Career Development for Scientists

I just finished reading “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.  It was a very quick read (about an hour) with a series of short guidelines for running a business, with 1-2 page descriptions of why they use that guideline in their company.  Some sample guidelines are “Learning from mistakes is overrated”,”Planning is Guessing”, ”Enough with ‘Entrepreneurs’”, ”No time is no excuse” and ”Outside Money is Plan Z” .  It’s worth a quick read – ever if you don’t agree with their recommendations, you’ll have to think about why, or why not.

My favorite piece of advice?  ”Hire Great Writers.  If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer.”

This slim volume was written by two PhDs from the Netherlands, to provide advice to students on how to successfully navigate the graduate years, and earn an advanced degree.

Most of what they say is common sense, but it may not occur to people until they see it in print. Project management, timelines, progress meetings, and many other useful ideas may never occur to graduate students, but can be immensely helpful when specifically identified.

This is not a comprehensive volume, rather an introduction to ideas that will be used throughout the reader’s career. Including resources (web sites, other books) where the interested reader could turn for more information on the topics would have made this book even more valuable. A strange omission for the book that lauds the value of comprehensive library work before starting a project.

Another omission has to do with traveling to conferences. While they talk about many ways to prepare, the authors never mention hotel reservations (and balancing cost with convenience in choice of hotels), or finding grants to offset the cost.

Overall, a very nice volume with much food for thought. It would be of most use to those just starting graduate school, or even those finishing up college and thinking about graduate school.

Mastering Your PhD by P. Gosling and B. Noordam
Springer
2006

I just finished a great book – “Our Iceberg is Melting” by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. It’s a quick read, less than an hour. The book talks about how to recognize when change is needed, and how to manage a group through the process of change, but does it in a fun way. The book is a fable, the story of a group of penguins who discover that the iceberg they live on is melting, and have to figure out what (if anything) to do about it.

While it sounds silly, and does contain some humor, sometimes a simple story can convey many important lessons. This is one of those times. In reading the story, I kept thinking back to teams I’d worked on, and seeing similarities between particular colleagues and particular penguins.

As the authors point out at the end, much of the power of this story is in it’s simplicity. By stripping it down to the essential details, it’s much easier to follow the process. They also point out that if a group of people are all familiar with the story, it gives them a common language to use when dealing with these issues.

This fable can also be applied to your career. Is your current position an iceberg – there are cracks and holes, but you’ve been ignoring them? It is destined for even bigger problems as winter approaches? What do you need to do to ensure that you are safe and warm in the future? Who do you need to enlist to help you? Who is likely to oppose, or at best ignore, your predictions?