Success Strategies From Women in STEM

A Portable Mentor

Peggy A. Pritchard, Christine Grant

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780123977755
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Careers
• Index: Biological Sciences

Success Strategies from Women in Stem: A Portable Mentor, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and accessible manual containing career advice, mentoring support, and professional development strategies for female scientists in the STEM fields.This updated text contains new and essential chapters on leadership and negotiation, important coverage of career management, networking, social media, communication skills, and more. The work is accompanied by a companion website that contains annotated links, a list of print and electronic resources, self-directed learning objects, frequently asked questions, and more.With an increased focus on international relevance, this comprehensive text contains shared stories and vignettes that will help women pursuing or involved in STEM careers develop the necessary professional and personal skills to overcome obstacles to advancement.- Preserves the style and tone of the first edition by bringing together mentors, trainees and early-career professionals in a series of conversations about important topics related to careers in STEM fields, such as leadership, time stress, negotiation, networking, social media and more- Identifies strategies that can improve career success along with stories that elucidate, engage, and inspire- Companion website provides authoritative information from successful women engaged in STEM careers, including annotated links to key organizations, associations, granting agencies, teaching support materials, and more

Chapter 1

Career Management

Peggy A. Pritchard, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Truly successful scientists build on the foundations of discovery laid down by those who have gone before them, likewise in managing a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Though the process varies widely across cultures, and from individual to individual, most mentors and career specialists agree that being deliberate about managing one's own career is an important factor in achieving success.

At its simplest, career management involves four steps: (1) develop self-awareness, (2) identify opportunities, (3) decide and develop a plan, and (4) implement plan and review periodically. This chapter describes these steps as they relate to Science Careers's web-based tool, myIDP (myidp.sciencecareers.org). “My Independent Development Profile” is an authoritative, open access tool developed for PhDs and postdoctoral fellows in science that presents a stepwise approach to planning and managing one's own career that is equally relevant to early-career STEM professionals.

Keywords

STEM career planning; development; management; individual values; goals; choices; myIDP

This job is a great scientific adventure. But it’s also a great human adventure.

Joanne Simpson (1923–2010), the first woman to earn a doctorate in Meteorology

Managing a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an art—not a science—that requires your personal attention and active engagement. The knowledge and skills you need are not often taught as part of your formal training in STEM, but they can be learned and applied at any time in your life. There is an entire literature on the topic; many excellent books, websites, and online tools to assist you; and STEM mentors and career development practitioners who are willing to guide you. It has been my pleasure, as a career information specialist, career educator, and university instructor to support women (and men) graduate students and early career STEM professionals as they make the transition from formal training to the world of work.

The Myth of “Career Planning”

Most of the 350+ women in STEM interviewed for the first edition of this book, and the many hundreds more with whom I’ve spoken in the decade since, reported that they did not “plan” their careers, at least not in the traditional sense of mapping out every step that they would take, from the time of their formal training, to their retirement, and beyond. Rather, at each stage of their professional and personal lives, they looked ahead to the next transition point and prepared themselves for that. From the options available to them at the time, they made the best choices possible, in light of their current circumstances, the expectations of their discipline, preferred work environment and culture, and an understanding of their own values, needs, interests, strengths, and skills.

This approach reflects the contemporary view of career development professionals in the West that career management is “the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure, and transitions in order to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future” (National Steering Committee for Career Development Guidelines and Standards, 2004, p. 2). Clearly, in this paradigm, the term “career” differs from a job or profession. More encompassing than either, it is a “lifestyle concept that involves the sequence of work, learning and leisure activities in which one engages throughout a lifetime [and in which one invests energy to create something that is bigger than oneself]. Careers are unique to each person and are dynamic; unfolding throughout life” (National Steering Committee for Career Development Guidelines and Standards, 2004, p. 2)¹.

The stories presented in this chapter and throughout the book illustrate just how individual each person’s life is: how different the beginnings, the opportunities, the choices, the balance between professional and personal roles. We begin by examining the concept of “success” and identifying some common characteristics and attitudes of successful women in STEM. The critical impact of our context on the pressures that we experience, the constraints we must deal with, and the opportunities available to us are discussed, as is the need for each of us to seek out—and create if necessary—opportunities for ourselves. This chapter closes with a discussion of strategies for managing our own careers.

What Is Success?

We all need to feel that we are contributing to society in some positive way, that our efforts are valued and appreciated, that our work (whether paid or unpaid) matters. Though the expression of this need varies with the individual and her circumstances, it underlies all striving for success. But what, exactly, is success? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “(1) the accomplishment of an aim or purpose… (2) The good or bad outcome of an undertaking” (Stevenson, 2014). Clearly, it is important to distinguish between the criteria that we use to judge success² and those used by society,³ for they may differ. How we can deal with a mismatch is discussed extensively throughout this book.⁴ Of particular importance is a reaffirmation of our values, priorities, and goals⁵ and the support of our network,⁶ as the following story illustrates.

During the final year of her PhD program in a top-ranked university in Canada, an engineering student began receiving tremendous pressure from her academic colleagues to apply for tenure-track positions in academe. In a discipline in which female faculty are underrepresented, they saw her as a “perfect fit”: she is an excellent scientist, loves teaching, AND is female.

Though interested in an academic career, she knew that she wanted to gain industry experience first, so that when she entered academe, she could anchor her skills in real-life problems and be able to bring to her students perspective and experience from both the theoretical and applied worlds of engineering. At the same time (and on a more personal level), she was involved in a serious relationship with a partner who lived in a larger community several hours away with whom she was planning marriage and a family. To her mind, the best choice was to seek a position in industry, in the community where her future husband lived.

But she respected the experience and advice of her colleagues and superiors, was understandably flattered by their unreserved confidence in her, and—to a certain extent—enamored of the idea of becoming a faculty member—and an important role model—at such a young age. Still, she applied for several jobs and was offered positions even before finishing her PhD. This put her in a very awkward position because the interviews confirmed that her best choice after graduation would be to work in industry. When she respectfully declined to apply for academic positions, her superiors were surprised, some expressed disappointment and even anger; a few declared that she was ruining her career. The feedback did not stop there. Some continually urged her to reconsider her decision, and when she did not, she felt pressured to justify her actions.

It was a difficult time for her, especially because she needed to focus all her energies and attention on completing her thesis and preparing for her defense. Under the strain, she began doubting not only her career decision, but even her abilities as a scientist. Fortunately, she had the support of trusted friends and family members to encourage her, and when she reexamined her own values and personal and professional goals, she was able to make the conscious choice to believe in her own reasoning and trust her decision.

Today she is happily balancing the demands of an active family life, and her stimulating position at a highly respected engineering consulting firm.

Successful Women Scientists: Shared Qualities, Common Themes

Working hard overcomes a whole lot of other obstacles. You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people.

Rear Admiral (Ret.) Marsha J. Evans, former President and CEO, American Red Cross

Though each career is distinct, successful women in STEM share many qualities, attitudes, and goals that can be instructive to aspiring professionals. All have discovered that achieving in STEM—indeed, as in all of life—requires vision, focus, dedication, determination, a commitment to lifelong learning, and a persistent striving for excellence. It involves courage and a willingness to make difficult choices and compromises.

Engineer Dr. Luciane Cunha was working in industry in Brazil until an opportunity to do doctorate work lured her to the United States. She had written a national exam after completing her undergraduate degree and was one of only two women to be hired by Petrogas, a major petroleum-engineering firm in her country. Something of a pioneering woman in her field, she excelled in her work and was promoted to a position on an offshore oil rig (an environment that had no facilities for women), and she continued to achieve.

By the time she was offered a position in graduate school, she was established in her work, was married, and had a family. But the opportunity to pursue her research interests and advance her career was too good to decline. She accepted the position, even though it meant leaving her husband and children at home.

After earning her PhD, she was offered a permanent job in an academic institution with a strong, international reputation in her field, and moved to Canada—to a very different social structure and climate. This time, her children moved with her, while her husband remained in South America. Several years later, her husband secured an academic appointment at the same university and left Brazil to join the family.

For Luciane, the many hours of lost sleep, time she would like to have spent with her children, and missed opportunities for professional advancement in industry were necessary compromises. “Professionally speaking, I could have achieved a CEO position, had I stayed with Petrogas,” she believes. “Sometimes I had to say ‘no’ to things like that because I was balancing professional and personal responsibilities.” But she does not regret her choices. “I am happy with my career, especially in my roles as educator and mentor to the women in my classes. I try to teach them that their choices are not ‘bad’ ones, that they certainly will be able to accommodate all the things in life.”

At times, achieving in a STEM field may mean disregarding well-meaning advice about what you cannot do and the way things have “always” been done. But most important, it involves remaining flexible.

Dr. June E. Osborn, Chair of Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy, in the United States,⁷ also took advantage of unexpected options and opportunities, and ended up combining science and public policy. She chose medicine because she loved science, enjoyed people, and was good at interacting with them, and, more practically, because she saw medicine as a field that offered a wealth and breadth of job possibilities. Rather than open her own medical practice after she finished her pediatric training, she completed postdoctoral work in virology and pursued a career in academe at the University of Wisconsin.

At the time, the institution had a nepotism rule that prevented her from holding a primary appointment in the same department as her husband (also an academic), so she accepted a faculty position in the Department of Microbiology. After 18 years of research and teaching—and raising three children—it turned out that she had the ideal credentials to apply herself to the study of AIDS when it emerged. “It was a remarkably systematic coincidence. If someone had sat down two decades earlier and said ‘we want to be ready to take on the world’s greatest epidemic when it comes along,’ they would have recommended the kind of educational preparation and research experience that I had. The saying ‘chance favors the prepared mind’ might apply to what happened to me.”

As one of the few women in her field in those early years, she served on more than her share of professional groups and federal advisory committees. She was involved in the heated vaccine controversies of the 1970s and chaired the committee that advised the National Institutes of Health on the emerging AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of Contributors
• About the Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. Career Management
• Chapter 2. Networking
• Chapter 3. Mentoring: Empowering Your Success
• Chapter 4. Mental Toughness
• Chapter 5. Time Stress: Dealing with the Stress Associated with Time Pressure
• Chapter 6. Personal Style
• Chapter 7. Communicating Science
• Chapter 8. Strategically Using Social Media
• Chapter 9. Negotiating with Emotional Intelligence
• Chapter 10. A Call to Leadership
• Chapter 11. Climbing the Ladder
• Chapter 12. Balancing Professional and Personal Life
• Chapter 13. Transitions
• Index