one's work gets done, a good postdoc advisor won't micromanage your working hours. Thus, a postdoc can offer a good deal of autonomy and flexibility, albeit compensating you at a lower rate than the market might allow. Importantly, postdoc compensation is improving, as measured by NIH NRSA postdoc stipend levels.  
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There is a saying that life is often a tradeoff between time and money, you will often have too much of one but not enough of the other.
​While the above quote referencing the time/money trade-off is certainly not always true, I feel like my position as a postdoc, while not giving me the best monetary reward, gave and still gives me a lot of flexibility and a good work-life balance. It is hard to put a price on that. As my parents get older, I am keenly aware that I should take the time when I can to visit them and other family members. My choice to do a flexible postdoc (as opposed to working in the corporate, 9-5 always “on” world) has given me the ability to make time for family.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, you may not be able to physically visit with family or friends even if you have flexibility in your postdoc. Travel will eventually become more available as we "flatten the curve" and, thankfully, video-conferencing technology allows one to visit with others from the safety of your home.
In these challenging times, you can still use your postdoc time to up-skill via the vast number of courses offered online via LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, EdX, Udemy, and more.  
Moving to Your Preferred Geographic Area for the Postdoc
One should consider taking a postdoc in a geographic area where you believe career opportunities in your desired field are plentiful. That might be the Bay Area, San Diego, Boston, New York, or lesser known but dynamically growing Southern metro areas such as Austin and Raleigh-Durham. CBRE, a world leader in real estate services, has some excellent data on leading US life science clusters and top tech talent markets in North America.
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Moving to any of these hubs will greatly increase your opportunity to find employment after your postdoc and by doing your postdoc in these metro areas, you will be able to actively network with individuals working in the life science and technology sectors. Obviously, COVID-19 will limit your ability to physically network with most anyone over the coming months but many regional groups such as MassBio and the NC Biotechnology Center are currently offering virtual networking opportunities. 
Finally, living in your desired geographic area as a postdoc will allow you to rapidly act on job market opportunities. If a position opens up and they want you to start in a few weeks, you will already have made the move and will be ready to hit the ground running in your new position. ​
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North America at night from space. Accessed from: https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2000/11/city-lights-of-north-america.html
Obviously, if you are considering a faculty career path, you will have to be more flexible with your geographic preferences. Luckily, the timeline for moving to begin a faculty position can often be stretched by several months (to as long as a year) and moving expenses are often covered by the hiring university. 
Even in academia, though, there are clearly geographic hubs for faculty positions: Boston, the Bay Area, Southern California, New York City, and Chicago come to mind. Here in the NC Research Triangle area, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, & North Carolina State University employ over 12,500 faculty (including UNC & Duke Schools of Medicine) in a ~90 square-mile area. So, it is still possible to postdoc and purse a faculty position in the same geographic area, though your options will be limited. 
Where you live can greatly affect your happiness, including being close to family, cultural opportunities, and employment opportunities for your significant other. So, you should definitely consider geography when taking a postdoc and your next employment opportunity, including deciding how important geographic location is for your well-being.      ​​
Transitioning Out of the Postdoc​
Obviously, a postdoc should eventually come to an end and I think one shouldn’t stay too long in a postdoc. What "too long" is will vary by field but I would argue that if you don't feel like you are building new skills and growing as a researcher, you should start planning to transition out of the postdoc. It is easy to get complacent but the postdoc position should be a temporary “stepping stone” to bigger and better things. 
For me, the postdoc expanded my view of what my life could be. I was pretty convinced a faculty job was what I wanted and while that still could be a good career for me (see Tales from the Academic Job Market), I have come to learn there are so many more opportunities out there for Ph.D.s. Furthermore, I have found a few “alternative” (horrible wording) careers that I think I would not only be good fits for me but also would give purpose and meaning to my life. As I mentioned in my first BEST Blog post, everyone is looking for those two things in life: purpose and meaning. My postdoc has helped me to find what that might look like for me. While I haven’t completely gone down any of these available career paths (more on these in my next post) fully just yet, I think I could be happy and fulfilled taking any of them.
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Coda
Since January 2019, I work in postdoc affairs at NC State University (read some about that journey here). In this role, I help postdocs think strategically about the next step in their careers. In a way, I have come full circle from my postdoc perspective this post as I am able to reflect on my own experience as a postdoc to help others during this time in their lives.
In a perfect world, all of the above advice should be applied to graduate students. While a grad student has additional responsibilities with classes, teaching, and research projects, they can also use their time to build skills and explore their career options. Maybe then they can avoid doing a "default" postdoc (pursuing a postdoc because they don't know what else to do after receiving a Ph.D.) and more quickly transition to a career that best leverages their skills and interests and pays them appropriately for their work.
Hopefully, though, I have made the case that if you are a graduate student who still hasn't figured out what that next career step is for you, continuing to pursue a postdoc can be a strategic stepping stone. A postdoc can allow time for further self-reflection, skill building, networking, and research productivity, all of which will serve you well in your journey toward a meaningful and fulfilling career in academia, industry, or beyond. 
Further References & Readings:
Career Conversations for Researchers in the Age of COVID-19 from UCSF's Office of Career & Professional Development

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) has laid out 6 core competencies around effective postdoctoral training: 
​1. Discipline-specific conceptual knowledge
2. Research skill development
3. Communication skills
4. Professionalism
5. Leadership and management skills
6. Responsible conduct of research

NPA Postdoc Career Resources

Postdoc Academy Resources, including those around succeeding as a postdoc

More from the Reflections Blog:
NIH BEST Blog Rewind: Pondering the "next step" as a late-stage postdoctoral fellow
​​Career Exploration 101
​
Post Ph.D.-Career Plans: Consider the Possibilities 
The End of Work as We Know It: How an increasingly automated world will change everything
​Why you should get involved in things outside the lab/work
1 Comment

NIH BEST Blog Rewind: Pondering the “next step” as a late-stage postdoctoral fellow

7/21/2020

0 Comments

 
Career Exploration, Personal Perspective
In Fall 2018, I started writing a series of pieces for the NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Student/Postdoc Blog. As these pieces are no longer accessible online, I wanted to re-share them in a continuing series NIH BEST Blog Rewind. Here, I will add some additional thoughts to what was originally authored in 2018, denoted in bold (dark red) throughout the piece.

​The first in the rewind series comes from when I was entering my last academic year of funding as a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University. At the time, I was considering a lot of career paths, as many Ph.D.-trained researchers do.

I hope sharing these thoughts and my perspectives nearly 2 years removed from that experience help graduate students and postdocs currently going through the career exploration process. 
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Original Publication Date: October 2018                             NEW Perspectives, Comments, & Insights
​As a postdoc entering my 5th year, it is time to make some difficult decisions about my next career step. This is a time when many postdocs begin to question how they want their lives to progress. 
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Soul Searching
Does one stay in academia or move into a (horrendously named) “
alternative career”? My goal over this and the next 5 BEST blog posts is to take you on my personal journey of finding a career that fits my interests, skills, and aspirations for my life, and, importantly, coming to peace with my decision.
I am not going to provide much detail on the mechanics of the job search or the importance of career exploration as those areas have been covered by others, and in other posts by yours truly (see also Start Here on this blog).

​See also these excellent resources from UCSF's Office of Career & Professional Development to help you in career exploration as well as planning for academic & nonacademic careers. 


Getting Personal
I want to make this series of posts personal, which will be challenging given my personality. I am going outside my comfort zone of sharing my feelings/desires/dreads so that maybe others on this journey realize that it is more than OK to do so. I think discovering and accepting your feelings in addition to taking a logical approach to the “pros” and “cons” of a position is critical to making a holistic choice that will be good for your soul.
The "Default Path" to Faculty Post Ph.D.
The “default path” of obtaining a Ph.D., doing a postdoc, and ultimately getting a faculty job is so ingrained into the culture of academic training that it often seems like considering other career options is going against the logical, natural flow. However, the
career landscape for available tenure-track faculty jobs has become extremely different from that of our mentors. 
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I think mentors and trainees are implicitly aware of this but when you personally go through the faculty search process, it becomes very apparent just how tough it is to obtain these positions.
Personal Experience on the Faculty Job Market + New Advice & Insights
I knew through following academic and higher education news sources that landing a tenure-track faculty position was going to be tough but my experience applying last fall (2017) really opened my eyes. I applied to 26 positions that I thought fit my research interests and expertise (neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience), mostly in psychology departments at R1 research universities. I had a total of 1 on-campus interview and it was for the job description I felt least fit my expertise.

I think this result reflects two things:
1) landing a tenure-track job at an R1 is VERY difficult and
2) trying to predict which departments you think would be interested in you is virtually impossible. As with landing any job, the academic job hunt is all about “fit” and if you aren’t the right fit at the right time, you can’t expect to land the job.


Read more about my personal experience on the faculty job market in Tales From the Academic Job Market.

How can you be more proactive in planning for the faculty job market?
Don't dismiss conducting informational interviews with assistant professors at a variety of institutions to learn what made them successful in their job search. In addition, you can use these info interviews to learn more about what it is like working at a liberal arts college, Masters comprehensive university, etc... You may find being faculty at a certain type of institution best fits your skills and interests. 

Also, read our
Survey-based Analysis of the Academic Job Market paper now published in eLife to learn more about metrics associated with successfully receiving a faculty job offer. 
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Predictors of receiving a faculty job offer for individuals on the market in 2018-2019. For more see our publication in eLife (image from Fig 5D): https://elifesciences.org/articles/54097
Next Steps - Searching for Purpose & Happiness in Life
So, where am I going from here? Will I persevere and win the tenure-track lottery? Do I even want the tenure-track
life (there are a lot of pros and cons)? If I move into a career outside academic research and teaching, was my postdoc a waste? Of course not (more on this point in my next NIH BEST post).

The concept of the Sunk Cost Fallacy looms large here. A sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered and the fallacy involves allowing past costs to impact current and future decisions.

This manifests psychologically in the mental challenge we encounter when deciding on whether we should abandon a project or direction due to the amount of energy, time, or resources you have already invested into it INSTEAD OF whether the decision makes sense in the moment or with an eye to the future.

This lingering on sunk costs can also be problematic when considering a career change. Don't let your past investments in a particular career path dissuade you from pursuing what interests you now. Find your Ikigai ("reason for being" in Japanese). 
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Over the course of this blog series, I hope to share my experiences in finding a landing place after the postdoc. I am going to try to be fairly open about the struggles and doubts I experience and hopefully offer perspective on finding happiness and purpose in life. I think it is ingrained in American culture that your career defines you. New people you meet invariably ask, “What do you do?” to get a sense of who you are and what you value. This is unfortunate. You are so much more than a job or even a career (acknowledging the distinction that often gets drawn there). 
Think Beyond Lab/Work/School​
Through volunteering in something you deeply believe in, you can also find purpose, even if your job has no direct impact on the world. The key here is to know what you can and can’t sacrifice in a job or career and how you might be able to fill a particular void in your life through activities outside of work.
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I volunteered in my local postdoctoral association and it ultimately led to a career path I did not initially consider. 
​ 

In retrospect, my involvement in the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) allowed me to build confidence in my leadership experience (as treasurer & junior co-chair/vice president), learn more about the postdoctoral training & support landscape, and exposed me to the national postdoc affairs landscape by attending National Postdoctoral Association annual meetings. Now working as the Postdoc Affairs Program Manager at NC State University, I can see how all those past experiences led me to my current role.
​
Without getting involved in the VPA, I might not have ended up in my current career.  


You never know how the various experiences in your life will ultimately influence you and your path. The key is to experience things beyond your current work/research/training to broaden your perspective, give back, and build new skills - they will benefit you now & in the future.  

Come Along On My Journey
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In closing, part of the search for a post-postdoc (or post-Ph.D.) career is a search for yourself. This sounds kind of intimidating and it is. Hopefully, though, by going on this journey with me you will see that people do come through to the other side and along the way they often discover what is most important to their well-being and happiness. Seems like a pretty nice outcome after navigating the hard, twisty road to a career. Ready for the ride?
Further Reading
Career Management: The Sunk-Cost Fallacy!

The Journey from Postdoc to Working in Postdoctoral Affairs

More from the Reflections Blog:
Career Exploration Series
Start Here

Career Exploration Series (PassioInventa)

​
Learn more about BEST
BEST: Implementing Career Development Activities for Biomedical Research Trainees
This book ​provides an instructional guide for institutions wanting to create, supplement or improve their career and professional development offerings. Each chapter provides an exclusive perspective from an administrator from the 17 Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) institutions. The book can aid institutions who train graduate students in a variety of careers by teaching faculty and staff how to create and implement career development programming, how to highlight the effectiveness of offerings, how to demonstrate that creating a program from scratch is doable, and how to inform faculty and staff on getting institutional buy-in.
This is a must-have for graduate school deans and faculty and staff who want to implement and institutionalize career development programming at their institutions. It is also ideal for graduate students and postdocs.
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    A neuroscientist by training, I now work to improve the career readiness of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

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