One of the challenges of academia can be that the faculty giving advice to trainees may have only experienced jobs in academia, whereas trainees might want jobs in other sectors - community based organizations, consulting companies, public health departments, government. As a result, trainees can get the impression that there is only one “valid” option, or get less support than they need imagining alternatives.

My opinion is that decisions are rarely irrevocable, it’s just a question of whether you’d be willing to make the tradeoffs or sacrifices needed to make the pivot at that stage of career. For example, people are told that if you want a research career, you need to attempt that first. Ditto for a primarily clinical career. In other words, put your nickle down on one set of skills, one identity, and try that first. The problem is, the training for those positions isn’t necessarily the experience of having those positions - sometimes you need a couple years doing the work to figure out that you’ve learned a lot but actually wish you made a different choice.

Thus far, I have worked in an academic basic science lab, then an employee-owned policy research consulting company, then grad school, then a community-based health care organization, then an academic fellowship and faculty position. Having wended my way through several different sectors thus far in my career, the variety has ultimately been helpful for bringing creative ideas to my current environment. Other examples are clinicians who make mid-career pivots, often through new clinical, research, or policy fellowships. I have colleagues who have pursued primarily academic clinical roles who took chances (and sacrifices) to pivot to primarily research careers (which requires making time and finding mentors to get a publication record sufficient for getting funding, in addition to brushing up research skills). It wasn’t easy, and not everyone would have the circumstances to do it, but they are more powerful researchers and mentors as a result.

For trainees looking for examples and advice about how do to this: keep asking mentors for referrals to people with nontraditional career paths, because those people may know even more people with winding paths that might help you envision possibilities. Talk to lots of people as you figure out what you enjoy, what you want to do more of, what windows and doors you might want to keep propped open vs. walk through.

Then, if you can, choose a job out of fellowship where you think you can grow for 2-3 years. Six months in, everything may seem terrible, but this is normal for any new job. At a year into a new job, you will have a sense of whether this is a place you can continue to grow and add opportunities for doing more of the pieces of the job that you ultimately want, or whether you may want to move on in another year or two. That gives you time to begin conversations about potential paths to the next role you want to try on.