Recognising and removing career assumptions

This is a Pathfinder Expert Voices post, by guest blogger Dr Elizabeth Adams of Scafell Coaching and Dr Kay Guccione, Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development, University of Glasgow.  

Elizabeth’s inspiration for this joint post: “My five-year old’s school has put out a call for parents to come in and talk about their jobs. The theme is ‘people who help us’ and so they’ve had a steady stream of doctors, fire fighters, engineers and so on. I consider that I help people, but debated whether a reception class would be able to get their heads around what I do. I haven’t taken up that challenge yet, and part of me feels a bit guilty that I am leaving them to believe that all grown-up jobs fit into neat boxes which are visible, recognisable and can be easily explained. I wonder what judgements they’re making as a result about what a job is or isn’t, what constitutes ‘people who help us’, and what their options are for the future.”

Career assumptions

For researchers too, career assumptions can also be shaped by awareness that different careers exist and how to locate those opportunities (McAlpine and Emmioglu, 2015) as well as a range of internal and external factors such as understanding their own skills, having suitable development opportunities, and the support, or opposition, of their managers (Hayter & Parker, 2018).

Plus, our assumptions about what different roles involve are often overly simplistic, like the tendency to compare and stress the cultural differences between academia and business-driven research, without deeper consideration of the advantages and enabling opportunities that can be accessed through a career that spans both.

As Dr Elaine Gourlay’s excellent post on the Auditorium blog highlighted, it’s not uncommon to hear about researchers who are going into industry being told they’re ‘going to the dark side’. Whilst obviously both ‘sides’ will have light and dark in them, we actually think it’s unhelpful to persist in thinking of them as ‘sides’ at all. A role in a large company is not the same as working for a small start-up or a post within a government agency or a national laboratory.

Many of the jobs we are seeing doctoral graduates move into these days (for example, data science, artificial intelligence, medical science liaison, user research etc) did not exist 10-15 years ago and therefore clear paths in and out of these sectors are not as well established. While lack of clear entry points diminishes their visibility as career options, it brings enormous potential for flexibility in terms of pathways into the roles, as well as gaining the skills and experience needed.

Furthermore, some of these assumptions may be based on limited or flawed datasets such as doctoral career destination data, which is notoriously difficult to obtain, and tell us nothing about the long-term trajectories of post-doctorate careers (Hancock, 2021).  And more, ‘light’ is in the eye of the beholder and will depend entirely on the needs and preferences of the individual.

Overcoming assumptions

Access to knowledge of a wide range of possible career destinations and networks that convey insider information about the day-to-day realities of those roles is obviously a great way to dispel career myths. This is one of the issues that Pathfinder is designed to address. Another trick is to notice when we are making assumptions and find ways to test them out – whether as a researcher who is job seeking, or particularly as a manager of a researcher or a PhD supervisor, as any advice you give, or opinions you share, are likely to carry weight.

One way to do this is to invite regular conversations about career options and professional opportunities and, to ask yourself (or your researchers) questions that spark thinking. A good question to start could be: ‘What assumptions are we each making about future career options?’ And (as you would for a research project), ‘What evidence are you basing these on?’ , and then ‘What other interpretations might there be?

Some common assumptions that we’ve heard recently are:

• People who work in industry are only motivated by money
• The only way to success is to work full time (or more)
• No career is as flexible as academic research
• You can’t take career breaks
• You can’t come back to academia once you’ve left
• Your salary will take a hit if you leave academia
• There is only one way to be a successful academic
• You have to choose a job or sector that you’ll be in for the rest of your life
• Moving out of research is a ‘waste’ of your doctorate or a ‘failure’
• That being a PI is the only path to staying in academia
• That you already need to have all the skills and experiences that you need to succeed in a new role

We’ve seen plenty of examples where these assumptions, and indeed fears, have been proven wrong. Experiences during and post- COVID-19 pandemic, with the move to hybrid working, have also shown that the workplace and our working patterns have changed dramatically in recent years, and employees’ expectations of place, space and flexibility have shifted greatly during this period. Expectations have also changed over time, in terms of an employer’s mission, culture, and social responsibility.

When choosing who to work for, you may well also have questions about gender pay gaps and promotion rates, LGBT-inclusion policies, and the environmental sustainability strategies of your potential employer. Working through your concerns with a contact in a role you may be interested in taking up will, of course, be of utmost value in getting the most up-to-date information. Attending events which aim to create these introductions (such as mixer or networking events with different employers) can be highly enlightening, taking the guesswork out of the right next step for you.

If you’re in a position of authority in the research environment, this is a direct request to check what assumptions your communications, events, webpages, and professional networks might be reinforcing, and to check language, broaden the range of speakers or seek purposefully diverse case studies. Open up a discussion about these and challenge the old jokes and cliched throw-away comments about particular jobs or sectors.  

It’s highly unlikely anyone will be staying in the same job, doing the same things, for any great length of time these days, so plan for the next step, not the final step. Career paths are rarely linear and embracing and celebrating some of the side-quest opportunities along the way is going to make it more fun, rewarding and fulfilling.