Propelling Careers

In this episode, Jim and Lauren talk about skill building. We touch on where we are at with our own skill building and advice for people who want to expand their skillset.  We would also like to bust a few myths since one of the reasons we started this podcast was to myth bust!  We would like to incorporate more of these in 2025. Hope you enjoy listening!    Focus areas: - Why is skill building im...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 36. This week (Nov 13-16 2024), Lauren is at the ABRCMS conference in Pittsburgh PA. She gave a talk on Nov 15th on The state of the industry job market:  opportunities, challenges, and strategies for success. We thought it could be worthwhile to talk about this topic in our podcast today.   ABRCMS stands for the   Annual Biomedical Research Conference...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 35. In this episode, Jim and Lauren provide insight on how to decipher job descriptions. We know this is challenging and we know it is often confusing to know what an organization is actually looking for in a candidate. We cover topics like these below.  We hope you enjoy listening!       - Most job desc’s cover at least four big picture things – compa...

In this episode, Jim and I provide advice, including these topics below, to follow up from your networking interactions. We hope you enjoy listening!       Advice to keep notes of what you talked about during interactions Have a professional permanent email Tailor follow up When to follow up after networking interactions Be specific in your subject lines / body of emails How do you keep on a perso...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover tips to help you network more effectively by deescalating the networking process. In a professional setting, networking happens all the time.  Every time you interact with people, you are networking. We hope that our tips can help lessen the stress and anxiety of networking. We hope you enjoylistening!       Networking does not have to be a do or die situation...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren thought we would address a few questions that have come up often in the last few weeks from people reaching out to us. These questions have been focused mostly on applying to roles and process for organizations reviewing resumes.  Points we cover include these below. Perhaps some of you listening also have wondered about these questions too.   We hope you enjoy list...

In the last few weeks, Jim and I have received a number of questions from graduate students about whether or not to do a postdoc, so we thought we would devote an episode to this important topic. It’s not a simple yes/no answer - there is a lot to consider including these points below, when you are making this choice.  We hope you enjoylistening!     Why would someone do a postdoc?  What skills yo...

In our last episode, episode 29, we talked a bit about considerations people have as they evaluate career options. In this episode, we continue on this topic and talk about a few others including these below.  We also cover a few points on how to stay motivated in your search knowing all the decision points/considerations involvedin career choices. There can be roadblocks and barriers as you explo...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 29. In our last episode, we talked a bit about trends we are paying attention to in our sectors and in this episode we thought we would follow up to talk about what we are hearing from talent who are exploring career options and trying to navigate this environment.  Jim is hearing a lot from people about questions regarding the academic search - how to...

Since Labor Day just happened, Jim and Lauren thought we would do a check in episode as we get ready for the remainder of the year to check in on this year and what’s in store for the next few months for both of us. We also cover a few trends/data we are paying attention to relevant to our work such as the Inflation reduction act’s (IRA’s) impact on life sciences, Immigration, and the NIH’ work on...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren discuss cover letters, since so many people have questions on these.  Are they useful, does anyone read them, how do I tailor them, what if there is no space to include them, then how do I include it in the application, and so on and so on.  A few people have reached out to us with questions about this topic recently, including these below, so we decided to record a...

In this episode, Jim and I bust a few myths that we have seen online, or that people have mentioned to us directly regarding career advice. One of the reasons why we started this podcast is to have a reliable and good source of truth regarding career advice.  There is so much advice out there that is not good…. that people seem to follow. Through this podcast we want to be a trusted resource for p...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren talk about how to engage with people like Jim who run postdoc office and the officein general. We have received a number of questions about this topic, so we decided to record a podcast to help others make the most of their interactions at their respective institutions. Jim has a lot of experience, more than 13 years in his role, so he has a lot of insights to share...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren talk about how to engage with recruiters.  We have received a number of questions about this topic, so we decided to record a podcast to help others make the most of their interactions with recruiters.  Lauren leverages her recruiting experience (about 15 years) to demystify the world of recruiting. We talk about a few items such as these below.  We hopeyou enjoy li...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 23. In this episode, Jim and Lauren continue the theme of flags similar to episodes 19, 20, 21, and 22.  Will talk about a few more scenarios relating to networking, resumes, job searching, and interviewing. We have been enjoying putting these together, so we thought we would have one last one to wrap up the flags theme for right now. For context, in c...

In this podcast episode Jim and Lauren talk about flags in the context of networking. We talk about a few scenarios, including these listed below, in order to provide context to help all of you navigate networking situations. By networking, we are referring to situations such as networking events, informational interviewing, and also email networking. For context, in case you did not listen to epi...

This episode will continue from episode 20 since we have so many scenarios to discuss in terms of flags in candidate behavior during interviews. For context, in case you did not listen to episodes 19 or 20, a Red Flag could refer to something that means stop, leave immediately - really this is not a good thing.  A Yellow Flag could mean warning, slow down, you may want to investigate further; a Gr...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 20. In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on interviewing insights in the context of the candidate and how they may be indicating red, green, yellow or beige flags by their behaviors and responses. We will share actual examples from candidate interviews in this episode and we will discuss these in the context of the flags.  For context, a Red Flag coul...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 19. In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on interviewing insights in the context of what to look out for if you are a candidate interviewing at organizations. These things can indicate if the organization is organized or chaotic, if the culture is positive, if the team members seem to have good working relationships and respect for each other, if your...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 18. In thisepisode, Jim and Lauren would like to focus on the importance of being involved in your community outside of your research activities.  This involvement can increase connections and enable you to develop soft and sometimes hard skills outside of your research.  These activities could also increase diversity and inclusion depending upon which...

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 17. In this episode, Jim and Lauren build upon information shared about informational interviews in Episode 16 which focused on why to do informational interviews and how to identify people. This episode focuses on what to ask during an informational interview covering advice including these details below.  We hope you enjoy listening!  It is important...

In this episode and also episode 17, Jim and Lauren focus on informational interviewing. In Episode 15, we talked about how the summer slowdown can be a great opportunity to reflect on your career and informational interviewing is a wonderful opportunity to put this reflection into action.  Informational interviewing is so important for career insights.  Many people who you would like to reachout...

In this episode, Jim and Lauren share a few thoughts on how to leverage the ”summer slowdown” for your career Journey.  For many people, the summer months are a little slower than fall and spring, which allows mental capacity to even think about your future. We cover a few points such as these below. We hope you enjoy listening!   Memorial day can be a nice point in time to checkin on your goals f...

In Propelling Careers Podcast Episode 14, Jim and Lauren continue with resume advice (following on from Episodes 12 and 13) and at the end, Jim and Lauren provide some critique to their CV and resume. This episode covers topics such as:   Why it’s important to update your document on aregular basis (hint… it’s not just for job searching) Is there a preferred order for how to listinformation in a C...

This episode is the second in a three part series focused on resume advice. Episodes 12, 13 and 14 are in this series. In this episode Jim and Lauren provide advice about topics including: How to list details that are not just peer reviewed publications and conference presentations, such as media coverage, blogs, podcasts, books, etc What level of detail should be used to describe experiences To b...