The Fantasy, The Ideal, and The Reality of Career Exploration

♪♫♪ You might fantasize that identifying your dream job will be easy. You might take a test to help you understand what you're a good at and enjoy. The test works like a magic sorting hat: the best career pops out, you get a job, and are happy for the rest of your life! Or, you might take the idealized approach to your career exploration. You'd meet with a career counselor, and complete a self-assessment to identify the skills, tasks, and values you'd want in a job. Multiple possibilities come o

ut. To narrow it down, you'd read about those careers, talk to professionals, fall in love with one career, and go get your dream job! This approach is linear and logical, but not usually what happens. In reality, career exploration is messy, laborious, and iterative. Let's look at a typical case: a postdoc named John, ready to move on, but didn't know what he wanted to do. John met with a career counselor, took a self-assessment test, and a whole universe of career possibilities emerged! John n

arrowed his choices to three, and began investigating jobs as a management consultant, medical science liaison, and medical writer. He did some reading on consulting, and decided that consultants travel too much, so he eliminated that career. Next, was medical science liaison. He liked what he read! He would be scientifically engaged while working with scientists and physicians. John talked to a medical science liaison, and liked most of what he heard, except that there are advancement ceilings,

so he crossed that off the list. On to medical writing! Like before, John read and spoke with people. He liked what he learned! He especially liked that he wouldn't need previous experience. He was tired of his postdoc, and ready to make money! Over the course of a year, John applied for a ton of jobs, but got NO interviews! Confused, he talked to more people. One told him that the field had changed. Now you needed experience! So, he took a $2,500 regulatory writing course that would make him c

ompetitive. Unfortunately, he hated it! By now, John was very frustrated, and told his sorry story to a classmate in the writing course. She suggested something different: Patent Agent. It seemed to involve the kinds of skills and tasks that John liked. This was an option he hadn't even considered! So he started the whole process over: reading and talking to people. This time, he also tested the work with a part-time internship at his university during his postdoc. He loved the work! He wrote re

ports, and met several patent agents and lawyers. One of them suggested that he take the patent bar; he did, and he passed! John applied for jobs, and found one quickly. These days, he's happily employed as a Senior Patent Agent at a biotech company. Career exploration is complicated, messy, and hard work! So start early: career exploration takes time! Don't rely on a single anecdote; get multiple data points! Embrace serendipity, because career leads can come from unexpected places! Try out the

work in the low-risk way, and take heart: eventually, everyone gets there! ♪♫♪