The flow diagram method: for those of us who like to work in logical steps. • Create a diagram, and draw a box on the far right side with your current dream role written in it. • To the left of your dream role: create boxes with skills required; don’t ignore soft skills like networking, or presenting. These are things you can demonstrate on a CV! • On the left side of the diagram: create boxes with where you are with these skills. Then start linking them with arrows. Your current skills and where you need to jump; create another box that gets you some of the way there. • Follow the traffic light system. Anything that isn’t current, colour in red. If you are working on it, make it orange. If it’s been done, make it green! Once you have a vague roadmap, start experimenting. You can refer back to your roadmap; having it in your mind will help complete its components. You may decide to change your mind; feel free to edit the roadmap as this happens! Step two: be built by others, and build others up The often overlooked or ignored section of anyone’s career is other people. My career only exists due to the people I met, and the time investment they made. Hard work, good luck and societal factors all play major and minor roles. Yet, there are no ‘self-made’ individuals. Networking is a word so overused that it may as well be nonsense. Social media can make it hard to know who you can rely on in a pinch and who is an obligatory contact. Of the people you do rely on, it can sometimes be hard to know who has a genuine interest in building you up. Also, who of them, often for completely non-malicious reasons, would quite like you to stay where you are… There is no ‘one size fits all’ here, and any literature and guidance I have found on it leaves me feeling lacklustre. I have known draconian, and miserable, research leaders who have been instrumental in jettisoning colleagues to new heights. I’ve also known incredibly caring, compassionate and likeable leaders whose teams feel somewhat stagnant. There are some signs to look out for, and cultivating mentors and peers to help you on your journey is essential. In addition, finding your own way to give back and build others up is a duty – and not an option. The often overlooked or ignored section of anyone’s career is other people. My career only exists due to the people I met, and the time investment they made.
We like to think we have arrived here via a linear series of actions. A timeline. But, we change our minds, make mistakes and grab hold of opportunities as we go. A career goal is great, it shouldn’t stop you challenging yourself in new ways, and changing your mind. I never set out to work as Head of R&D. I didn’t know jobs like this existed. Most of the skills I needed were gained from being challenged by something else. Overcoming problems and solving them. By doing it, I found out how much I wanted to do it. These incremental experiments work better with structure. You are going to go ‘off piste’. This is good! But it helps to know how and when. Set a vague ‘roadmap’ for where you want to go. People think differently, but I find two major tools help here. Choose one, try not to overthink it: The presentation method: for those of us who think abstractly, this can be helpful. • Start a presentation, or get 5 pieces of paper if you like arts and crafts. • Write the next 5 years on each of them (2023, 2024, 2025, etc.). • On each of them, do a mind map of what ‘success’ would look like. You may want to start at the end and work backwards, or start on this year! • Once you have an idea of what success looks like, start mapping what skills, experiences, and other thoughts will help you achieve this vision of success (you will use this later).
To get started on this:
Pick a mentor – pick being the optimum word Outside of your direct line manager, or PI. They should be vaguely aligned to where you want your career to be and ideally not too far removed from where you are. • You may have dreams of being a CEO of a pharmaceutical company, but unless you are on a board already, a pharmaceutical line manager may be more enlightened to your cause! Also, they will likely be flattered if you ask. Go in with notes, and come out with notes. • This is really how you start to ‘feel out’ your mentor. Go in with questions and ask them. See how they respond. These questions should be future focused; anything that’s affecting your day to day is likely better with a peer.
21 Microbiology Today May 2023 | microbiologysociety.org
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