The Career Path that Lies Between the Fork in the Road

When the realization came one cold winter night in early 2008 that my graduate training was likely to end later the same year, I took a methodical approach to try to determine the job areas that would provide the best career path for me. That is, I made a list of the pros and cons of entering several different sectors, and where each may lead me five or ten years in the future.

The road most traveled by an engineer with a higher degree usually leads them to a career in private industry. Less traveled is the path that leads to a career in academia. Before a single item was written in either the pros or cons columns for any position, there was one uneasy thought that constantly popped up in my mind that night. With the economy churning out a lackluster performance, even accomplished, confident graduates may have to face the reality of accepting a less-than-ideal job or position in order to weather the storm. The key would be to at least procure a position where valuable, relevant experience could be gained to apply for a desired job once companies started hiring in full force again. Sow now, reap later.

With the massive amount of new information rapidly generated in the life sciences these days, if you do not stay current in your chosen field by constantly learning and gaining experience, your education and skills may become obsolete within a matter of a few years. Professional growth is a critical component to being a valuable commodity in the eyes of employers. It is a similar principle to why many choose to go into higher education in the first place.

Going back to my pros and cons list, the first position to undergo my painfully scrutinizing evaluation was that of post-doctoral candidate. All throughout campus, there were conversations and rumblings that because the job market was so thin, it would be smart to either just grab any job or apply for a post-doc position as a “safety net.” The former approach went against my self-imposed goal of landing a position that would provide relevant professional growth, but the latter idea intrigued me a bit. I could gain additional experience, teach, and have the training necessary to eventually become a professor if so desired.

After my list was completed thirty minutes later, the balance was clearly weighed down by the cons. A subset of the potentially unsavory hurdles to pursuing the academic path included:
1)    “More school for you!” Although I eventually did become a post-doc for a short period to bridge to my current position, the thought of two or three more years of intense original research did not sit well with me (I wanted to post bail, or at least go on probation from basic bench research).

2)    The “publish or perish” paradigm. A strong publication record during the graduate, post-graduate, and early professional years would be a prerequisite to outlast, out-compete, and out-qualify the competition in academia (requiring at least several thousand more hours of incarceration in the laboratory).

3)    “Grant me a grant!” I saw more than my share of professors who would lock themselves in their offices or disappear during grant-writing season to create that perfect submission (it would have been nice if the students could take advantage by booking their vacations, but often there was room for two at the grant-writing table).

For those who genuinely love and excel at basic research, I am sure that the aforementioned items are not considered impediments at all, and perhaps can be likened to merely the occasional stop at a gas station to fuel up for a nice, long ride in the automobile of their dreams. And, admittedly, there was one very compelling pro to academia--teaching and mentoring bright, young minds.

For me, teaching and mentoring students in a classroom setting brought the greatest joy. Having spent several years giving instruction during lectures and recitations, I found the experience to be highly rewarding and fun. Comments from colleagues and student evaluations were consistently generous, kind, and positive in their judgment of my craft. However, to become purely a lecturer would have been too much of a professional sacrifice in my personal estimation as it did not align with my big picture aspirations. I came to the decision that if the desire to teach is still present five years from today, I could do so teaching night classes after work (have my cake and eat it too).
 
Consequently, my main focus turned to the private sector where many of my colleagues were able to land good positions at well-known companies. The competition seemed fierce and the available openings really did not quite fit the mold I had in mind. Luckily for me, I played the numbers game and was very proactive in posting my resume on nearly every major job search site.

One day I received a call from a recruiter working on behalf of the federal government, and he asked me about several positions that were available for which he thought I was qualified. While these positions were challenging, again they did not quite provide the type of experience I was looking for. When the conversation neared its anticlimactic end, the recruiter said to me in passing “oh by the way, the FDA has implemented this initiative called the Commissioner’s Fellowship Program. You may want to look at that and see if you might be interested.”

The Commissioner’s Fellowship Program was newly launched and aimed to recruit accomplished individuals with unique skills who could contribute to FDA’s mission of protecting and promoting the public health. In return, the Agency would provide a wide array of regulatory training and allow the Fellow to engage in health-related research and review. Learning about this position was akin to finding out that the fork in the road in front of me was actually a pigeon foot. The path toward the left was the most traveled (private industry), the path toward the right the lesser traveled (academia), and this newly discovered path lying between the other two was one that I did not even know existed (a rare and exciting opportunity).

Returning to my own advice, was this a position that if I invested the time and sowed now, I could reap great rewards later? Yes, regulatory experience is typically highly valued in many sectors, and even though the appointment was only for two years, it offered an excellent package during a time when jobs were scarce. Moreover, the position would allow me to get my foot in the door of an Agency whose mission is of high societal importance to which I could contribute to whole-heartedly. In speaking with people, many seemed to have the impression that working in the federal service entails low pay, a slow pace, and being constantly bound and limited by laws and regulations. Salaries are actually quite competitive at the front end, the pace is certainly challenging enough at times to foster rapid professional growth, and there is stability working within a well-defined framework.

To determine whether the decisions we make will contribute to our long-term success and happiness, you simply have to write down your aspirations and work toward taking the individual steps needed to achieve them. My general goal after graduate school was to land a job that would launch my career in the right direction, enable me to benefit society in a meaningful way, and also allow me to grow professionally and personally. In hindsight, it would have been much more fruitful at the onset if I had focused on my desired goals and then applied them to potential career paths that would help me achieve those goals, as opposed to choosing career paths first and then comparing them with each other by evaluating their favorable and unfavorable qualities. Were I not flexible at the beginning, and instead persisted in pursuing a position in private industry, the rewarding position I find myself in now might have passed me by. If I ever choose to leave federal service for a position in private industry, not only would my chances be greater at succeeding, but I would likely be offered higher salaries than I would be earning had I entered the private workforce directly out of graduate school (salaries usually increase at a higher rate transferring between jobs than through internal promotions staying with a single employer over a long period of time).

Without any preconditioned biases of what positions you think you should apply for in order not to sell yourself short with the education you have earned in your chosen field, for a moment just be truly honest with yourself and write down the individual items you would like to accomplish and the type of experience you would like to gain when you first enter the workforce to lay a solid foundation for the rest of your career. Try to be as clear, concise, and specific as possible. In pursuing those goals, you might be surprised where you end up… and what a great position you find yourself in.