In this edition, I want to talk about trying a lot of different things, gaining a lot of different skills, and how you can really leverage that for your future.
The Backstory
When I was an undergrad, I was originally a chemical engineering major, But after 3 years, I had to switch to chemistry. After I switched, I went to career services, and I talked to a career counselor to see what I could do, and how I could get involved with more chemistry things and just try to figure out what my next steps were.
When I talked to the career counselor, I told her my situation and I remember saying, “Well, I don’t want to waste time doing things that aren’t gonna pan out.” And then she gave me advice that I have never forgotten. And she said, “Trying things is never a waste of time because even if you do it and you find out you don’t like it, at least you have that information and you learned that you didn’t like it.”
I really took her words to heart, because in that year and a half between switching from chemical engineering, and then graduating, I did a lot of different things, and I learned a lot from those experiences.
For example, I worked as a:
- volunteer intern position as a governmental relations coordinator, where I learned about local environmental policies and how to translate the jargon to everyday English
- summer camp coordinator or trainer at the Houston Natural Science Museum in Sugar Land, where I taught high schoolers about different side comm techniques as they presented science stations for kids
- web designer helping scientists make their websites
- undergraduate research teaching assistant helping students find research opportunities in the chemistry department, building an undergrad research community, guiding them through the academic/research culture
Find opportunities where you’re at.
The thing that all these experiences have in common is that when I got interested in something, even the slightest bit, I decided to try it in whatever capacity that I could with the opportunities I found at the time. If you’re even slightly interested in something, try to find opportunities where you’re at to test the waters.
Your PhD is a great time for this because even though you are doing research, sometimes there is dead time in between research when you’re doing an experiment. For example, you might have a day-long experiment but you’re not really active for all that time.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a side project to work on and so this could be your side project. Leveraging the university resources to explore opportunities because, honestly, it’s really hard to find these types of opportunities or it’s harder to find these opportunities once you’re no longer in a university setting.
Using what you have or exploring those opportunities is valuable. And so it’s also important to just keep an open mind for the opportunities available. If you see something that, you think it might not be good now, maybe bookmark it and consider it later.
The other thing is thinking about your time commitment. A few months of commitment is small relative to the gains that you can get in terms of the insight of what you want to do in the future.
For example, being the governmental relations intern was something I did over 9 months, about 30 minutes every 2 weeks. The summer camp was more intense, about once a week over 3 months. My web design business has been the longest commitment to date with more time put in on the front end and now a lot less time. Now, it’s just mostly, like, fun stuff like content creation, making this podcast, and things like that. Having a position like being a undergraduate research TA has been the most time consuming so far, but it’s still part of my TA work. I was able to find things that fit it in.
Reflect on your experiences to identify overlaps and commonalities to narrow down future opportunities.
The second thing is it’s really important to reflect on your experiences and then identify, you know, the overlaps or commonalities and then use that to narrow down future opportunities. When I was an undergrad, it was a lot easier to reflect on these experiences because, you know, I had to write essays or scholarships so then I could always refer to what I wrote. Now it’s a lot harder, so I have this podcast to do it.
It’s important to reflect on the experiences because, like, sometimes, you know, when you’re in the experience in the moment, you might notice, “I don’t like this or I really like this” or, “This is fun or I hate doing this.” But you have to go through those thoughts like multiple times before it really clicks to you. These are the things that you like and these are the things that you don’t like. And then, these are the things that you don’t like. And then, obviously, if you do have more experiences and then you still notice the same trends, now you really know for sure what you don’t like and what you do like.
Recognize and leverage your unique skill sets for future opportunities.
The next thing is to leverage previous opportunities for future opportunities and recognizing that you now have a unique skill set. Doing things outside of just research helps gives you a multitude of skills, examples, situations to leverage in future interviews or other opportunities.
When you focus on the skills that you gained or the things you’ve learned from the experience and how you could leverage or apply that to your next position, that can make you stand out compared to somebody who doesn’t have any of those opportunities.
For example, when I interviewed for my first job, my boss was really interested in the position I did as, like, government relations intern. And then when I applied for a most recent internship, they were really interested in my work as an undergraduate undergraduate research TA.
Both times, I was not prepared, because I didn’t think those two things would be the things that they would ask about. I thought they were gonna ask about my research experience or maybe my web design work or something. You never know what they’re gonna ask, so it’s important to have those stories lined up when before you go to those interviews.
I’m also in the process of figuring out what’s next for me.
Now I’m thinking, “What’s next for me?” I’ve done all these different things. I feel like right now I don’t actually know, especially since I got super rejected this past season for so many things. I think right now, the season is for me to focus on research. Actually it can be a little bit distracting to do so many different things all the time. I mean, I am the type of person to do a lot of different things, but sometimes it does come at the cost of the things that you’re actually supposed to do which is research.
I do not have anything lined up right now. I think that maybe this is the time to focus on the podcast and do the things that I want to do for myself, rather than, volunteering for a different organization or, taking on more responsibilities like in a student organization or things like that. Those are all perfectly fine things to do and, you know, depending on where you’re at in your stage.
Final Thoughts
Remember that, whatever you do, it has to benefit you in some way. Because if it’s not benefiting you anymore, then it’s probably time to move on. In conclusion if you’re interested in doing something, just try it. What’s are you gonna lose? You might as well try it because, again, better to know and than to not know. And, honestly, you’ll always learn something. Whether it’s a new skill, or even if you, like like it or don’t like it, all those, like, little bits of information will add up and nothing will ever be perfect.
I used to think that if I get this position, get this opportunity, then it’s gonna be so awesome. I’m gonna love it so much. You know, it’s gonna solve all my problems. And I don’t really think that’s the case anymore. Now I’m being more realistic. I’ll do this thing and, I’m gonna do my best at it and I’m gonna give it what I got for the time that I need to. And then once it doesn’t serve me anymore, I can move on. And I think maybe, you know, that’s probably a much more pragmatic way to approach it.
The PhD is what you make it, and you get out what you put in. The world is your oyster, or your PhD is your oyster. Whatever it is you wanna do, try it. And if you get rejected, yeah, I’m with you.