“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. 

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).

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.
​
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.

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
​
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.

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.
​
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.

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.
​
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.

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.​

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

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  

2020...what a year.
Who knew at the beginning we would be here?
Certainly times have been tough and many are apart.
However, these circumstances made us appreciate what we should have from the start.

It’s often the little things that matter in life:
A sunny day, brisk walk, or chats with loved ones be they friends, family, your husband or wife.
In all the noise of our busy lives we often forgot to slow down and see
How much we had to be thankful for...hopefully you agree?

As this year reaches its end
We look forward to rounding the COVID-19 bend.
Science has delivered advances to slow the spread
And brighter days are ahead.

When our lives begin to restart
Let us not forget what we learned while apart:
Connection, love, and hope should be at the heart
Of our society as we chart
A path forward in the year ahead
One full of promise and not dread.

Here’s to a brighter, better future for all of us. ​

Approximately 2 years ago I was navigating a multi-pronged job search where I considered a variety of career paths to pursue after my postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. I am now approaching the end of my second year working in postdoctoral affairs at North Carolina State University, which I began in January 2019. 

This piece about my transition from postdoc to working in postdoc affairs originally appeared in the National Postdoctoral Association's online newsletter, The POSTDOCket, in April 2019. I have added some additional thoughts and reflections in bold (red). 

​Like many postdoctoral scholars, I considered a variety of careers during my time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt University. I applied to tenure-track faculty jobs in fall 2017 and 2018, submitting nearly 25 applications each year (read more in my Tales from the Academic Job Market). I also talked with individuals in my immediate and extended network (via informational interviews) who worked in a variety of areas outside academia: medical writing, medical science liaison, & life science consulting.

Only since fall 2018 did I think that a career in postdoctoral affairs was both an option, and an area where I had the necessary qualifications. In retrospect however, I realize I had been steadily building a portfolio of postdoc affairs involvement and professional development knowledge over the past few years.

I got my first in-depth exposure to postdoctoral affairs while working with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) as treasurer in 2016-17 and junior co-chair (vice president) in 2017-18. During that time, the VPA executive board and I worked with our newly centralized Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) to broaden our programming for a wider postdoc audience.

Although developing programming to be broadly relevant and useful to postdocs from varying fields was a challenge, we made progress in reaching a larger and more diverse population of Vanderbilt postdocs through our social and professional development events. While interacting with postdocs in my VPA leadership roles, I began to understand the range of challenges they faced: international employment issues, family care issues, mental health issues, and lack of supervisor/mentor support, just to name a few.

I have subsequently written about some of the challenges postdocs face on this blog.
​See:

• The Challenges of Being an International Researcher: Implications for Advanced Degree Labor Markets
  
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• ​​Call to Action: Measuring Postdoc Impact

I can't emphasize enough the value of getting involved in something beyond your work/lab/school while a graduate student or postdoc....you learn so much about other skills you have to offer and, through volunteering, have a chance to give back to your community. 

My exposure to the challenges and various levels of support available to postdocs at a national level was broadened by attending the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA)’s Annual Conference in 2017 and 2018. I learned from other postdoctoral offices and organizations about work that they were doing geared toward improving postdoctoral career readiness (i.e., thinking broadly about career options) and outcomes.

In speaking with NPA poster presenters, I learned how they successfully campaigned for higher starting postdoc salaries, organized joint events with nearby institutions to share costs, leveraged alumni networks, and tracked career outcomes. The importance of using data to campaign for change and track interventions was a key lesson I learned from these interactions.

In my current role, I have begun working on better postdoc career outcomes transparency. In fact, I present data on the subject during our mandatory new postdoc orientation at NC State University. By showing postdocs the range of career fields they can move into early in their tenure, I hope to prompt them to realize there are many successful "next steps" available to them after their time as a postdoc.
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I have also led the development of a Postdoc Climate Survey we launched this year and hope to leverage this data to continue to advocate for initiatives that improve the postdoctoral experience here at NC State. 

Around the time I was becoming more involved in the postdoctoral community at Vanderbilt and beyond, I became interested in a career in science communication and medical writing. At the NPA annual meeting, I learned about The POSTDOCket, the online newsletter for the organization. I began writing for The POSTDOCket following the 2017 NPA annual meeting, where I profiled a workshop I attended by SciPhD.

Over the next few years, I wrote twelve pieces for the newsletter and continue to contribute to it. My interview with Sam Castañeda, a pioneer in postdoctoral support services and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, was particularly inspiring as I learned more about the impact that postdoc offices can have on improving the postdoc experience through community building, personal and professional support services, and advocating at the state and national level.

​In addition, I began writing about my own journey in career exploration for the NIH BEST blog in fall 2018, in hopes that sharing my experiences of the post-PhD job hunt would help current trainees on the job market.

I now serve on the NPA Board of Directors and liaise with The POSTDOCket team. If you are a postdoc or someone who supports postdocs, contributing your ideas and writing to The POSTDOCket is an excellent way to begin establishing yourself as a thought leader in the postdoc affairs space. Offering helpful advice to postdocs in The POSTDOCket is another excellent reason to write for this outlet.  

I had many great examples of career and professional development resources available to me while a postdoc at Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET) offers an incredible array of programming to graduate students and postdocs. During my  time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt I assisted in planning some of this programming. In fact, the people I worked with in the BRET Office at Vanderbilt were the ones who directed me towards a job advertisement for a postdoc program manager position for which they thought I was a good fit. After reading the job description they forwarded to me, it seemed to be a job where I could work to help postdocs feel more “career ready” and simultaneously try to improve institutional resources and support for them, which really appealed to me. 

While applying to this and similar program manager positions, I learned from a contact who I met at the NPA Conference (and on her LinkedIn feed, no less—the power of networking and LinkedIn in action!) of the postdoc program manager position at North Carolina State University—the ideal job for me (based on geographic preference and being nearer to family). The story of my first “real job” offer, subsequent soul searching, and eventual acceptance of my current position can be read elsewhere.

​One organization to keep on your radar if you are interested in a career in graduate or postdoc career & professional development work is the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
​I joined GCC shortly after beginning my position at NC State and have found the community very supportive and collaborative. GCCers share resources and ideas about how to help those of us working in PhD career and professional development do our jobs better. Through various committees, GCC members are focused on important topics around grad/postdoc career outcomes as well as developing useful resources for trainees including ImaginePhD, a career exploration platform for the humanities and social sciences. GCC members also share advice on career planning for both trainees and the professionals who serve them through the weekly Carpe Careers column on Inside Higher Ed. In addition, the GCC member message board is great way to learn about job openings in this space. Finally, the GCC offers a trainee membership for grad students and postdocs interested in learning more about a career in grad/postdoc career and professional development.