In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover tips, including these below, to make mentoring relationships more successful.Jim talks about this topic a lot and Lauren has also covered it in some of her talks. This is a really important topic and we are looking forward to this discussion.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening. 

• Quit taking it personally (Q-TIP)
• Get a reality check
• Set goals and expectations together and re-evaluate often
• Always be prepared for a meeting
• Ask for feedback but make sure you have several ideas on hand  
• Seek out secondary mentors in addition to your primary faculty mentor
• Stay patient, mindful, and connected
• Realize that mentoring is a two-way street
• Remember that you are an adult and this is your career
• Use the resources available to you

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 will continue from episode 79 to continue to focus on advice on questions Jim and Lauren get often about career readiness, self-advocacy, and how to mentor up. Both episodes 79 and this one, are Inspired by a recent Q&A session Jim had at BCH. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening. 

• How should postdocs handle mismatched expectations between themselves and their PI or institution? 
•  What are some practical ways to navigate competition in academia, including in-lab competition, whilemaintaining collaborations and a supportive network? 
• How can postdocs manage career uncertainties, especially when deciding between academia and industry? 
•  What are some red flags that indicate a postdoc is at risk of burnout, and how can they proactively prevent it? 
•  How can institutions better support postdocs in maintaining a healthy work-life balance? 

 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!

Jim and Lauren both get questions about career readiness, self-advocacy, and how to mentor up. Inspired by a recent Q&A session Jim had at Boston Children’s Hospital, in this episode, we answer the questions from the audience, and other advice to help our listeners. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening. 

• Why Jim was at BCH?
• Strategies we have found most effective for prioritizing time and energy to balance research, writing, mentoring, and networking? 
• Advice for postdocs to set realistic short-term and long-term goals to stay on track in academia
• Common time-management mistakes postdocs make and how these can be avoided
• Advice for postdocs to approach difficult conversations with their PI, especially when there are disagreementson research direction?
• Advice for how postdoc can maintain a healthy work-life balance and professional boundaries when their PI has high expectations, including making requests at all hours and occasionally overstepping personal boundaries? 
• Steps postdocs can take early on to prevent authorship disputes 
• Institutional resources or best practices for resolving authorship conflicts 
• Developing productive relationships with colleagues, your boss, and other people you engage with in your work

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 the last episode, no 77, Jim and I talked about the 2 body problem and reasons why this might occur, and in this episode, we thought we would continue the discussion to talk about how to negotiate if you find yourself in a two body situation.  We cover points such as these below.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  

• From the institutional perspective, the 2 body problem presents both strategic opportunities and operationalchallenges.
• What are a few of the strategic opportunities
• What are a few of the operational challenges
• When you should let an organization know about the 2 body situation  
• Who to talk with at the organization
• Options that could exist internally to the organization to address the 2 body problem 
• Options that could exist in the larger community to address the 2 body problem 
• Considerations to be aware of and the importance of communication  

 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!  

Lauren was in Chicago and Ohio a few weeks ago and the question of the two body problem came up a few times.  Jim and I decided to do this episode to provide insight on the two body problem.  We also cover insights on the academic nomad situation.   of career planning also since this can relate to the two body problem.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful as you plan for your career and life and hope you enjoy listening.  

What do we mean by the academic nomad? 

What is the two body problem

Why does the academic nomad situation happen… 

Aspects to consider in planning for your career  

Advice to navigate the academic nomad situation  

Advice to navigate the two body problem

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 we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Jim and Lauren both had busy weeks last week as part of national postdoc appreciation week (NAPW) which is the third week in September. In this episode, 76, we will cover topics below including what we talked about, questions from the audience, and other advice to help our audience. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  

• What Jim and Lauren were up to during national postdoc appreciation week
• Jim gave a workshop at University of Central Florida - “Hero’s Journey: Making the Most of Your Training” workshop.
• Lauren gave a talk at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio, on “Building and Developing Career Relevant Skills” 
• Lauren also coached a number of postdocs and grad students on resume advice while at NCH
• Jim gave a keynote at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Jim hosted NPAW events for the HMS postdocs
• Lauren traveled to Chicago. to give an interactive workshop at the Career Development Symposium on "Transferring Your Academic CV to a Resume for Industry"

   

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 how to assess opportunities and evaluate job descriptions in terms of how to understand and interpret some of the language in them.  Wording in job descriptions are not there just to fill space. Wording is often carefully chosen to provide information about the organization and role. This can include information about the company stage, growth, culture, etc 

We also add insights about what you might want to highlight in your application materials and to inquire about as you interview, based upon what you see in the job description. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  

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 our last episode, we talked about the steps in the job search process (26…).  To follow up this episode,  Jim and I decided to focus on advice for how to structure your time when you are in a job search in this episode.  We provide advice for people who are currently working and job searching as well as those who are fulltime job searching due to a RIF or other reason.  We will provide tips for how to organize your schedule to help you be more efficient as you do the many things that you should be doing as part of the job search process.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  

Before we dive in, it’s important to mention that for many people, when they are working, their schedule is prettystructured.  It can be a shock when you find yourself suddenly not working, since the unstructured and unpredictable nature of your day can be really hard to deal with. This is why Jim and I are a big proponent of puttingin some sort of structure if you are job searching, otherwise, things may seem super haphazard, and nothing might get done…  

• We start with general concepts that apply to whether you are full time working and looking for a role or full timeunemployed looking for a role….   
• We talk about advice that is helpful to do if you are early in the job search
• We talk about advice once you get into a rhythm
• We give some advice when you are mid Job Search Process
• We give some advice when you are late in your Job Search Process

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 outline all of the steps involved in a job search process. There are so many things you need to do if you are job searching and it can beoverwhelming to keep on top of everything. In the next episode we will talk about ways to help organize your schedule to help you be more efficient during the job search process.  We hope you find this advice in this episode andthe next one helpful and we hope you enjoy listening. 

Steps in the job search process  (generally in this order)

• Reflect!!!!
• Identify organizations/sectors relevant to you
• identify job titles that interest you (and are relevant)
• Find job postings
• Identify external recruiters / recruiting firms / contacts in your space
• Activate your network - Look at LinkedIn to identify people to network with and reachout 
• Identify networking orgs
• Identify events to attend - networking and skill building events and attend
• Write master resume 
• Tailor individual resumes - for each role 
• Write master cover letter
• Tailor individual cover letters - for each role 
• Get feedback from people on your application materials
• Write/update Linkedin profile 
• Post on LI
• Do something fun/re-energizing!! 
• Informational interview 
• Follow up with people you networked with 
• Follow up on applications 
• Find / ensure clothes that fit for interviews 
• Interview prep 
• Prepare job talk
• Actually interview  
• Follow up on interviews  
• Get / engage references
• Negotiate job offer

Top 10 most important steps

• Reflect on what you want in your next role, org, environment
• Identify organizations relevant to you
• identify job titles that interest you
• Activate your network
• Write master resume and CL
• Tailor resume and CL for each role 
• Get feedback from people on your application materials
• Write/update LinkedIn profile 
• Informational interview 
• Do something fun!! 

 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!

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!