With so many people impacted by RIF’s (reduction in force, layoffs, etc) we thought we would do this episode to provide advice specifically for people who have been impacted by this.  RIF’s can apply to everyone - people in academia, industry, on-profits, government, etc. We will focus on a few topics in this episode focused on helping plan your job search if you have been impacted by a RIF. We hope you find this advice helpful and we hope you enjoylistening. 

• Are there different types of RIFs?
•  When do you start applying – right away, or should you reflect first before you send out so many resumes
•  Do you mention the RIF when you apply or talk with people?
•  How does a RIF effect references
•  How do you talk with your network about the RIF
•  Should you do the “open to work on” LinkedIn
• Advice to help your network help you
• if you are international and on a visa and are part of a RIF how do you navigate RIF’s
  

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode continues from the last one, episode 70, to add a little more reflection on the last 69 episodes. In the spirit of reflection, we will also share a few thoughts around reflecting on your job search and why this is important to do. We hope you enjoy listening. 

Our reflection of the podcast:

• Our biggest surprises from doing our podcast
• A few lessons we have learned from doing our podcast
•  Current specific pain points

Job search reflection

• If you are not hearing back from job applications, we mention a few reasons why 
• If you are not making it past the HR screen, we mention a few reasons why 
• If you are not making it past the Hiring Manager screen, we mention a few reasons why 
• If you are not making it past the interview teams with colleagues, we mention a few reasons why 
• If you are not making it past the presentation part of the interview , we mention a few reasons why 

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode is more of a retrospective of the last 69 episodes.  A few weeks ago, we had our 5,000th play and this got us thinking about doing a retrospective episode, since we have so much content. In this episode, we reflect on a few topic areas of the podcast to help for our listeners as they navigate the many episodes.  In addition to reflecting on the episodes, we also reflect on the themes, lessons learned and a few other points below. We hope you enjoy listening. 

•  A few reflections on episodes covering Self-reflection: Intro (Ep 1), SF Trip (Ep 2), March Madness/Job Search/Interview (Ep 6/7), Summer Slowdown (Ep 15), Skill building & Myth busting (Ep 37), Silver linings in change (Ep 43), Game Face (Ep 58)), Salary Negotiation (Ep 60), Universal Advice (Ep 64)
• A few reflections on episodes covering Self-awareness: Skill building & Myth busting (Ep 37), Silver linings in change (Ep 43), Giving & Receiving feedback (Ep 45) 
• Some of Lauren’s favorite episodes - Superpowers episode (Ep 10), Engagement with your community & myth busting (Ep 18), Advice for international scientists (Ep 53) 
• Some of Jim’s favorite episodes Getting your game face on (Ep 58), all of myth-busting episodes, Finding silver linings in change (Ep 43), New year new administration (Ep 41), Giving gratitude (Ep 38), Thanksgiving/end of year (Ep40), Interviewing red/green flag series (Eps 19-23)  
• A few reflections on episodes covering Resumes and specific resume advice (Eps 9, 12, 13, 14, 69)
• A few reflections on episodes covering Interviewing (Eps 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 67, 68)
• A few reflections on episodes covering Networking (Eps 33, 34)
• A few reflections on episodes covering Informational Interviewing (Eps 15, 16)
• A few reflections on episodes covering Job searching and navigating career choices (Eps 6, 29, 30, 32, 64)
• What episodes have we gotten the most feedback on

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode , Jim and Lauren cover a range of advice focused on job applications, applicant screening, timing for filing roles, and a few other topics we have been asked recently. We hope you find this discussion helpful covering these points below and we hope you enjoy listening. 

• How do companies usually process applications? Is it in the order they are received? Or is it something else?
•  Hundreds of people apply to each posting. Should I still apply if so many people have applied? 
•  Is there a general average for how many positions people apply to before getting an interview?
•  Can an applicant apply to multiple positions in the same organization at the same time?
•  How common is it for companies to use AI to filter through CVs in hiring processes?
• Why am I not hearing back when I meet all the qualifications of a job posting. Do you have any suggestions for how to get an interview?
•  Is applying to companies that you don’t know anyone at, worth it?
•  How fast are positions filled nowadays?
•  In your estimate, what % of job postings are not real
•  After applying for a position, when should we expect to hear back from the company?

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode continues from episode 67 and covers a few more pieces of advice relating to interviewing including presentations as well as how to assess culture fit and also how to follow up from interviews. These are really important topics and many of you listening may have similar questions to these points we cover below. We hope you find this helpful and we hope you enjoy listening. 

• How to convince the hiring manager that while you do not have one or two techniques they want and you do not have it, to be not an issue?
•  How can I come across as competent and confident if I have a low publication record?
•  What helps more: Practicing in front of mirror or like giving mock interviews with peers and friends?
•  Practice using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or PAR (Problem, Action, Result) technique to prepare responses for common interview questions
• Elevator pitches - how to tailor these 
• Advice for presentations duringinterviews (we also have an entire episode (51) on this
• Are there things to look out for during interviews regarding company culture ?
• How a candidate might use the interactions to assess whether the prospective employer is a good fit.
• Should we send a “thank you” email to each person after the interviews?
• Should you follow up with a thank you on LinkedIn if you don't have the email address for the people you interviewed with?
• When is the best time to follow up with the hiring managers?

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover advice for interviewing. This is the first of two episodes focusing on interview advice.  Lauren recently gave a talk to postdocs and grad students at Harvard Medical School on interviewing in early June and this episode covers questions received during this talk as well as questions that Jim and Lauren have received during coaching discussions. We cover these questions below in this episode. We hope you find this episode helpful and we hope you enjoy listening. 

• Should candidates apply to jobs first or prepare their materials first for job applications?
• Advice to sound more enthusiastic during HR Screening
• Advice to tailor interview responses to the role you are interviewing for
• Should candidates prepare an overview slide ppt for the first interview with hiring manager?
• How should candidates answer the question “Why do you want to leave academia?“
• Should candidates prepare differently / prepare different responses for interviews at big organizations vs startups?
• Advice to answer the question "what is your biggest mistake” or “a weakness that you have”?
• Advice for how to approach interview responses if you have worked on various projects across different areas

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.  

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we cover Jim’s recent trip to Louisville Kentucky. He travelled there to give a few career focusedtalks to grad students and postdocs at University of Louisville as part of their CRAFT (Career Research Advancement Focused Training) series for professional and career development. We cover a number of pieces of advice that Jim covered, such as these below. We hope all of you enjoy listening. 

• Why were you in Louisville Jim? 
• How was it being there? Was it all work, or were you able to see friends/family also?
• Jim’s talk on Day 1 - Future-Proofing Your Career: Taking control in Uncertain Times – a few things he covered
• Advice for uncertainty
• Inventory Your Superpowers
• Master the subtle powers
• Evaluate and lean into your Transferable Skills
• Day 2 - Career Clinic – a few things he covered
• Crafting your CV and Resume: summarize the highlights of your career in just a few pages
• Demystifying Cover Letters: quickly and concisely convey interest and fit
• Interview Prep Strategies: convincing others (and yourself) of your relevant experience
• Questions Jim was asked during his visit

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren talk about a few conferences that Lauren attended / spoke at between June 10th and 23rd 2025 covering these points below.  Lauren was at the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC) conference in Minneapolis MN from June 10-13, The BIO conference in Boston from June 15-18 and the American Society of Microbiology Microbe (ASM) conference in Los Angeles from June 19-23.  

• What is the GCC conference
• How was the GCC
• Our talk at the GCC – along with Vanderbilt and the Science Communication Lab about our respective podcasts - The title: “Still listening?  a Comparison of three Ph.D. podcasts and a discussion of their relevance in 2025.  
• Questions we got about our podcasts
• Involvement in the Scholar Mentor and Development Program - as part of BIO https://smdp.icpdprograms.org/ 
• Panel moderation at the SMDP program on Getting Hired
• Advice that the panelists shared during the panel  
• BIO conference networking and engaging with international groups
• The possible talk at Bio
• Developing a high impact resume talk at the ASM Career Symposium
• Mentoring at ASM
• Takeaways from Lauren’s talk at the ASM Leadership Symposium on How to develop and engage your professional network

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren discuss universal pieces of advice, including these below, that apply to everyone,regardless of career focus, functional department, or industry sector. We hope you find this helpful as you navigate your career and search and we hope you enjoy listening!    

You should keep an updated resume even if you are not looking for a role since you might need it for other types ofopportunities - such as volunteer opportunities or board opportunities.

People cannot read your minds - be careful with jargon and being so specific with details that people cannotunderstand what you do / what your impact was

Your resume is built for someone else to read – remember this

Tailor your resume for each role that you apply to 

Don’t just cultivate your network when you need a role - you should be cultivating it all the time.

Find ways to reachout to and follow up with people in your network

Keep your LinkedIn profile updated to enable others to know what you might be up to

Share updates on LinkedIn to let your network know what you are up to and amplify others

Have your elevator pitch ready in case you need to use it - at the baseball game, conference, networking event, etc

Self-reflect - understand/remind yourself that you have blindspots, biases, strengths, value, and areas to improve

Periodically check in with yourself to see where you are in your career

Show gratitude, say thank you, show appreciation

Realize that others face similar challenges and may be struggling as well - it’s not always about you

Give yourself grace

Be organized 

Be intentional

Be realistic

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren discuss myths that we have heard from people regarding the job application process, application review process, and interview process.  Wedispel these myths, including points below, and share insights about why these myths are not accurate. We hope you find this helpful as you navigate your career and search and we hope you enjoy listening!    

Myth: The best-qualified candidate with the best technical skills always gets the job

Myth: You should apply to as many jobs as possible

Myth: If you don’t hear back quickly, you didn’t get the job

Myth: AI/ATS controls the whole application process

Myth: You can only get hired if you know someone

Myth: The more resumes you send, the more interviews you will receive

Myth: You only need to have 1 resume

Myth: Your resume needs to be one page.

Myth: Resumes are only work related

Myth: You can only apply if you meet 100% of the job requirements

Myth: You should hide employment gaps at all costs

Myth: Industry doesn’t care about your publications

Myth: If a job is only asking for a BS and you have a Ph.D, then you are overqualified and should not apply

Myth: No one reads your cover letter

Myth: Interviewers are trying to trip you up

Myth: Do not follow up after the interview. If you do, it will be viewed as nagging and will be annoying

Myth: If you don’t get this job, it means you failed or you’re not hirable

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.

As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!