Happy Tuesday everyone!
Last week I outlined a programme for career development, to help you identify a suitable career path and how to get there. Over the coming weeks I’ll talk more about each of the 7-steps in this process.
Before getting started with this however, I want to highlight an important habit that you should develop as an academic researcher. This habit will have a huge influence on your life and could change every aspect of it going forward for the better – you need to get into the habit of career planning.
So what do I mean when I say develop this habit? I’m talking about getting strategic with your career planning and starting immediately, at whatever stage you’re at.
Why do you need to develop a career planning habit?
In the current academic system, most early career researchers will never obtain a full-time research post. Rather, the majority will have to carve out a career plan that bears no resemblance to that of their seniors.
Yet most of the career advice they receive will be from these superiors. My experience of academia (both as an early career researcher and as a principle investigator) is that the common advice provided by supervisors is:
“Concentrate on your research, publish it and provided you do this well it will all be fine when you get to the end of your contract/grant/funding/studentship to find something suitable.”
Whilst this may work to some level for the academic career trajectory (and even then it’s far from ideal), for non-academic career paths it leads individuals into a situation where they are ill-prepared to find the right role and can feel pressured into taking the first opportunity that comes their way, regardless if it is suitable or not.
At best this approach is highly inefficient, at worst it’s downright destructive. After all you’ll spend more time working than doing anything else (unless you’re incredibly wealthy of course and actively choose not to work). Let’s assume for now that most of us don’t fall into this category!
Work therefore impinges on every other aspect of your life. Your happiness, the relationships you have with others, how successful you can be, your net worth, how much down-time you get, your self-esteem and even your health. An ill-fitting job that stresses you out, fails to fulfil you or provide you with success, will have a negative impact on all of the aforementioned.
It couldn’t be more important then that you find a path that’s aligned with your skills, abilities and values (more about the specifics of how to do this in the future). But for now I’ll outline how to implement the career planning habit into your weekly routine, so you consider your professional future regularly.
How do you develop a career planning habit?
The majority of academic researchers are on temporary contracts/studentship positions. At best you could have a 5-year contract, at worst 1-year or less. Whatever the length of time, it is still finite and a relatively short period of your working career.
You should get into the habit of thinking about your career throughout this tenure and not leave it until the last few months of your position, to start considering your next move.
Due to the funding system in scientific research, individuals often find themselves in a situation where their contract might be extended should an award be made. No matter how promising a proposal might look on paper though, there are no guarantees in this system and so researchers should have a plan B that is well thought through and ready to implement should the funding application be rejected.
If you’re on a temporary contract, I would advise you to start thinking about a career plan early on. Don’t leave it to your last few months as you need time to consider all possible options.
When you’re caught up in the day-to-day throws of lab work, it’s easy to forget to take time to think about your long-term future. Focusing on getting experimental results often turns into an all-encompassing activity, but thinking about your career and future strategy needn’t be. Taking an hour a week to focus on this, won’t impact your research and will be hugely beneficial to your future success.
Don’t expect anyone to tell you to do this or support you in this activity (least of all your supervisory team) – so the impetus has to come from you. Spend this time each week to:
- Research possible career options and seek advice using on-line resources
- Create a network using LinkedIn (not restricting yourself to academics alone)
- When attending conferences network at these events, including industry representatives who might be there
- Sign up and attend career events where possible
- Seek professional career advice and coaching if you wish
- Develop your CV as you go along, updating it monthly with recent achievements (new publication, presentations, outreach activities, learning a new technique, or attended a course etc.)
Overall this shouldn’t be too time consuming and will build a strong foundation for developing a career plan.
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