Recently, I attended a seminar in which the topic of career development was raised. The speakers addressed the steps that a professional can take to be “successful” in his/her career. This idea of success in one's career made me think about what success means to me. I do not think that success is merely a promotion (although I will gladly accept a promotion!). For me, success in my career is much more holistic. I believe that individuals should have the freedom to define career success in their own terms.
Managing my family and career
Success in my career is being able to manage my family and my career. My husband and I both have demanding careers, but his work schedule is inflexible, so I have to be able to do the drop-off and pick-up at daycare. I want to take my son to his soccer practice and attend the school event in which he sings holiday songs with his classmates. If attending these activities means I have to work late at night or on weekends to meet deadlines, then I will to accomplish my demands at home and at work.
I tend to limit my work travel to a few conferences/ad boards each year, and I am fortunate to have help from my parents and sister during those trips. Success for me is moving to a school district with after-school AND before-school childcare options so that I can attend my mandatory 8 am departmental meetings. My career choices impact my whole family, so I define success in my career as being able to manage all of it together.
Being comfortable outside of work
Success is being comfortable at home. I just purchased a Peloton bike, and I love it. I can actually exercise on the bike in the mornings while my son is sleeping.
Success in my career means being able to take family vacations. I remember a trip to St. Barts that we did prior to my son being born, and I was so thankful that I had a good job to be able to pay for that trip. Travel was never something we did while I was in graduate school because of the expense, but now we can go on vacations.
Friends at work
Success is working in a collegial and supportive environment with friendships. I spend a lot of time in the office, and my coworkers know more about my life than they probably want to! I am so happy to have people that I can lean on and who encourage me to succeed. My friends and I root for each other to succeed, and I love watching my friends grow in their own careers. My work friends make coming to the office each day joyful. It is so much fun that we were there for each other while pregnant in the office, and now we are planning for our children to go to kindergarten together. I am fortunate to share my career journey with an amazing group of people.
New challenges
Success in my career is constantly being challenged to learn new things. In order to grow, we need to be challenged. This is part of the reason I have worked in three different departments at my company; I have wanted to continue to grow and learn more about pharmaceutical drug development.
Impact of my work on patients
Success in my career is bringing value to the table as well as having people recognize the value that I bring. This aspect of how I define success in my career is likely universal. We all want to feel that the work we are doing has impact and that our work is appreciated.
I am grateful to be a translational/biomarker lead and have the privilege to develop the understanding of how our therapeutics work in the clinic. I want to continue to build upon this work and eventually bring a therapeutic all the way to market approval! That may take some time, but I think every scientist’s goal (in pharma/biotech) is to work on therapeutics that transform patients' lives. This metric of my success includes how my work has contributed to the understanding of cancer biology, impacted therapeutic development, and importantly, improved patient lives.
Mentoring and the success of others
Another measure of my success is how I have lifted up those around me in succeeding in their goals. So far, here are the ways that I have contributed to this measure of success: I started a mentoring program when I was an undergraduate at Penn State; I was a founding member of a consulting nonprofit (BALSA) group that provides career development opportunities for scientists in the St. Louis area; and I developed programming for the American Association for Cancer Research's Associate Membership Council and led the organization as president.
I love mentoring others. I directed a team in the laboratory when I was working in Oncology Discovery, and I want to expand my ability to mentor in my current role. This desire to mentor others is partly why Wenny and I started this career blog. I tend to serve as a cheerleader for my colleagues, and I am always happy to serve as the consulting immunologist on programs. It brings me pleasure to watch people learn and grow. I aim to continue to impact the careers of other scientists through mentoring and providing leadership.
Final thoughts on career success
As I reflect on the past year, overall, I am very happy with where I am now in my career. Moving forward in 2020, I aim to continue building on my successes. I am thankful that the management at my employment is understanding of my work-life integration approach. I aim to continue learning to be the best translational/biomarker lead I can be, and I have confidence that my current management will help me achieve these goals through constructive feedback and advocating for me as needed. Moving forward, I strive to transform lives with our novel cancer therapeutics.
How do you define success in your career? I would love to hear your input! Let’s define success as individuals and set the bar for ourselves.