Cheerleading the career progression of others
With Dr Dawn Scholey
Dr Dawn Scholey’s career is a good example that for some people, entry into the world of research is not part of a professional masterplan. Her career driver was about learning and science, not the ambition of becoming an academic researcher. It took a lot of convincing from the part of her manager, who she describes as an inspirational leader, to make her believe that as a mum of two in her late 30’s, starting a PhD was something she could do.
The cheerleading from her manager, who became her PhD and Postdoc supervisor, has been critical in enabling her to pursue her research career. She is now embracing this cheerleading role with younger researchers who are on their own research journey.
More about Dawn
Dawn’s research expertise is in poultry research
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/animal-rural-environmental-sciences/dawn-scholey
Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:
How you may not see your own potential, but having a cheerleader to make you believe in yourself may take you to places you had never imagined
How it is never too late to take a professional challenge
Why choosing a research environment that works for you is a key decision in choosing who to work with and where to work
Some reflections to ponder based on my discussion with Dawn
We don’t all have a masterplan
Dawn’s honesty in sharing her entry into academic research is interesting, as it illustrates that starting a career on this path is not just the privilege of early career graduates, but a viable route for other professionals. Working as a technician for her manager, Dawn did not see herself as someone who could do research as a doctoral student. She was in the technician box and her professional development could have stayed there. What fascinates me is the persistence that her manager had in convincing her that doing a PhD was something that Dawn could do. Her manager could see it in her, when she could not see this in herself.
Dawn is not someone who had a professional masterplan about the types of roles she wanted. She explained that she had fallen into different roles but was not aiming at a specific job.
Traditional career paths rarely exist nowadays, so being open and flexible to explore career transitions is the crux of employability.
If you don’t have a masterplan for your career, exposure to others and their own career paths is an important way of exploring alternative options that you may have never considered. We so often just see the success stories of others and not the meandering path they have taken. Hearing from the twists and turns of careers, when people made mistakes with jobs, applied but failed at interviews, did not receive a grant…is all part of exploring what you want for your own path. We also do not always see ourselves in some more senior roles. It often takes others to tell us to apply for a job that we felt was out of reach for us.
o How can you stay open to unexpected opportunities in your career?
o Who is encouraging you to take unusual opportunities that may create a spark of inspiration to decide what to do next?
o Who is challenging you to take opportunities even when you feel you are not good enough, ready enough, smart enough….?
A supportive research environment looks like what
Doing a PhD as a mature student will have come with all the challenges of balancing family and work, but it brought her some calmness that younger researchers may not experience. She embraced that listening to others and learning from them was more valuable than worrying about not knowing as much as them.
Imposter syndrome affects individuals differently, but for Dawn, her professional maturity of having worked in industry for a long time, probably brought some ease in that respect. It was also useful for her to have an understanding of the culture of industry research, as the majority of her work is funded by industry.
Having experienced the cheerleading from her boss, Dawn is now supporting other PhD students in their research journeys. She understands that having someone who puts you forward is key in supporting the career transition of researchers.
It was the supportive environment that her PhD supervisor had created that kept her in continuing to work in academia instead of returning to industry at the end of her PhD. Dawn has continued to work with the same manager ever since whilst expanding the reach of responsibilities within the group.
Her supervisor accepted her approach to navigating her research career, accepting that at the time, as Dawn had small children, travelling away for conferences was not something that Dawn wanted to commit to. For a supervisor, accepting the choices made by researchers, when it comes to navigating a research career can be challenging. As a supervisor when you know that doing something such as attending conferences is an important part of career progression, it can be difficult to accept that someone would choose to not take opportunities that you feel are important.
As a supervisor, accepting the choices of students may be frustrating, but showing acceptance and empathy is part of creating a supporting research culture. Our choices and good ideas may not work at all for others. Being humble to accept alternatives choices of others is a challenging process of building maturity in supervision.
As Dawn is now experiencing some health challenges, being in a very supportive research environment is proving important as she is likely to need adjustments in the coming years. Having built a strong and trusting relationship with her manager is likely to make these adjustments easier to negotiate.
o What is most important to you when it comes to the research culture of a group?
o How do you communicate these needs to others in the group?
o When others do not take up your good ideas/ suggestions/ opportunities, how do you respond with respectful acceptance to accept choices that you disagree with?
Transition as a long-term Postdoc
When Dawn started as a Postdoc, there were still few Postdocs in her institution. She became heavily involved in the committees that started to oversee the Postdoc role, such as the implementation of the Concordat, which is a policy aimed at supporting the professional development of researchers.
Dawn was keen to make visible the idea of the “Postdoc career” instead of describing the Postdoc role as a transient position towards an academic/ Principal Investigator role. Her involvement in university- wide committees supported her visibility across the institution. Her manager encouraged her to be actively involved in networking and university-wide activities. All these interactions across departments and the campus are always described as important activities to build leadership and influencing skills. Dawn sees them as a professional priority to build network opportunities and being exposed to other ideas and colleagues to initiate cross-over.
She is keen to encourage early career researchers to seek these networking opportunities and is now likely to be the person who encourages PhD students to take the time for these opportunities. While early career researchers may feel the pressure of just being in the lab and focus on just their research, she is now an ambassador to motivate them to make the most of professional development opportunities.
Creating a long term career as a research-only professional is likely to require from you that you get involved in non-research activities, contributing to committee work and teaching activities that may not be strictly speaking part of a research-only contract. Some universities have deployed research-only promotion pathways. It can be immensely valuable to have a look at promotion criterias on these pathways to explore what professional activities you may need to contribute to if you aim to gain a promotion.
Promotions on research-only contracts still feel like a rare occurrence, but they are not impossible. There is a large proportion of researchers who continue long term their careers as Postdocs/ fellows and may choose to not become PIs. A path for their own institutional progression may seem less obvious, but is worth exploring if you would rather take that path than apply for a lectureship.
o Do you know what the system is in your institution about career progression for Postdocs in your institution?
o What would be needed for you to do to meet promotion criteria needed for research-only contracts?
o What contribution towards leadership/ citizenship/ research/ teaching would convince a panel in your institution for a case for promotion on a research-only contract?
“I will always try and do things that are university wide because I think it is so important to get yourself known outside of your school”
