This is something everyone should consider. For job seekers, it is the first question you should ask as part of your job search.
The answer should involve doing what you are passionate about. You are designed to do this. You are good at doing what you are passionate about.
So, what excites you?
How can you get paid doing it?
Ikigai – pronounced “icky guy” – can help you figure this out.
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that everyone is born with a natural purpose for their life (their Ikigai). If you can discover and live your unique Ikigai, your life will be filled with great satisfaction and meaning. It is your career sweet spot.
How does ikigai work?
Spend time contemplating the four ikiga questions:
What do you love?
What are you good at?
What can you get paid for?
What does the world need?
Once you answer these questions, look at where they all overlap. This is your ikigai, or career sweet spot.
What do you love, what is your passion? This question gets at a great motivator in life. What would you do if you won the lottery and didn’t have to make money? After the sports car and dream vacation, how would you just follow your heart?
What are you good at? This question leads to your vocation. For some, the answer is similar to the answer to the first question, but for others, it is not. It is a more practical question; less emotional. We all know on some level what we are good at. We may want to be an actor, that is our passion, but we find ourselves pushed into being the person who runs the box office instead, because we’re good at it. This is our vocation.
What does the world need from you? It is, ultimately, the question of what your mission is. Why are you here on earth? What can you achieve that will help others, that will make you valuable socially, that will make the world a better place? Explore what others value about you; aspects of yourself that you may not see as valuable.
What can you get paid for? What is your profession? It is a variation on the third question, but focusing on money. What do others value about you enough to give you money to do? If the world needs it but is not willing to pay you for it, it is charity work, not your profession.
Love golf? Are you good enough to make a living at it? If so, this could be your dream career. If not, golf is your hobby. You’ll need to find another way to make a living (which will support your golfing).
Love biology and art? How do they intersect into a career?
Consider be an illustrator for technical textbooks
Maybe you can analyze stained biological slides; your ability to see subtle differences in colors and discern the biological relevance could make you a star
Before the advent of the internet, a cover letter was an essential requirement when applying for a job. These days, however, some companies may require a cover letter while others do not. Interestingly, in some instances, companies do not specify whether or not a cover letter is required; leaving the decision to include one (or not) up to you! That said, if a cover letter is optional in the job search, I highly recommend that you upload one with your resume when applying for a job. After all, it is just one more click to upload it to your online job application and it may make the difference between an interview or not.
Purpose of a Cover Letter
Cover letters offer jobseekers an opportunity (or an edge) to get noticed by employers. Typically, a cover letter is a written version of an “elevator pitch” that is used by jobseekers to extoll their skills, qualities, experiences and strengths that make them stand out from other job applicants. Put simply, it is a way for a job seeker to convince a hiring manager that he/she is the “right fit” candidate for a particular job. While the job market is currently a great one for job seekers in many disciplines, there are certain jobs (like the biotech and pharmaceutical jobs) that remain highly competitive and where a cover letter may be helpful to get your “foot in the door.”
Cover Letter Organization in the Job Search
First, it is not a bad idea to create a template cover letter. This will eliminate the need to rewrite one every time that you apply for a new job. However, it is important to note that the cover letter must be tweaked and tailored to each job that you apply for. This is because the requirements, expertise and qualifications may vary from job to job and your cover letter must reflect these differences.
Second, it is not unreasonable to address the cover letter to: “Whom it May Concern” or “Dear Hiring Manager.” That said, if you have the name of the hiring manager addressing the cover letter to them is a must.
Third, the first paragraph of a cover letter is intended to capture your career highlights. These include your top skills, past relevant work experience and achievements as an employee. The goal here is to convince the hiring manager that you would be a good fit for the job and what value you might bring to a company if hired. Also, when crafting this paragraph, it is advisable to include key words and phrases from the job description. This demonstrates attention to detail and mindfulness and may help to pique the interest of the hiring manager to consider you (rather than other job applicants) as a possible interview candidate. Finally, if you have an executive summary as part of your resume, you can simply incorporate it as part of the first paragraph of your cover letter.
Fourth, a second paragraph is optional but may include when you may be available to start, whether or not you are interested in onsite or remote work and any other information (additional skills, fluency in a foreign language, volunteer activities etc.) that you think would help you stand out from other job applicants.
Finally, close the cover letter by thanking them for their consideration and that you are looking forward to hearing from them soon regarding your candidacy.
Before You Hit Send
It is vitally important that the cover letter be spelled checked and read several times before uploading it and hitting the send button. Spelling, grammatical errors and poor sentence structure can doom a job application even though you may be a well-qualified candidate for a particular job.
Most job seekers understand that a job interview can be very stressful and emotionally draining experiences. After all, how you perform in a face-to-face job interview will likely determine whether or not you get a job offer. To that point, we provide below some tips to pull off a successful face-to-face job interview.
Professional Attire is Mandatory
In general, most scientists do not like to dress up. However, professional attire for both women and men is required for ALL face-to-face job interviews. This means suits and ties for men (no exceptions) and similar professional attire for women. First impressions do matter and a professional, well-polished appearance will help set a positive tone for the job interview.
Be Prompt or Arrive Early
Ideally, you should arrive at least 10 to 15 minutes early for an interview. This allows you to relax and compose yourself prior to the start of the interview. Tardiness implies that time management—required by all employers may—be challenging for you.
Bring Extra Copies of Your Resume
Interviewers sometimes “misplace” or have not read your CV prior to the interview. Rather than spend limited interview time reviewing information that is readily available on your CV, hand the interviewer a copy of your CV. This will save precious interview time and signal that you are organized, forward-thinking, reliable and helpful; desirable traits that most hiring managers are looking for in new hires.
Be Personable and Always Remain Positive and Upbeat
One-on-one interviews are an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you are socially-engaged, personable and have reasonable interpersonal communication skills.
Regardless of what is going on in your life, it is important to be positive, upbeat and outgoing during a job interview.
Eye Contact is Imperative
A lack of eye contact (or an inability to look directly at a person during a conversation) may signal to a hiring manager that they lack social and interpersonal communication skills, both of which hiring managers are looking for in right fit job candidates.
Answer All Questions Concisely and Honestly
It is not a good idea to waste an interviewer’s time with answers that are rambling, unfocused or irrelevant. Most interviewers expect direct, concise and well-thought-out answers to their questions. They are not interested in chit chat, professional gossip or who you may know in the field.
Never Interrupt an Interviewer
Interrupting anyone before they finish talking is rude, inappropriate and unprofessional. Therefore, it is imperative to never interrupt an interviewer and allow him/her to complete a question before you answer. This signals to the interviewer that you listen, can engage in a professional conversion and implies that you will likely fit in to the organization’s reporting structure.
Act Professionally at All Times
Job candidates frequently eat breakfast, lunch or dinner as part of the interview process for life sciences jobs. Viewing candidates in these settings offers prospective employers’ insights into a job candidate’s social skills and how he/she may represent the organization in future social situations. Remember, although it may feel as though you are in a social setting, you are still being scrutinized by your host for professional behavior.
Ask Questions
Prospective employers expect job candidates to ask questions about their company or organization. This shows them that you have done your homework and are interested in learning more about the organization. Employers generally view job candidates as not being interested in a company if they don’t ask any questions during a job interview.
Never Criticize or Say Anything Negative
The scientific community is a small one and chances are that any negative, pejorative or derogatory comments made about an individual or organization will get back to them. Also, like it or not, it is simply unprofessional to say negative things about a previous or current employer, colleague or organization. Again, nobody wants to work with a naysayer or an indiscrete or inappropriate colleague.
Turn Off All Cell Phones
Surprisingly, many job candidates don’t remember to turn off their mobile phones or other electronics prior to the start of an interview. Nobody likes being interrupted during a conversation or a discussion by annoying, ringing or vibrating cell phones. While being connected at all times is de rigueur, a ringing cell phone during a job interview can certainly be a job killer.
While there is no way to eliminate the anxiety or uncertainty of a face-to-face job interview, making use of the tips and suggestions offered in this post may make your next job interview less stressful and hopefully increase the likelihood of a job offer.
There was a very insightful article in the NY Times Science Section entitled “Building Resilience in Midlife.” that I thought was applicable to the challenges that many job seekers face while searching for a new job or pondering a career change. These insights were offered in a book entitled ‘Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges’ by Dr. Dennis Charney, a resilience researcher and dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York after being shot several years ago by a disgruntled former employee while leaving a NYC deli.
Practice Optimism. According to Dr. Charney, optimism is part genetic, part learned. That said, looking for a job in a highly competitive field without success can easily lead to feelings of defeat, failure and even depression. Put simply it’s normal to feel sad or “down” when things are not going your way during a job search. Rather than succumb to pessimism, Dr. Charney suggests that learning to think positive thoughts and surrounding yourself with optimistic people (there are people out there who ARE really optimistic all the time) can help. It’s easier to think more optimistically if the people around you are upbeat and always putting a positive rather than negative spin on things. I am not suggesting that you jettison all of your pessimistic friends but finding new optimistically-thinking ones will not only increase the breadth and size of your social circle but may also help to elevate your emotional state during a frustrating job search.
Rewrite Your Story. Instead of focusing on your shortcomings or difficulties that you have experienced, it may help to change your internal narrative and focus on accomplishments (rather than setbacks) and things that you may have learned about yourself to this point in your life journey. While this may sound like an existential exercise, changing the internal story that you tell yourself (from a negative to a more positive one), may help you to feel better about yourself and make things easier for you. And believe me–from my own personal experiences– others around you will notice the change; most importantly prospective employers and hiring managers!
Don’t Personalize Your Failures. Everyone tends to blame themselves for life’s setbacks and ruminate about the decisions that they have made to put them in difficult situations. A way to counteract this is to recognize that, generally speaking, other factors and uncontrollable life events likely contributed to the so-called bad decisions that you made. In other words, unexpected, mitigating factors, not simply your poor judgment, likely contributed to the situation that you find yourself in. Recognizing this may help to assuage that nagging tendency to blame yourself for your current situation and may also allow you to “learn from your mistakes” to avoid making them in future personal and career decisions.
Remember Your Comebacks. It is easy to wallow in your failures and feel bad about your current situation. Rather than letting things get you down, try to remember times earlier in life when you were able to overcome adversity and still “land on your feet.” This will remind you that you have the skills and experience to overcome a current “bad” situation. Also, it may be helpful to read about others who seemingly failed and were able to turn those failures into positive personal and career moves. In my experience, failure is a key ingredient to a successful and meaningful career.
Take Stress Breaks. Stress is a fact of life that nobody can escape. Rather than succumb to life’s constant unrelenting stresses, it is important to take breaks to regroup and push forward. For example, take walks, have lunch with friends, go to the gym or even meditate. One way that I relieved stress as a graduate student and postdoc was to play intramural softball as much as I could and then drink beer with teammates after the games. Putting your “head down” and pushing forward will not relieve stress or eliminate anxiety in your life.
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone. It is easy to continue to do the same thing even if that thing is stressful or hurtful because you are comfortable (despite assertions to the contrary) with what you know. However, doing the same thing over and over again because you’re familiar with it will not improve your current situation or change how you feel on a daily basis. Perhaps, taking yourself out of your comfort zone and placing yourself in new challenging positions may help to overcome those feelings of “being stuck.” For example, if you don’t want to do laboratory research for the rest of your career, learn new skills (that may have always frightened you) to help find a non-laboratory PhD job.
While doing the things that Dr. Charney recommends may not materially improve your current job situation or career choice, they may help you to look at the world in different terms, feel better about yourself and provide some clarity/insights into future career directions or job choices.
The first step in any job search is to ensure that your resume or curriculum vitae (CV) are ready for submission to prospective employers. The following can help make resume writing simple. For those of you who may still be struggling with the difference between a resume and a CV, a resume is usually a 1-2 page synopsis of who you are, where you have been and what you have done. In contrast, a CV is a much longer document that does the same thing as a resume but in much greater and granular detail. For most scientific positions a CV is the preferred document style. However, in some cases, employers may request a resume so pay attention before you submit your application.
While most people believe that a resume or CV is simply a list of your education, skill sets and experience, there is a preferred style, format and way to write these documents that will enhance the possibility of securing an interview for the position. That said, it takes many years of writing and editing to perfect the process-something that many of you may not have time to do. If you are unsure about how to write a resume/CV or have not updated your “paper” in many years, the quickest way to begin applying for jobs is to hire a professional resume/CV writer to do it for you. Generally speaking, this will cost anywhere from $200-$500. Sadly, many graduate students and postdocs don’t have the money to invest in resume writing and in many cases are unable to craft a job winning resume/CV.
If you are unable to hire a resume writing professional, I came across a DIY solution called Scientific Resumes. This service company exclusively caters to graduate students and postdocs looking for resume/CV writing help. In addition to their automated self-help products, they offer resume proofreading services and likely customized resume/CV writing too. I have not used or carefully evaluated their products but it may be worth a visit to their website.
There was an interesting article in Science Careers Magazine this week entitled “Should you consider another degree after your PhD.” The article traces the journey of several people who earned PhD degrees in science-related fields who transitioned into new careers including law, regulatory affairs, business development and science writing.
The gist of the article is that if you can afford the costs of earning another degree, it may be worth it for persons with PhD degrees who want to get “out of the lab.” However, based on my own experiences and those of the persons mentioned in the article, most graduate students and postdocs lack the financial resources to enroll in professional degree or certificate programs after completing their PhD programs. Consequently, most of the people showcased in the article were able to leverage unpaid internships and volunteer work into new jobs that paid for additional training or professional degree programs.
I have long posited that obtaining another degree after a PhD degree may not be in the best interest of PhD degree holders for a variety of reasons. First, as mentioned above, the financial obligations of a degree or certificate program may be too onerous or unrealistic for graduate students who worked for minimum wage for many years to obtain their PhD degrees; the funds simply are not available. Second, by the time a PhD degree is awarded and postdoctoral training is completed, most science PhD degree holders are in their mid 30s to early 40s and in many cases, have families, which may not be conducive to going back to school full time. Also, who wants to be a student for most of their adult lives? Finally, the mere exhaustion and stress associated with spending close to 10 years in a laboratory may discourage even the most ambitious individuals from pursuing another degree or certificate. Put simply, there may not be “enough gas left in the tank” to obtain another degree in the hopes of possibly changing a career trajectory.
More thoughts about another degree after a PhD:
Based on my experience as an instructor in a program offered to PhD students and postdocs who had already decided that a research career was not for them, internships, volunteer work and an unrelenting pursuit of an alternate career is probably the best way to navigate a career change. What I observed about all of the students in this program (over 70% of them obtained non-research jobs after completing their PhD degrees with no postdoctoral training) was that they were highly motivated and did whatever was necessary to network and leverage the resources offered to them by the program (which included mixers, invitations to professional meetings, and guest speakers outside of the research world including pharmaceutical executives, venture capitalist, medical writers and clinical study managers) to get “where they wanted to go”.
For example, one student, who was interested in regulatory affairs, went to the dean of her medical school to get the funds necessary to go to a national regulatory affairs meeting rather than attending an annual society meeting to present her research findings. Today, she is a director of regulatory affairs at a major biotechnology company. Another student wrote reviews for an online financial services company regarding the technology behind various private and publicly traded biotechnology companies as a graduate student, now works for a financial service company as an analyst. Finally, another student who was interested in technology transfer was able to leverage an unpaid internship in his university’s technology transfer office into a full time job (he is now a director of the office).
The bottom line about another degree:
While obtaining another degree or certificate may better position you for a possible career change, it may not be emotionally or financially possible or likely. That said, rather than fantasizing about what may have been if you simply chose law or medicine or business over a graduate career in science, you best shot at changing the direction of your career may be to identify alternative career options and obtaining the necessary skill sets, qualifications and real life experience to make it a reality, Once you have identified those things, the next step is to devise a financially-viable plan to obtain them and then spend the majority of your waking hours successfully implementing the plan. It won’t be easy but as the old adage goes “if there is a will then there is a way.”
