Advice for “Hunting Season”

U niversity professors have seasons that, in certain neighborhoods in the vicinity of large research campuses such as where I live, loom even larger than those dictated by our planet's journey around the sun. Right now we are deeply entrenched in the one I call hunting seasonjob hunting, that is. It starts ramping up in early fall with a surge in postings for faculty positions and pilgrimages of industrial recruiters through the top universities. Meanwhile, students and postdocs come out of the woodwork to schedule appointments with me to " talk about life ". Every year I know it is coming, yet am still freshly surprised by the collective angst that hunting season provokes. Interestingly, the malaise seems just as acute among those not yet on the market as among those actively applying. Many trainees suddenly panic that they have not checked all the boxes en route to that elusive " ideal career " , the one a multitude of career panels and job fairs promised would materialize if they honed the right skills and networked with the right people. For academia-bound individuals, there is pressure to join the [insert pedigree] lab so that they can publish in [insert high-impact journal] on their research in [insert hot field of the day]. Those interested in industrial positions are warned that they must acquire deep expertise in one focused technical area, such as natural products synthesis for medicinal chemistry jobs or nanoscale lithography for work in the semiconductor industry. More leeway is given to trainees who seek " nontraditional " employment. Sidebar: the meaning of this term becomes ever less clear as no particular career paths seem to dominate over others these days. But even there the advice can be suffocating: be sure to perfect your " soft skills " (not so clear on what those are either); read broadly across science, policy, business and law; network with anyone and everyone; volunteer, pursue internships, write a blog, launch an organization. OK, take a breath. None of this is bad advice and to be honest, I have served on enough search committees, both in universities and companies, to know that hiring teams sometimes adhere to the above scripts like robots. The problem is this: it is not inspiring. Career advice that frames every choice as a formulaic means to a distant end dampens the joy of discovery in the momentthe satisfaction of proving …