Navigating Career Choices in a Changing World

In our younger years, many of us strive to make the best out of our lives. I am sure that most people start hearing their first career advice early in childhood, sometimes even before they go to school. Do you not believe me? How about “To achieve something, you have to work hard.” Or “You have to enjoy what you are doing.” As we grow up, we can find every piece of advice online if we look for it, sometimes even without looking. However, the challenge of the modern world is to navigate the sea of information and estimate if advice will survive the test of time. Here, I will point out some challenges that must be recognized while deciding on one’s career path, the main one being the quickly changing landscape of the job market.

Life priorities. Life priorities are critical in choosing one’s career. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here.  We are all different in terms of what is essential for us. Is it exciting research, salary, vacation time, job stability, need for relocation, promotion potential, or ability to work remotely, to mention a few? Which profession fits which categories is a separate topic of discussion; however, I would like to point out that our life priorities can also change during our lifetime. So, while researching and making long-term plans, realize that these plans can fail because they no longer fit us. When I started my science career, I thought I would love to relocate. In fact, I thought it was the best part of the job. But I found out later that I do not like to move every three years. Some ladies find that family and raising kids are becoming more important than success careers-wise, and some people will also find that they do not like what they are doing. To find out that you don’t like some food, you must try it. No one can give a magic career solution. We can only recognize that our career path may not be set in stone.

Changing job market: new jobs and new skills. Another challenge is changes in biomedical research and technologies. With continuous advances in technology, we face changes in the job market. So, naturally, we try to learn skills and professions that might make us more successful. However, predicting which skills and professions will be successful is hard.

First, the usefulness of new popular skills can change. In my experience, skills that I did not consider important turned out to be more valuable in the long run than skills that I thought would give me a competitive advantage. With that being said, publications of our work and literature knowledge still help establish one’s name in your science field and will serve us for years to come, even if methods are no longer the same.

Second, the appearance of new job titles and the recent appearance of remote jobs are also subject to change. After I had my kids, I had a lot of hope for online teaching jobs that became available. However, online teaching has never grown as big as I hoped. Now, multiple remote jobs appear, but some market researchers expect a hybrid job market to become more prevalent than fully remote positions.

Industry vs. Academia. “Should I work for a biotech company or in academia?” is the central question that one will probably ask early in one's career. With social media's popularity, I hear many voices talking about “underpaid and overworked” scientists in Academia. Indeed, jobs in Industry pay better than jobs in Academia. If higher pay is the factor that motivates you, you should try to find an Industry job. However, I believe academic jobs have their rewards, such as the ability to choose your research and providing more stability once a tenure position is secured.  However, the more people with advanced degrees are on the market, the more competition they face to secure a good job in Academia.

Doctoral vs. Master’s degrees. Another thing that one might consider is a requirement for a Ph.D. degree. If one plans to pursue a career in Academia, a Ph.D. is a requirement. At the same time, the Ph.D. degree may also make one overqualified for some positions in the Industry. It used to be that the Industry hired more Masters than Ph.D.s. However, the current trend is to hire more people with advanced degrees.  Choices should be made depending on the career one plans to pursue.

Final notes. On final notes, I would like to warn against making one choice based on personal success stories we read online.  We should think critically before letting such stories guide us and try to compare the experiences of multiple people. First, I research if the person was just lucky to get in their position or possess some skills you may not have. These skills may not be apparent and include some social skills that allow them to make good connections, or they could possess a unique set of skills their employer is looking for. How many people tried that, and how many succeeded? People usually do not like to share their failures, so expect success stories to be told more often than stories about failing.

Another question is how long this person will stay successful. Will this perfect job position still be available 5, 10, or 15 years from now? The problem is that only people know the answer for sure. I would also research if success stories are being used by career coach to market their services. We all want to change something about our jobs and want to hear that we deserve better. However, good parts of a job can be overlooked. You should research before deciding to move on with a career.

To summarize, there is a lot of information available about job opportunities. Unfortunately, some advice may not hold because our world is continuously changing.