The allure of the ‘dream job’
In my scientific journey over the past decade, I have always jumped at opportunities focusing on career development. These range from resume writing seminars and panels on networking — to women-in-STEMM conferences or the painfully optimistic “What can you do with your PhD?” online resources that flood my inbox every week. I have written, revised and re-revised my resume using a plethora of templates, worded my achievements using the best action verbs and tailored my story for every job application. I have perfected my answers to various interview questions, introspected on my strengths and weaknesses and updated my Individual development plan through all my career switches.
Today, as a research associate in a great lab working on cutting edge research, I’m at a crossroads. As I explore ways to transition out of my current role in academia, having faced multiple rejections at what I may’ve earlier considered ‘dream jobs’, I am re-evaluating my career development goals.
In this article, I’m gathering all my notes from all my career resources to distinguish the myopic view of a dream job from a more transcendental perspective of a ‘dream career’. I have noticed a few common threads connecting every individual to their ideal career path in every field. These stem more out of emotional intelligence and resilience than your adept technical know-how that you’ve relentlessly worked on so far.
(1) You are defined by yourself, not your title.
Climbing up the ladder may earn you respect and money, but your colleagues value you as a person first. Your ways of engaging with people around you, your kindness and communication create your first impression. Your persona is also reflected in your presentation style, where you should focus on differentiating the technical jargon from the essence of your project. The rest is the easier part — fulfilling the job requirements you were hired for in the first place.
(2) You are a learner for life.
As a trained experimental physicist, I’ve learnt to tread through my career out of sheer passion to understand nature and constantly evolve my mind. You are not only learning from daily chats with your mentor and other scientists in your community, but also from every failed experiment. You learn to optimize your workflow and realize when a research problem may reach its inevitable dead-end.
Failures teach you to cultivate survival skills and success stories teach you to keep moving ahead.
(3) Be intentional towards developing your own brand.
Spend a significant time outside your working hours developing complementary skills. As I have spent a major chunk of my work hours at the lab bench, I’m a self-taught, skilled baker as I end up using my strengths of precision, perseverance and patience. I choose hobbies that are not only therapeutic, but also teach me life lessons. Focus on developing yourself into a unique brand over the years by being the best in whatever you set out to do — this quality of yours will definitely captivate anyone’s attention.
(4) Stop and reflect at every stage.
At every dream job you may take up, you will spend a major time learning the new tricks of the trade, but it is also crucial to stop and reflect on your decisions. A list focusing on how far you’ve come, and what steps you’d take to set up your dream career can be very useful. Years later, you will realize that no self-help book could have taught you better than your life’s experiences.
