Last fall, I had the honor of delivering the inaugural Joel D. Oppenheim Keynote Address at NYU's What Can You Be With a PhD? Symposium, an event that has helped thousands of doctoral trainees explore the full spectrum of careers available to them.
The occasion was deeply personal. Dr. Joel Oppenheim (may he rest peacefully) was more than a mentor to me. He was what I call a super mentor: a teacher, champion, connector, sponsor, and someone who saw potential in students before they necessarily saw it in themselves.
Receiving the Dr. Joel Oppenheim Award from his wife, Dr. Susan Oppenheim, gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own path from the laboratory to research, education, administration, and leadership, and on what I wish I had understood earlier.
For PhD students and postdocs trying to navigate an increasingly uncertain career landscape, a few lessons stand out:
1. Start with your story, not a job title.
Think about the experiences and values that have shaped you. What problems do you care about? What kind of impact gives your work meaning? Your origin story often contains clues about where you will find purpose.
2. Pay attention to the skills your PhD is actually teaching you.
A doctorate develops much more than technical expertise. Scientific reasoning, evidence-based decision-making, communication, program design, problem solving, and leadership can translate into many different careers. Early in my own transition, recognizing those transferable skills helped me see possibilities well beyond the bench.
3. Experiment before you decide.
Teach. Join a committee. Take an internship. Work on a policy project. Talk with people whose careers interest you. Some of my most important career discoveries came from trying things outside the path I originally imagined. You don't have to know the destination before you start exploring.
4. Don't wait for a Joel. Build a mentorship network.
Very few of us will find one person who can provide everything we need. Seek different people for different purposes...research mentors, peers, coaches, connectors, sponsors, and people who understand parts of your lived experience. The goal isn't to find the perfect mentor; it's to build the relationships that help you grow.
5. Look for alignment between your skills, your values, and the impact you want to have.
Prestige and titles can be useful, but they are poor long-term career strategies by themselves. The closer your work gets to the intersection of what you do well, what matters to you, and where you can contribute, the more likely you are to find both fulfillment and impact.
6. Let your purpose evolve.
Purpose isn't necessarily something you discover once and follow forever. Careers change. Families change. Institutions change. The world changes. Give yourself permission to reconsider how your talents can best be used.
My career certainly hasn't followed the path I imagined when I entered a molecular biology PhD program. Looking backward, though, it makes much more sense than it did while I was living it.
The positions changed. The work evolved. But the underlying purpose became clearer.
Your career doesn't have to be linear to be intentional. Purpose can be the thread that makes a nonlinear career coherent.