About the author

Suzanne Kennedy

Suzanne is Director of R&D at Mo Bio Laboratories in California, and the author of their blog, The Culture Dish. She has a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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I had the unique opportunity to attend a lecture by the CEO of Life Technologies, Greg Lucier, just recently here in San Diego. The lecture was organized by Leo Lee, the creator of a new group on Linkedin.com called Leadership Builder and the title of the presentation was “Developing Executive Leadership: What it Takes to Take the Lead”.

It isn’t often that one has the chance to receive career advice from the CEO of a billion dollar company in a small conference room setting such as this, so I took the opportunity to hear him speak.  Not only was it a great chance to learn some of his wisdom directly, but I also wanted to share it with you too here on Bitesize Bio.

Greg’s Background and Philosophies

Greg started off by telling the ~150 person audience about his educational background.  After getting a B.S. at Penn State, he attended Harvard where he received an MBA. Prior to taking the lead at Invitrogen, he was the General Manager at GE, working for Jack Welch, and learning the management style that worked so well at GE.  When he was interviewed by the Board of Directors for the position of CEO at Invitrogen in 2003, he told them ”hire me not for what I know, but for how fast I can learn.”

He had not worked in the biotech industry prior to this time, and except for the experience he gained in his evolving role at GE where he was managing their medical systems, life sciences would be completely new to him.  However, there was never a doubt in his mind in his ability to lead a completely different enterprise to greatness.  Indeed, when talking about key qualities in leaders, Greg stated, “The core of a great leader is self confidence.”

Leadership and Training

The bulk of the seminar was spent discussing how Life Technologies views leadership, and how they promote and train from within to move people with drive and motivation on to higher positions in the company.

When talking about picking the right players for his team, he was clear about what he looks for in a candidate for a leadership position at Life Technologies.  He said, “A person who has led an imperfect life.” A person who is reflective and can say “when they went left, when they should have gone right”, and talk about what they learned from their mistakes. Greg continued, “Look, you are going to [make mistakes] otherwise you’re not moving fast. You have to minimize it and the size of it.” And of course, learn from it. He stressed that people with battle scars make great leaders.

Creating a Great Workplace

Towards the end of the talk, Greg focused on the changes made at Life Technologies to make it a better place for employees, a place that people want to work. He spoke about how the GE method did not work at Life Tech and so, instead of asking people to change, he changed.  Now,  instead of ranking people from best to worst, they focus on people’s careers and individual growth and time balance.  He said they want employees to try different positions within the company, to learn new skills, and to further their education on the job instead of leaving to find greener pastures elsewhere.

As a former employee of Invitrogen (which merged with Applied Biosystems in 2009 to form Life Technologies), I can say it was nice to hear about the positive changes taking place at Life Technologies and how they are managing their rapid growth as a company to keep pace with the developments in science.

Greg’s perspectives on leadership were a great reminder that whatever it is in life that you lead, it is ok to try things and make mistakes, that change accelerates learning, and that self confidence can get you everywhere.

About the author

Travis Medley

Travis is the President of Simply Biotech, a specialized recruiting and staffing firm dedicated exclusively to the biotech industry in San Diego County. More information may be found at www.simplybiotech.com

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You applied to a position and have run the interview gamut – you’ve had an initial phone screen, a follow-up phone screen, an initial in-person interview, a follow-up in-person interview, and a final interview – Phew!

You’ve talked about your career, your ambitions, your salary requirements and your future. You love them and they love you.

Casually, they ask you for references - the final step in the selection process. You’ve come this far and now it is crucial you take the final step with the same level of professionalism and confidence that brought you here. But can you? Do you have the right references? What will they say about you? Are you positive that is what they will say about you?

It is important to handle references appropriately. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Contact your most recent direct supervisor(s) and ask to use them as a reference. Your new employer will most likely insist on talking to a recent supervisor before all other people.
2. Ask them what they see as your greatest strength(s) and greatest weakness. It’s better that you find out what they will say now . Alternatively, you can ask for a letter of recommendation. This will give you a sense of how passionately they speak of your strengths, though it will not provide insight on weaknesses they may discuss.  Letters of recommendation are not taken as seriously as phone references since your new employer knows you are a filter between your old employer and them and people tend to be less candid about their concerns in a letter format.
3. Once you have provided your references to a company, let your references know that they may be contacted soon. Ask them to please return the call promptly - a lot of references do not return calls for extended periods of time, and this can ruin the sense of urgency that your future company may have to bring you on board.

Keep these things in mind when responding to a company’s request for references:

1. Provide phone numbers and email addresses to your two or three most recent direct supervisors. Think about which references will be most relevant to this potential employer and which references will speak to your strengths. Companies find it peculiar when people list references from several years back and do not provide the most recent contacts.
2. Unless specifically requested, do not include personal or peer references.

If you follow these items, you can ensure the final step goes smoothly and increase your chances on getting a job offer.

About the author

Aida Baida Gil

Aida is a geneticist and certified career and life coach. She helps scientists who are struggling to decide the next step in their career create clarity and an action plan. Visit www.experimentyourlife.com to schedule a free consultation, and subscribe to her newsletter to receive monthly coaching tips. Find out about her new program So now what? Career Reinvention for Scientists

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We all suffer from different types of fears, self-doubts and insecurities. Especially when we are about to do something new. And commonly these negative thoughts center around wondering whether you are good enough.

Whether you are applying for a postdoc or PI position, considering starting a PhD, or thinking about leaving science for pastures new, I’m sure that that question will pop into your mind more than once and probably lead to a train of negative thoughts…”they’ll never pick me, there must be a lot of people with more publications than me”, “I don’t know why I even try”, “they are going to laugh at my CV”, “maybe I’m not cut out for this”, “I’ll never be really good like  X is”.

Of course, that kind of thinking will make your projects or goals dead before they even have a chance to see the light. It is perfectly normal to feel nervous and insecure about your next step, you are not made of stone; but the question “am I good enough?” not only is disempowering but actually meaningless. As I will explain.

Why “am I good enough” is the wrong question to ask yourself

By wondering if you are “good enough” for a specific task, project or job, you are comparing yourself against someone else, or more accurately your perception of yourself and that other person. And who are you going to choose? If you are in a negative state of mind, you invariably won’t choose yourself. There will always be people that you perceive as better than you, some who are actually better than you at certain things, and people who are worse.

That’s a fact. But so what? To succeed in YOUR goals, you don’t need to be the best in the world. Not all scientists are Nobel-prize winners. There are lots of scientists out there doing great work, and why can’t you be one of them?

The REAL question you should be asking yourself

What you really need to consider when making your plans is not if you are good enough, or whether you are better than someone else, but these three questions:

1) Do you want to do it? Is it important and meaningful to you?
2) Do you have the knowledge or skills needed? And if not,
3) Are you willing to learn and develop them?

If the answer to these questions is “yes”, then go on and move forward. Of course, it’d be easier to do nothing and keep thinking that you are not good enough, but that will take you nowhere. So go on, it will still be scary, but it should also be exciting…

About the author

Travis Medley

Travis is the President of Simply Biotech, a specialized recruiting and staffing firm dedicated exclusively to the biotech industry in San Diego County. More information may be found at www.simplybiotech.com

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Today’s subject is instant gratification – or the thought process, “I have to have it now, or I am not happy!”.  For our times, which are filled with streaming video, text messages, and on-demand movies, we are used to having what we want, immediately.

In today’s job market, it is more important than ever that job seekers remain vigilant, confident, professional, and most importantly, PATIENT throughout the entire hiring cycle.  Companies are moving slower today – they are very careful in making their hiring decisions and have lost a sense of urgency.  This is all cyclical and will undoubtedly change once the job market turns around.  Knowing this, it is important that job seekers make changes in the way they think about finding a position.  Here are two things you can do:

1. Remain Positive – we see too many job seekers get discouraged when they do not hear back in a day, a week or even a month. If you have not been told “no”, there is always a chance that you will get called in for the job. You must remain confident, as this is reflected in your voice during a phone screen or in-person interview.  The dejected job seeker often comes across as depressed, skeptical, or even whiny.  The optimistic job seeker displays enthusiasm and confidence.  Guess which type of personality companies want to hire?  This extends to networking, too.  If you meet someone at a networking event or party who is dejected, you are much less likely to refer them for positions you might hear about. People refer people they like.  In my son’s kindergarten class they call this the kind of person who gives us the ”warm fuzzies”.  Don’t be a “cold prickly”.
2. Follow-up – take the time to follow-up with the hiring manager and/or HR contacts.  A general rule of thumb is that once every week and a half to two weeks is usually appropriate. A polite phone call inquiring about the status is fully appropriate. Be sure to be very positive and courteous and do not reference the length of time it has been since  the interview. Confirm your interest in the role and tell them you look forward to hearing from them – but most of all, remain positive on the call (see #1).

It’s certainly not easy to do these things, but being generally happier and more confident will have a positive effect on your search. Every day we are watching people accept new positions, and some of them had to wait a long time with many other decisions hanging in the balance.  Ultimately were thrilled that they received the right offer at the right time.

Good things come to those who wait.

About the author

Richard Myers

Richard Myers is a Ph.D. student at the University of California in Davis, currently involved in cardiovascular research. He has Biotech and teaching experience and is an avid fan of science writing for the general population.

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Graduate school (PhD training) is full of roadblocks and obstacles that threaten to hinder progress, but your major professor (PI) should not be one of them. If you are frustrated with your progress and your lab environment has become unbearable, don’t throw in the towel just yet! You may need to change labs.

Finding the right student-mentor match can put you on the fast track to an inspiring graduate career, but the wrong match can keep you mired in an unproductive fog.

It takes knowing what kind of mentor you are seeking, knowing what kind of worker you are, what type of lab environment you are looking for, and, of course, what kind of research you are interested in. Ideally, this should have guided your initial choice for choosing a major professor, but we all know that sometimes relationships just don’t work out. Still, the decision to change your major professor should not be taken lightly. But before you take the step of  switching labs, there are several things you should consider.

Universal truths

1. Grad school is HARD. Let’s face it: it isn’t going to be easy no matter what lab you are in. Still there is a fine line between a PI who will challenge you and one who will obstruct you. This really depends on your needs as a student. One thing is for certain, changing labs is not a way to get out a transient slump, but a way to continue forward in the face of an irreconcilable difference with your current PI. It may be that, by staying in your current lab, you will be able to overcome a difficult patch and be better for it.

2. Time. Changing labs will likely set you back at least several months. If you are in a big hurry to graduate, you might consider sticking it out in your current lab. However, if you see no hope of progress where you are, you may come out ahead in the long run by switching.

3. PI’s track record. A good way to estimate your chances of success with a PI is to look at the students who have come before you. How many students have earned their PhDs under your PI? How long did it take? How many publications did they have? Older PIs tend to have more experience in advancing graduate students. If students are routinely graduating with several first author publications, this suggests a well organized and highly motivated group.

4. Funding. Without a steady supply of grant money, a lab cannot maintain the expensive materials and personnel needed to survive. A lack of funding is a huge hindrance to research progress and could leave you stranded without a way forward. In addition, you will likely have to work as a TA to cover your stipend, diverting valuable time from your research. The inability of a PI to employ students and maintain lab equipment is a major factor for switching labs and should be considered when choosing a new PI. Of course, having your own funding from a grant or fellowship is always preferred.

5. Research. You have to love what you do! Switching labs to pursue research that inspires you is a valid choice, but the further from your current field, the longer it will set you back. It is doubtful you will be able to move your current project to another lab, but, if you like your research, try to find a lab engaged in similar studies. However, keep in mind you will probably be seeing your old PI at seminars if your interests remain the same!

Your Needs

6. Mentorship. Do you value autonomy or guidance? In other words, are you looking for a mentor who will guide you at every step, one who is hands-off, or someone in between? This usually depends on how much experience you have with designing experiments and troubleshooting technical problems. When looking for new PIs, it is always best to ask students currently in those labs for their assessment of the PI.

7. Your work habits. Your work habits should fit well with the mentorship style of your PI in order to avoid future confrontations. Are you self-motivated or do you need an extra push to get started? Some students may feel suffocated by a nosy PI while others may relish the interaction. Knowing yourself will help you choose a mentor suited to your working style.

8. Lab environment. Every lab has its own culture and group dynamic and it is important to get to know the other members. Large labs tend to have several post-docs and staff researchers who have become specialized in certain techniques. Their expertise can be quite helpful when getting new projects off the ground. Large labs usually allow more flexibility when designing a project because of the various research paths pursued. Smaller labs are often more narrowly focused, but tend to thrive on a strong team dynamic. You may be forced to become an expert in a variety of techniques and the learning curve can slow your initial progress. However, small labs are often just as productive as large ones and allow you to become a master at many different techniques.

9. Ask advice. Ask people you trust before making your decision. Believe it or not, many grad students have gone through the process of switching labs, or at least have considered it. Other students, your academic advisor, other PIs, and even departmental administrators can offer advice and insight into your situation and will generally have the discretion to keep it confidential.

If you decide it is indeed time to find a new lab, here are some tips for making a smooth transition:

1. Find out who is hiring. Your departmental coordinator may be able to tell you who is willing to take on new graduate students and who is definitely not interested in new students. This can help you narrow your search and give you an idea of your likely options. Other students can offer insight into their own labs and whether opportunities exist.

2. Arrange a new lab first. You don’t want to find yourself without a lab (or stipend)! Get all your ducks in a row before moving forward and always keep the option of staying in your current lab until the last possible moment.

3. Compile and organize your data for your PI. Consider that another student will likely pick up your project so make it easy on him or her. Your PI will appreciate it as well and will be less likely to have any “hard feelings” about your departure.

4. Avoid blowback. You will probably see your PI in the future at seminars and departmental functions, so it is best to leave amicably. Even if you are frustrated, don’t burn any bridges.

5. Hit the ground running. Once you’ve started in your new lab, don’t dawdle! You have to make up for lost time. It may seem like you’ve taken a step back at first, especially while formulating a new project, but putting in the extra effort up front will help you stay positive and focused as you embark on your new path.

Changing labs during grad school is a big, but sometimes necessary, step. Hopefully these tips will help you make the right decision. If you have any tips of your own, please leave a comment.

About the author

Travis Medley

Travis is the President of Simply Biotech, a specialized recruiting and staffing firm dedicated exclusively to the biotech industry in San Diego County. More information may be found at www.simplybiotech.com

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Technology is bigger, faster and better than it ever has been before. It saves us time, and energy by doing our work for us, right?

You can Google job prospects, develop sophisticated spiders to seek out hidden opportunities, “e-blast” your resume to hundreds of people with a single click – heck, you can even have set it up so that whenever a new position matches your background, your resume and cover letter are automatically submitted for that job.

This technology allows your job search to be far more comprehensive and the actual “looking” for opportunities can take mere minutes. There are some terrific tools that will conveniently email you every day about opportunities that match your key words – and this is a huge time saver!

It’s all great, right? Well, yes and no.

The danger of high-tech job hunting

As I have discussed previously, there is a very important “personal touch” required for today’s job search and technology can get in the way of that. Getting the job is not about being the first or the fastest. It’s about being timely. And most importantly, it’s about being the right fit for the right job.

Automatically sending out a resume based on the keyword results of new job searches might save you time but it is not a good idea. You run the risk of being impersonal, off-base for the needs of the position, or just plain wrong when you apply automatically for a position that is clearly not the right fit for you.

As impersonal as it may feel to submit your resume online, remember that there are people on the back end that track job applicants. It is a major faux pas to submit your resume multiple times to the same company in a short period of time. It sends the message (and we know this because companies tell us this frequently) that you do not know what job you are a fit for.  That you just want any job. Then, the ideal position comes up at one of these companies and they no longer take you seriously. 

In one incident, a job seeker had their resume set up on an automatic distribution. The resume was sent, unbeknownst to the candidate, to the same company where they were already being considered for an interview – but for a different job.  Hiring managers and HR do not take too kindly to people “double dipping” in the application process. It caused quite a stir when they assumed the candidate was looking for any job rather than a specific job.

While this is a mild example, it can happen at any time and during any stage of the process. It is very risky to let your computer (or someone else’s web site) determine when and where you apply. In short, technology in = good, and technology out = bad.

Be smart with the technologies you use during your job search.

About the author

Jode Plank

Jode is a Postdoctoral Fellow studying DNA repair at the University of California at Davis. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University.

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Science is a culture of information exchange, from the top to the bottom. Sometimes we are simply presenting the information, such as in seminars or papers, but most of the time the information changes hands as advice, solicited or unsolicited. Obviously this occurs most often between labmates, but also between scientists within the same department, via e-mail or at conferences between scientists at different institutions, or on websites like this one.

One of the most interesting aspects of this, for me at least, is watching the dynamics of advice solicitation, dispense, and the resulting action. Obviously, certain people are asked for advice because they have developed a reputation for being knowledgeable and approachable, but for every person that becomes that go-to guy or girl, there is another who is equally accomplished and personable whom people largely avoid seeking advice from. Even worse, there are those whom people actively avoid talking about any problem they are having in front of, just to avoid unsolicited advice.

Insight from the experts
A paper examining the value that recipients placed on different types of advice that they received may shed some light on this, as well as enlightening us on the best way we can help others in the future. Normally I would like to read the original paper rather than a summary of it, but unfortunately I don’t have access to it, and it may be better to have an expert in the field boil the work down for us anyway. At Psychology Today, Art Markman summarizes the work of Reeshad Dalal and Silvia Bonaccio.

“[The study] distinguished between four types of advice.

Advice for is a recommendation to pick a particular option.

Advice against is a recommendation to avoid a particular option.

Information supplies a piece of information that the decision maker might not know about.

Decision support suggests how to go about making the choice, but does not make a specific recommendation. (For example, you might recommend that a friend looking to go to a movie check out a website that aggregates movie reviews. You aren’t recommending a particular movie, but just a technique for making a decision.)

In the studies, college students were asked to imagine making a particular decision… They were given a variety of different kinds of advice and asked how satisfying and useful the advice was for making a decision.

In general, people found all of the types of advice to be useful to some degree. However, information was the most useful kind of advice across the studies.”

When I read this, I thought about the advice that the go-to people that I’ve known dispense versus the less favored sources, and my experiences are very consistent with this finding. One of the most interesting interpretations about why Information was the most valued is because it allows the recipient to maintain independence in the decision making process. I found this particularly striking in the context of laboratory culture, since a career in science tends to select some fairly strong and independent personalities. In my experience, most the people whose advice was avoided tended to try to help others by telling them what to do in no uncertain terms rather than allowing them to decide what to do.

Implications for lab dynamics
Another aspect of this that wasn’t discussed is the social implications of the decision of the recipient to follow or not to follow the advice. If you ask somebody for advice and they only give you information, then there is little or no awkwardness afterwards when they ask you what you ultimately decided to do. However, it can be uncomfortable to tell somebody that emphatically evangelized one option over another that you went against their advice. After one of these interactions, you aren’t quick to mention any problems you are having around the now-disgruntled labmate.

By extension, dispensing advice heavily advocating one option over another sets you up for feeling disrespected if the recipient of your advice chooses a different path than the one you advocated. If you routinely hand out this type of advice, your coworkers may start to avoid asking for your input, making you feel disrespected or under-appreciated and socially isolating you from the group.

Implications for training
In addition to these issues, I think there can be a strong argument made for simply dispensing information when asked for advice from a training perspective as well. Part of making a decision is the exploration of the options – in science this often means acquiring detailed knowledge of the mechanisms of options A and B (and C, and D, etc), along with their advantages and shortcomings. If a young trainee is simply told to use protocol A, then this exploration is short-circuited, and little of that knowledge is attained. In addition, a social pattern starts to become established in which the trainee becomes trained to ask for direction rather than thinking for themselves, stunting their development as a scientist.

What do you think? In retrospect, what was the advice method employed by your most valued mentor?

About the author

Senthil Gandi

Gandi is a Ph.D student in Medical Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh. Having graduated with a degree in Biotechnology, merging cool scientific knowledge into industry became his interest. So he worked for two years for a small biotech company and realised doing a Ph.D was the way forward. He has a keen interest for new technologies and always thinking about spreading the great works of Bitesizebio further.

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Reading papers on-screen is not something that everyone likes but if you can get used to it, it will help save you time and paper and make filing your literature a breeze. If you use a wide flatscreen monitor, something that is 17inch or bigger, then this tip could make your on-screen reading more pleasurable.

Go vertical

The tip is simply to change the orientation of your screen from horizontal to vertical. The vertical view reduces the amount of scrolling that you will have to do, and also helps you to keep orientated to the bigger picture of an article.
Couple it with a PDF annotator, which allows you to make permanent notes on the PDF,  and you are all set for going all-electronic  for your literature.

Another advantage of a vertical screen, is that it feels more natural for  writing word documents (since most documents are in portrait mode), reading long lists such in Excel or browsing your reading list (e.g. on Mendeley).  It also works well for those who do programming and coding, so I’m told.

How to change your screen orientation

The technical details on how to change the display from horizontal to vertical may vary from one computer to another and this is dependent on the capability of the graphic card that is in your computer. But I will explain how I did it on my Windows XP machine.

1. Right click on your desktop
2. Click on graphic properties
3. Look for rotation or display settings.
4. In those settings, either choose 90 degrees or 270 degrees rotation.

If these steps do not work, feel free to drop a line in the comment section, I will deal with them as individual cases. So why not start viewing things differently and tell us how you are getting on.

About the author

Travis Medley

Travis is the President of Simply Biotech, a specialized recruiting and staffing firm dedicated exclusively to the biotech industry in San Diego County. More information may be found at www.simplybiotech.com

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If you are looking for a new job, it probably feels like full-time work right now. The number of positions is low and the number of calls and emails you are receiving regarding your resume are probably less than you would like.

So it is more important than ever to take control and maximize every phone call and every email correspondence you have with prospective employers. Here are some ways you can do that:
Take Charge of Phone Calls: Take a number!

If you are contacted by someone about your resume (HR, recruiter, hiring manager, former colleague, friend, etc) and it is not a convenient time to talk, politely ask if you can call them back and take down their name and phone number. We have heard of several incidences where the job seeker asks the caller to call back at a better time, without writing down a name or phone number.

There are a lot of candidates on the market, so why risk that the caller may not call you back? Don’t wait for opportunity to knock twice, as many times they will not call you again. Sometimes it is because they are busy, sometimes they are lazy, sometimes they misplace the note  and sometimes they are taken aback that the candidate did not take a more proactive approach. No matter the reason, don’t leave your search to anyone else!

Emails: Read them. Read them all

Okay, okay, at the very least look at every one of them. A byproduct of posting your resume online is spam, and spam sucks. But, the upside is significant.

You may be contacted about jobs via an automated response, and you may miss it because you didn’t review your spam folder. Be sure you do not delete your spam without looking at every email individually. Sometimes emails I send myself (from one account to another) hit the spam folder - and these are important notes! Don’t let anything slip through as your next job could be sitting in your spam folder right now.

We know of situations where the hiring manager sends information about an interview and it ends up in the candidate’s spam folder.  One of these candidates missed an interview because they did not see the email, and they weren’t invited back for another interview. Again, someone who emailed you once may not email you again. Sometimes it is because they are busy, sometimes they are lazy and sometimes they are taken aback that you did not respond more quickly while others did. No matter the reason, don’t leave your search to anyone else!

As a side note on taking charge - be sure that both your email and phone number are very easily found on your resume. Don’t use the “confidential” email options on job boards, because your resume will be passed over by some people – and is it worth missing out?

About the author

Aida Baida Gil

Aida is a geneticist and certified career and life coach. She helps scientists who are struggling to decide the next step in their career create clarity and an action plan. Visit www.experimentyourlife.com to schedule a free consultation, and subscribe to her newsletter to receive monthly coaching tips. Find out about her new program So now what? Career Reinvention for Scientists

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It’s funny (or maybe sad) how we spend a lot of time planning experiments, thinking about our next paper or preparing for a lab meeting, yet we don’t take time our to plan our lives, to think about what we really want. Most of us think that what we really want is to be successful. And that’s fine, if you know what “successful” means.

Q1: Name the most successful person you know…

Take a second to choose someone.
I bet you named someone professionally successful. Didn’t you? Nowadays, success equals professional success. Everyone seems to want career success even if that means failing in other areas of their life.

Who is more successful, someone at the top of her/his profession with a six-figure salary and no time to do anything else. Or someone with a not so high position, a modest salary and with time to spend with his/her family and to pursue hobbies and go on vacation?

I’d definitely choose the second option. But let me ask you something:

1. Is it worth it to pursue career success at all costs, even if that means failure in other areas of your life?
2. Have you ever considered what success would actually constitute for you?
I don’t know if you have ever asked yourself those two questions, and I don’t know what your answers would be. But if you haven’t done it yet I recommend you do it sooner rather than later.
There are lots of cases of professionals at the top of their careers who realize that they feel miserable, and that what they have is not what they really wanted for themselves. They just assumed they wanted what everybody else considers success (the omnipresent other people’s expectations…), and didn’t think about it twice, they just followed the logical path. And the reason they are feeling miserable now is that they forgot that work is a part of their life, it can’t be a substitute for everything else…

Work out what you want

So grab pen and paper and ask yourself: What is success for me? If I were successful, who would I be? Where would I live? What would I do? How would I spend my free time? Do that considering all areas of your life.

Are you staring at the paper blankly? Try this: Write down the most important areas of your life; career, friends and family, significant other, mental self, physical self, surroundings, spirituality. And now write for each one of them a statement that defines what success is for you.

Don’t worry about what other people would write or think, we are all different, and so is our definition of success. Let me give you an example. When, as a child, I decided to be a scientist, I also decided that I was going to win the Nobel prize no matter what.

That was the meaning of “success” for me for a long time. But when I finally started my PhD, and after spending one year working long hours and weekends (and believe me it was nothing compared to what some people work), I realized that I wanted to have time for my life more than I wanted a Nobel Prize! At that moment my concept of success changed.

It is your choice

After analysing your feelings you might conclude that you ARE prepared to make sacrifices to pursue a hugely successful career in science and so you choose to have your career very high up (or top!) of your priority list. Great! The important thing is that you make a conscious and informed choice, and that you don’t just take the line of least resistance, do what someone else says you should be doing or follow the crowd.

The definition of success is very personal. Doing what other people want you to do is not going to make you happy.

Success can be the Nobel prize or to have five kids or to travel the world or to live in a beautiful apartment with your partner and your pet, or to volunteer your time to help others. You decide…

What is success for you?