Blog – Career Decisions in Academia
The more young people I have the pleasure of meeting within a career’s context, the more pervasive I am finding the notion that when it comes to our academic and working lives there are only two choices: the right one, and the wrong one. If we follow the right path then we’ll optimise our career trajectory, choosing the field that is perfect for us where we can flourish and just maybe change the world. If we follow the wrong path then there is only hardship and obscurity, as we waste precious time trying to claw our way back to the place we’re meant to be. There is a genuine fear amongst so many of the young people I talk to that they will choose incorrectly. They are terrified of what happens if at the age of 18, 16, or even 12, they choose the wrong option. It’s a fear I recognise as one of my own but seeing it through their eyes it’s easier to acknowledge how flawed that dichotomy is.
I think we all worry about choosing the next right thing. The next research question, the next collaboration, the next career move. It’s perhaps one of the most normal things to worry about. But I don’t think the issue is fundamentally different for us than it is for children figuring out their first career move. You could always argue we have more to lose now we’re further down the path, or that we should know what to choose because we have more experience. But I don’t think that changes the core of the problem – that most of the time there is no right and wrong path at all, at least in terms of choosing the outcome that will optimise your career. Changing to a different field of research may well set you back in terms of your expertise in the field, but you will also come to that field with a plethora of knowledge others may not have, and that unique perspective puts you back in a competitive position. Changing to incorporate more teaching in your life may detract from the amount of research you get to do, but you will also get to engage with students learning the fundamentals of your field for the first time, seeing it through fresh eyes. Even huge life choices like choosing to have a child fall into this category. There is no right or wrong, only a different.
So, if you can’t make life choices based on the projected optimised way to make it through academia at record speed to be a world-renowned, Nobel-prize-winning expert by thirty – then what should you base them on? Here I don’t at all pretend to have the answer. There are no doubt constraints on many of these decisions that we have no control over – life circumstances, geography, finances. But with that said, what I find myself repeating to students over and over again is:
“There is no wrong path, there is only the next path, and as long as you enjoy walking down it, you’ll be just fine.”
The example I always use to prove this point is my wonderful and eclectic mother. My mum has had many careers, from accounting to teaching to deciding later in life that she’d like to pursue a degree. She got one – in history – and followed it up with a master’s in library studies. She then started working in libraries, then over to museums, through which she started working with artists and performers. Now she is the producer of a successful puppetry company which does incredible work with communities that don’t usually get to engage in the theatre. Her path was non-linear and branching, but looking back all of those opportunities ultimately fuelled what she’s doing now. Accounting so she could handle company finances, teaching so she knew how to work with children, and history to get her into the creative spaces she now calls home. None of those years she spent in other jobs were wasted. None of them were wrong. They were right at the time, and I don’t think she regrets any of them.
As I come to the final few months of my PhD and begin looking to the future, I am clinging onto the advice that I have given young people for years. As I choose whether to stay in academia, as I hone the research questions I want to ask, and as I scope out new labs in new places across the globe. There is still a lot of fear about choosing the right path. Not wasting the amazing start I’ve had in academia by choosing the wrong opportunity to follow. And when I find myself starting to engage in that mindset I quickly think about my mum. I think about all the amazing people I’ve met who are the brand of wicked smart they are because of the wide and varied experiences that have led them here. I try to take stock of the parts of my job that I love and the parts I could do without, and I step into the unknown.
Since being very young I have worried about squandering my potential on the wrong path, but looking forward I can honestly say that the uncertainty around my next destination excites me in a way it hasn’t before. I’m excited to take some ‘wrong’ paths that lead me to interesting places. I’m excited to get a bit lost and see what I can find on the path less travelled. I’m excited to take all of this experience I have and just see where I can go. I understand there will be times in my life where the choices I take are dictated by circumstances beyond my control, and so if you’re in the lucky position to be paralysed by choice – don’t worry about the wrong path, just go and find your own.
Rebecca Williams
Author
Rebecca Williams is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. Though originally from ‘up North’ in a small town called Leigh, she did her undergraduate and masters at the University of Oxford before defecting to Cambridge for her doctorate researching Frontotemporal dementia and Apathy. She now spends her days collecting data from wonderful volunteers, and coding. Outside work, she plays board games, and is very crafty, she also has her own YouTube Channel Becky & the Brain.