Asking for help is half the battle
With Dr Natasha Chang
Dr Natasha Chang made the decision to switch research field for her Postdoc. She experienced the humbling challenges of being a Postdoc with less knowledge and skills than others in her Postdoc group, when she started her position. She wanted the best lab she could get and one where she felt she could flourish as a scientist. She joined a large research group, where each team member had their own specialty and expertise. This attracted her, as she felt she would be able to access help and new knowledge. The very collaborative environment of her Postdoc lab was intellectually stimulating. Natasha took a pretty systematic approach to applying for independent positions and decided to not limit herself to a specific location, making her job search an international exploration. It was through serendipity, that she ended up getting an academic position in the institution where she had done her PhD. Conversations make a considerable impact in job searches. She describes that she had missed the deadline for a position opportunity at McGill University, but contacted the academic involved in the recruitment process. She sent her CV and ended up being recruited. She has now been a PI for several years.
More about Natasha
https://www.mcgill.ca/biochemistry/about-us/department/faculty-members/natasha-chang
Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:
How a coffee and a conversation with a mentor can challenge your mindset about whether or not giving a go to becoming a PI
Why not rushing could be the most useful insight for new PIs
How creating visibility can be as simple as taking opportunities to meet people
Some reflections based on my discussion with Natasha
Challenging our mindset
We are all stuck with ideas in our heads about what we may be able to do or not. What often takes us away from taking an opportunity are the stories we tell ourselves about these opportunities and how we will be able to manage these new jobs and situations. We are never fully ready for the next opportunity. It is just a matter of throwing ourselves into the unknown.
For Natasha, the knowledge of how intense the role of Principal Investigator can be, was at risk of stopping her from considering applying for a PI role. It was a coffee conversation with a female mentor that helped her realise that you can “make it work”. The mentor shared her own experience of dealing with the complexities of family and career lives. Seeing how other people are able to navigate these complex contexts is of critical importance for individuals to see that whatever their origins and family situations, a research life as a PI is a possibility. Through engaging with more senior academics who have full and rich lives, Postdocs can explore whether applying for PIs roles is something they want to give a go.
Not denying that it can be hard and challenging, her mentor allowed her to realise that becoming a PI was a real possibility and choices in research careers were not as simple as the duality between family and research career.
Additionally, she really enjoyed pulling together the story of her big first paper. This experience was part of discovering that continuing as a PI was not something that was closed to her just because she was a parent. She was able to change her perspective to give the PI role a go.
Are there roles and research projects where you do not “see” yourself because it feels like impossible goals?
o Who would be a good person to talk to, who may be able to challenge your perspective?
o Do you know anyone who may have a similar background or context as you, who has moved into these roles/ responsibilities? Could a conversation with them challenge your own thinking about having a try at doing this role/ taking this responsibility?
o Could working on your mindset about the possibility of doing a certain role/ getting a certain job be the biggest factor, to put aside some of your limiting beliefs, so you can start taking action towards that role/job?
To rush or not to rush
This idea of pace in research careers is something that comes back often in the interviews on the Podcast. Natasha shares that when she was started her research group and was facing all of the complications of the overwhelming responsibilities, she felt the pressure of applying to multiple sources of funding. She probably wrote as many grants as she could realising the costs of setting up a lab. Trying to write as many as she could, she admits that they may not have been the best grants. In reflection, she is telling herself that she probably should have just focused on less applications and make them better.
It is easy to say this in retrospect but incredibly challenging as a new PI, when you are realising that others are dependent on you to access funding for their research. The sudden weight of the responsibilities may come as a shock.
It is probably a common experience of new PIs of throwing themselves all over the place when it comes to grant writing. Trying to apply to as many as they can, with the hope of succeeding at some of them. This can make the start of a research group a very chaotic and stressful period. Probably many new PIs experience overwhelm and burnout.
For Natasha, the lockdowns of the Covid pandemic came just as she was setting her research group. In some ways, you may say that this was at the worst time. But maybe this was perfect timing, in forcing her to hold still and slow down. The forced stillness meant learning to prioritize more than ever and embracing the perspective that priorities had to be the ones of what really matters.
o Where are you rushing too much in your research life at the risk of burning out? Could you build the resilience and strength to resist a pace that may not work for you? Can you learn to become mega-focused on what matters most, so that you can be more often in flow and a little less in frantic mode?
o Is there one thing where you can tell yourself “ok, this will happen in its own time, things will fall into place, I don’t need to go crazy with this”?
o What is the one thing that you can do today (something that you have been procrastinating about…) that will mean you are less in a rush tomorrow or next week?
Visibility through conversations
We can’t all be social media influencers, nor do we all want to be. Visibility in research careers can take a great many forms. Whilst many academics have embraced social media as part of their regular activities, it does not mean that this is an important element contributing to their actual visibility in their research fields.
Natasha got to build some visibility through a more traditional approach that harnessed virtual tools to expand the reach of activities. During the Covid lockdown, when the traditional conference circuit had been stalled, she was invited by a colleague to contribute to the organisation of a seminar series through a Slack research channel. Her involvement in organising these online research gatherings meant it created an international visibility in her research community. She may not have been able to attend as many conferences and meet such international groups had covid not happened. This was a positive outcome of some of the changes that were created through the lockdowns.
Natasha’s approach to visibility is really about meeting people, asking them to connect and talk. There is nothing pretentious and fancy. It is just about having an interest in what other people do and wanting to have conversations. Networking and visibility are often topics I discuss in workshops with researchers. One of the things I keep repeating is to get people to consider their network map: who are the people that you know in your network and who are the people missing in your connections. Being strategic with our visibility could mean engaging with people we have never interacted before. We may learn a great deal from them, but they may also gain new insights from having conversations with us.
Often researchers may say “why would they be interested in talking to me anyway, I am just…”. Getting you to value your own knowledge, expertise and experience is an important step in starting to enhance your network and visibility. I always say…it is about curiosity. Being curious about the experiences of other people, being curious about how other people do things, being curious about their ways of thinking and analysing, being curious to see how other people react to your own crazy ideas.
o Who would you be excited to talk to this week?
o Who are the people clearly missing in your network that you really owe to engage with?
o Who would be someone who could bring to your research life delight, intriguing ideas or challenging concepts?
“the pandemic also put into perspective for me to prioritize what’s important in my life and to slow down. I think before the pandemic happened, I was probably trying to handle too much ...And probably close to maybe burning out as a PI, but then the pandemic happened and we all had to freeze, and stay at home for a few months. And I think that really put perspective for me. To prioritize my health, my kids, what’s important, but also, the education of my trainees.”
