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Finding Your Fit Among Career Options With A Phd

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic and rapid shift in the life sciences from viewing achieving a career as a faculty member as the norm that everyone should aspire to, toward acknowledging and enabling exploration of multiple career options with a PhD. Many tools have been developed and made available to assist career exploration, and NIH has funded 17 awards for universities to develop approaches for Broadening Experience in Scientific Training (BEST). However, for many individuals, sorting out the best options and the routes to getting there is still a very complicated task. Over the past almost 20 years, we have been studying various aspects of development of young scientist, including what leads individuals to start the PhD vs. other career options, and, more recently, the processes by which individuals choose options after they start the PhD. All of our work is based on in‐depth interviews conducted longitudinally throughout the PhD and beyond, with analysis using qualitative research methods. I will present some of our recent findings that reveal: the complexity of the process; how differing interests and perceptions of work and non‐work balance influences it; unique challenges that women and minorities face; and varying strategies people use to manage those challenges. I will also introduce the concepts of Communities of Practice and Cultural Capital to help reveal the processes by which young scientists find fit, alignment and success within different careers.