On knowing what you want to do
I am a believer in the power of words and their ability to reassure, inspire, and propel us toward a vision that would otherwise feel too abstract. I am proud of nothing if not my ability to create frameworks -- I do this in literally every area of my life, maybe sometimes to a detriment. However, it has come very handy in structuring everything from my next internship, to an early-career research plan, to starting my faculty application, and this is the framework I give to all of my mentees, who I have seen also implement or adapt it to admirable degrees of success.
Here’s my ever-evolving tried-and-true guide to go from the abstract to the concrete (you don’t need to do these in order or to completion, but it might help). Ironically, I am writing this at a time when I feel very uncertain about my next career fork (in the path), but clarity is afforded with hindsight. Relevantly, we are probably doing these exercises together!
A. Identify your “compass” (the Venn Diagram exercise)
If it helps make it more credible, an astronaut gave me this adviceGood for: picking a research area, your next role, starting a literature review
No matter how niche your interests are, I think it’s possible to capture it as an intersection of three larger spheres of work. The first task to identify your area of interest, which will help guide everything from which opportunities to say yes to, to how to search for labs and PI (principle investigators) you want to work for. These are ever-evolving and the scale will depend on what scope of work you’re talking about. For example, my compass from undergrad was ‘human factors’, ‘spaceflight’, and ‘policy’; mine now are ‘design research’, ‘extreme environments’, and ‘human behavior’. The advice is then (very helpful for someone with decision paralysis, like me) be open to taking an opportunity that fits at least two out of the three spheres. Make these as specific as feels right to you, and a good check is to see if you would genuinely be interested in something that only intersects 2/3 areas; if not, you’ve probably made them too broad.
B. What do you want more of? Less of? (the plus/minus matrix)
Good for: seasonal shifts (fall/spring semester reflections), picking your next role, switching careersImagining two axes (what you do; what you want) splitting a region into 4 quadrants: ++, +-, -+, and --.
++ (what you do now and you want more of)
T his is probably the most important and easily overlooked box. It’s important to remind ourselves that we have components that we appreciate about our life right now, so we can intentionally carry them into the next transition, as the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
+- (what you now and you don’t want to do anymore)
You are probably transitioning for a reason! Let this be the opportunity to cut out some stressors. This can be a bit more of a flexible box and room to compromise on this later on, unless it is a very toxic situation you’re currently in.
-+ (what you don’t do and you would like to)
This is the second most important box -- in transitions, you ideally want to get closer to your ideal (whatever it is). The change is a great way to welcome things you’re wanting into your life.
-- (what you don’t do and would never want to do)
Just as important to identify are things you never want; don’t let the shine of a new role distract you into compromising on non-negotiables.
Some inspiration for what to put in your quadrants!
Day-to-day: reading, writing, math, statistics, experimental design, coding, presenting/speaking, structure (what kind?), designing, concepts, fabrication, manufacturing, operating, analysis, testing, interacting with peers, interacting with people in general, collaboration, type of colleagues
Management: financial budgeting, planning, organizing events, reporting, redtape and beauracracy
Career: mentoring, being mentored, developing pedagogy, teaching, assignments, dealing with uncertainty, power structures and dynamics, amount of job politics, stability (career and financial), conferences, publishing, hierarchy
Life: location, pay, growth opportunities, training, professional development, travel, work-life balance, consistency of workload, work language
C. Your skillsets and goals
Good for: seasonal shifts (fall/spring semester reflections), picking your next role, switching careers, formulating a research planMake a two-column list of skills, one of the skills you have and one of the skills you don’t and want to gain. Then, go back and circle/highlight the ones you enjoy doing, out of the skills you have. This is a great list to share with a mentor or supervisor for you to brainstorm together how to incorporate projects that utilize skillsets across both these columns into your work. I believe the best roles are where you are using the skills you enjoy, and learning new ones you’re excited about!
D. Your one-liner (career mad libs)
Good for: big changes, abstract visionary statements, formulating your research plan, picking your next roleI find this to be amazing especially for big career steps (mine right now are thinking about a post-doc and a faculty position), wherever you get a chance to redefine yourself. The one-liner I have been using for my post-doc and faculty brainstorming has the following form, and you might have to come up with your own. I already know I want to work on human-environment relationships, with a big emphasis on the type of methodologies I use, so those are the fixed words in the mad libs structure.
I study human ________ using ________ methodologies in ________ environments in order to ________.
Then you play fill in the blank, and this is a refinement process that depends heavily on the scope! You can also do this for your past, current, and future roles in order to see how to bridge them together with a similar structure. For my PhD thesis, I would say:
I study human behavior and performance using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in isolated, confined, and extreme environments in order to understand how to design architecture for wellbeing in long-duration spaceflight.
To get even more specific on just one project, I can adapt the line a little:
I study human behavioral health and performance using psychometrics in an isolation and confinement analog in order to quantify the impact of habitability.
You get the chance to explain this in more detail in a statement or cover letter; for instance, I would describe the aspects of behavior and performance I’m interested in, discuss the statistical and experimental methods I have developed, which analog environments I worked with, and specific findings from these projects. I find that it can also be useful to identify cross-cutting themes or lenses that are undercurrents to your work. For instance, in my work I constantly deal with interindividual variability, so I might choose to mention this as a challenge I’m familiar with.
I hope these activities helped you think about, put words, and synthesize some lenses for how to formulate your interests. All of these ask you to reflect on intuitions, feelings, or knowledge you hold toward your work, for the purpose of communicating these to decision-makers (which is yourself + also others). These processes have helped me crystallize abstract thoughts into firm knowledge of knowing what I want to pursue, at least in the next step. Following these activities, you should have a list of keywords, relevant areas, and skillsets that can help you or your mentor hone in on the next position.
VIEWS MY OWN
I am, among many things, a PhD candidate at MIT AeroAstro. Motivated to always learn, categorize, and create frameworks for my experiences, I write and share reflections on my PhD journey in a collection called fieldnotes. Fieldnotes are detailed observations collected by anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers while situated in an environment of interest; the obsessive intensity to learn and grasp and make sense of phenomena during the collection of fieldnotes is the way that feels most reflective of the way I live life.