Propelling Careers

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 111. This is a continuation from episode 110 - to cover more Questionswe received from the  Festival of Genomics in Boston.   We want to give a shout out again to  Jennifer K. Ocasio Adorno, PhD, at North Carolina State University who wrote down all the questions that we got during the talk. In this episode we focus on these points below. We hope you find this helpful and that you enjoy listening.  Structuring & Organizing ContentIs there a standard order of sections or would you need to move sections around depending on the application? Can education be listed different places based upon what you are trying to show?  Where should publications be listed in the resume?When you reorganize your CV for the job ad, do you work at a high level or add / modify / remove experiences?Where should you include core competencies? And how should you phrase these?  Writing Effective Experience DescriptionsHow do you distinguish between research experiences with similar backgrounds and achievements?How detailed should bullet points be?Should you duplicate bullet points across experiences?How can you best convey wide or varied experience (e.g., consulting with multiple clients)?   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Jim and Lauren recently gave a talk at the Festival of Genomics in Boston on Optimizing your CV in the AI Era. Wecovered a range of topics on resume creation, development and branding and we had a lot of questions during our talk. One of the audience members, Jennifer K. Ocasio Adorno, PhD, at North Carolina State University took these down for us and we are super thankful for that!  We also want to thank  Victor Guy, a Life Sciences Event Producer, at Front Line Genomics who invited us to do our talk. This podcast will be the first in a few to cover all of the questions we received. We start with these below.  We hope you find this helpful and that you enjoy listening.  Resume vs. CV: Length, Format, and Purpose  Would a resume always be a 1‑pager and more pages would be a CV?What is a good lengthWill a longer resume burden reviewers?Do you then include descriptions of each role? Isn’t that part of the interview?How long should the summary be at the beginning of your resume?How granular do you have to be about the dates (year; month, year)?           Skills, Expertise, and Non‑Technical ElementsWhat is the importance of service, awards, and other experiences? Isn’t technical expertise most important?How do demonstrate well-roundedness, transferable skills, “fit”Is it worth including all techniques/skills on your resume when these also appear in dropdown menus inthe job application?Do you need to use exact phrasing from the role (e.g., “molecular genetics”)? Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 109.  We talked in our last podcast about a few ways to leverage the summer slowdown and one of these was to disconnect and unplug with intention. Therefore we thought we would do a specific podcast just to focus on this topic covering points including these below. We hope you find this helpful and that you enjoy listening.   Use normalizing language: it matters what you call it and how you phrase/frame Normalize rest as responsible scienceRedefine “rest”: Not all rest is passive.Step away from work intentionally Gentle re‑entry (so the break actually helps)Start your morning media free. Set bounded unplug rules (not all‑or‑nothing)Find your creative outletAllocate time for your mental health through meditation and breathingJournalingLimit your screen timeTrade your phone for a book or some other activity Get physical exercise   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

The start of summer marks a turning point in the year.  This can be a great time to reflect and refocus and recharge. In this episode, we focus on tips including these below, to help you leverage the summer time, especially if you are in a career search.  Often, the summer is less busy with work meetings, conferences, and other work obligations, therefore you may have more time to focus recharging andreflection. We hope you find this helpful and that you enjoylistening. Reflect on what work gave you energy and joyReflect on what work consistently drained you  Reflect on when you felt most usefulReflect on what you procrastinated on even when you had time to do the work Disconnect/unplug with intentionPay attention to moments of curiosity especially during downtimeConnect with your network - outside of work activities and for funEngage in Informational interviews since people you want to connect with may have more time over the summer toconnectWork on your resume - does it truly reflect who you are and where you want to go?Work on your LinkedIn profile - does it truly reflect who you are and where you want to go? Post a few times on LinkedIn to let your network know what you are up toLearn something newLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In many of Jim and Lauren’s coaching discussions, the topic of building a target list to identify organizations of interest comes up. This seems to happen regardless of the original focus of the coaching session. Since so many people are not sure how to build this. By developing a target list, you may increase your chances of identifying opportunities.  We have covered this topic as part of a few episodes, but we have not done one just on this topic, therefore we decided to dothis episode specifically on this topic.  We hope you find this helpful and that you enjoy listening.  Why are we doing this episode:  What do you mean by target list The target list advice can be used to build a list of organizations, as well as a list of titles and also a list of people to connect with  Why is this important Strategies to build your target list Once you have your target list, how can you use it   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Jim and Lauren have had many discussions recently where people we speak with just feel overwhelmed in their job search / career navigation.  Therefore, we thought we would do this episode to try to give advice for how to overcome the overwhelming feeling.  We cover points including these below. We hope you enjoy listening.  Set small goalsTake an inventory of what you have access to: Don’t do your search aloneTry to cross things off your listKeep track of progressFocus only on what you can control, keep it simpleBe intentionalProtect and replenish your energy Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we will talk about a few more of Jim’s recent talks at MGH, AAI’s IMMUNOLOGY 2026 conference and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  The talk at Beth Israel was Jim’s talk, “Self-work to Network”  and the talks at MGH and activities at AAI Immunology 2026 focused on resumes and CV’s.  We hope you enjoy listening.  Questions from Jim’s talk at BIDMC include:I feel my self-worth, but as a postdoc, it's one of the most underappreciated (especially financially) jobsthat we are a part of, Do you have insights?  What types of elevator pitches should we be preparing for different situations? How do you build connections that last and build without bothering/burdening them? How do you build your reputation and increasevisibility? How can we showcase ourselves to the non-scientific audiences?  I have a very broad network, but it's tough to stay in touch with everyone, do you have any advice? Resume advice  For how to make a strong first impression.To showcase YOU and your skills/experience.To tailoring your resume and CV to the jobFormatting advice   A few questions that came up from the MGH andAAI activities How much effort do I put into LinkedIn?How to Networking efficiency? Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In episode 102, the topic of defining success came up while we were discussing Jim’s recent talk at Wheaton College.Since this is such an important topic, and one that can be very personal and individualized, we decided to do a podcast focused on defining success. We hopeyou enjoy listening.  Why we feel this is important   How do you know where you’re going if you never define the destination? What is important to you personally? What is important to you professionally? Keep in mind, what Success looks like might change over time as your career and life develops Separate happiness from successSeparate self worth from successDefine what success looks like for you - what are your guiding principles  Build in accountability Celebrate success otherwise it feels like you’re constantly chasing Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we will focus on a few more of  Jim’s recent talks. He has been busy over the last few weeks talking at places such as Wheaton College, the 3rd Annual New Mexico Postdoc Research Symposium and MGH. During this talk in New Mexico, Jim covered these points below.  We hope you enjoy listening.  What were you talking about at the 3rd Annual New Mexico Postdoc Research SymposiumWhat is the talk “From Self-work to Network: A Postdoc Adventure” aboutNormalizing difficulty and resolving conflictBuilding situational and self awareness Inventorying superpowers, subtle powers, and transferable skillsReframing your storyNetworking and outreach Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we will focus on one of Jim’s recent talks. He has been busy over the last few weeks talking at places such as Wheaton College, the 3rd Annual New Mexico Postdoc Research Symposium and MGH. We are looking forward to this discussion and we hope you enjoy listening.  Point Jim Covered during his talk at Wheaton College  Know Thyself: What leadership strategies help create a strong and collaborative culture in research teams?Leadership & Culture: privilege, diversity, leadership style, psychological safetyFostering/creating Culture and group dynamicsHandling pressure and uncertaintyMotivating and engaging employeesConflict resolution Lessons learned Jim talked aboutDon’t ask anything of anyone without being willing/able to do it yourselfDon’t let perfect be the enemy of good Don’t do it alone if you don’t have to; Ask for help, share the load/accountabilityIt’s almost never about the work, it’s about the people doing the work…check in with themRemember, you have agency, power, and choices Career Advice He CoveredWhat advice can you share about navigating the grad school process after college?What are some challenges graduates face after completing their PhDs, and how can universities better support them?What advice would you give students about building careers that are both successful and personally meaningful?  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to building your personal brand on LinkedIn. In Feb 2026 Lauren gave two talks at the Transition to Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium including one on building your brand on LinkedIn. This podcast covers questions that she received during this talk including onesbelow.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. We hope you enjoy listening.  What should I do with my profile if I am not actively looking for a job at the moment For mid-career professionals who are quietly exploring industry roles, how do you balance visibility with discretion?Does it matter how many connections a person has on LinkedIn? Is the summary/about section absolutely necessary in LinkedIn?  I’ve noticed these LinkedIn research summaries highlight recent or most current roles. How would you incorporate skills learned in past experiences (undergraduate or prior) briefly in a personal summaryHow important is using a work banner or emojis in a profile? What is actually necessary for a personal brand? Could writing your hobbies into the LinkedIn profile sometimes also come off as unprofessional?Do you recommend listing certifications related to things you are interested in on LinkedIn? Will it give you a leg up? How often do recruiters contact grad students and postdocs? I've heard it's more common at higher levelsDoes the recruiter see our job score?  Do recruiters see How many jobs we applied forCan recruiters see how many responses we got back? Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 100. We cannot believe we have made it this far… One source I foundindicated that 6.25% of all podcasts make it to 100 episodes. Another source I found said about 5% - regardless, a small amount of the entire network of podcasts make it to 100. We are really proud that we have been able to developmeaningful content to help our listeners navigate their career journey over the last 25 months.  When we started, we were not really sure where this would go - we just wanted to put good, truthful, honest content out there to help people. Since Feb 1, 2024, people have been listening and giving us positive reinforcement. This has helped motivate us to continue and we really appreciate this.   During this episode, we also will reach another milestone - we will have our first guest! Our first guest is Joey, my nephew, who painted the picture that is our podcast logo.  Lets talk about  celebrating milestonesKeeping momentumCreating goalsHow goals and milestones are differentFeedback from our listeners has kept us motivatedEpisodes that we have gotten a lot of feedback on include episodes that are part of a series as well as these below Ep 82 help me help youThe interview red, green, yellow, beige flag episodes 19-23 and also episode 97, 67, and 68Ep 73 the 26 steps in a job search process  Ep 33 and 34 networking adviceHow to navigate the current landscape Ep 58 getting your game face onEp 81 proactive tips for mentoring relationshipsLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to informational interviews. Lauren recently gave a talk at the Transition to Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. Lauren, along with other panelists with extensive industry experience shared our insights and providedguidance to help clarify the pathway to establishing a successful career in industry from academia.  Lauren gave two talks there - one on advice for networking and informational interviews and one for developing your brand on LinkedIn.  This podcast will cover questions that came up from the audience regarding informational interviewing talk. A future podcast will cover questions that came up from the developing your brand on LinkedIn talk.  We hope you enjoy listening.  There were a few hundred people in the audience, mostly graduate students and postdocs,  from a range of institutions including Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scripps Research and University of California San Diego and a few others.  Lauren’s best tip for informational interviewing Jim’s best tip for informational interviewing For people you informational interview, is it a one time thing or do you try to meet multiple times?What method works best?  Phone, video, in person? If you do this in person, who pays for the coffee/snack if there is one? Do you send a resume or LI profile ahead of time? Should we send information to the person ahead of time on what we are looking to learn in the informational interview?  Are any questions off limits to askAdvice to keep in touch after an informational interview  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to networking. Lauren recently gave a talk at the Transitionto Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. Lauren along with other panelists with extensive industry experience shared our insights and provided guidance to help clarify the pathway to establishing a successful career in industry from academia. Lauren gave two talks there - one on advice for networking and informational interviews and one for developing your brand on LinkedIn. There were a few hundred people in the audience, mostly graduate students and postdocs,  from a range of institutions including Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scripps Research and University of California San Diego and a few others. This podcast will cover questions that came up from the audience for the networking. A future podcast will cover questions that came up about informational interviewing and also from the developing your brand on LinkedIn.  We hope you enjoy listening.   Jim’s best tip(s) for networking JimLauren’s best tip for networking LaurenWhat is the best way to connect with people you meet in a networking event? What is your opinion about going to vendor shows? Do you have advice on how to approach this?Advice to communicate what you are looking for from networking Is it better to contact people by using your current work/academic email address, or by your personal emailWhat about text messaging? How exactly do we “connect” with pretty much strangers? Via LinkedIn or referrals or other? How do we follow up from interactions   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on interview advice.  In the last few months, Lauren have interviewed hundreds of people for a  variety of roles.  Some of these people are recent graduates and others are very experienced people applying for Sr. Director and VP level roles.  As she reflects on these interviews, a few themes have emerged. We thought it would be helpful to talk about these points in the podcast to help our listeners who may be interviewing. We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  The job market is so competitive right now - if you make it to the interview stage, you are most likely one of a few people, out of hundreds or thousands of people who applied and you have been picked by the organization, since they are interested to talk with you.  They are interested to hear more about your background and experiences to see if they align with what the organization is looking for in the role you areinterviewing for.  A few mistakes we have seen  Have an answer to the question, what excites you about this role  Don’t ramble - try to keep your interview responses shorter - a few minutes Use the STAR/PAR technique Answer the question - don’t keep the interviewer guessing if you have the experience they asked about Be careful talking too fastDon’t talk over people Don’t “complain” about previous roles/companiesHave questions to ask and prepare questions relevant to the interviewer   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on myth busting as well as amplifying good advice regarding to a few areas including applying to jobs, networking, resumes, and a few other topics. We enjoy doing these episodes to help people We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening! Advice for Job applications – Networking and getting referrals vs. cold applying Stop Relying Only on Online Applications Advice to identify other sources for roles Stop applying to everythingKnow your numbersTailor your resume to highlight the experience that’s relevant to the role you’re targeting. Don’t bury it undereverything else.Be ready to explain your story clearly. Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren provide advice for how to let things go so that you can get out of your own way during your career search. We decided to do this episode since many things can lead to candidates getting in their own way such as fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, fear of being an imposter/not being good enough, lack of control, fear of not being “ready”, fear of closing doors/opportunities, not having a process, and more. We cover points including these below. We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  Let go of your application materials - don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good Let go of control in your search - lean into serendipity  Let go of things outside your control Let go of a bad job  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover advice for how to do a job search in an area different than where you are living now and cover these points below.  This topic has come up a lot inrecent discussions so we thought we would break it down to provide advice.  We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  Why are we doing this episode  What’s the first step: Engage your network Set up location-specific job searchesLeverage networking groups with multiple chapters in different locations Utilize AI Engage with the local (state/country/regional) biotech associationFollow news sourcesTurn on location preference in the job search preference on LinkedInRemember, there are many remote roles, so keep this in mind when you are searching Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 93. This is a 2 part podcast series following episode 92.  In this episode, we cover red, green, yellow and beige flags regarding identifying mentors / managers including these points below. As we heard in the last episode, there is a lot of nuance around this topic that we will cover.  As we mentioned in episode 91, your manager / mentor is reallyimportant.  We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  the manager/mentor is very hands off the manager/ mentor is very hands on the manager/ mentor gives you many ways to increase your visibility - wants you to present your work often, wants you to engage in different things to increase your network - collaborations, consortia, peer reviewing, co-organizing a panel at a conference, consulting for a startup out of their lab, serve on a few committees, etc. the manager / mentor is not very organized and kind of all over the place… the manager. mentor is new - so you are the first person they are hiring   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we will cover red, green, and yellow flags regarding identifying and working with mentors / managers. There is a lot of nuance around this topic that we will cover. We cover scenarios including these below. As we mentioned in episode 91, your manager / mentor is really important to your career development, happiness and success.  We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  You are looking to join a lab or a company where the manager / mentor is really high profile The mentor/ manager is not from your background - such as, they are an immunologist and they want to hire an AIperson (you) to join their group    The mentor is someone who drives people really hard - has high standards and wants to only publish in nature, cell, science….  -   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode will follow up from episode 90 and will focus on myth busying and amplifying good advice for career planning and navigating your career including these points below. Jim and Lauren appreciate all of the advice our network has shared for us to cover in the last episode and this one  We hope you find this episode helpful and that youenjoy listening!   Your manager matters more than the project you are hired forFind good mentors and if you get along well with people, stay in touch with them throughout even after your moved onAccept roles you don’t yet feel fully ready for and trust that you’ll grow into them. Be authentic. In your applications, your interviews, and in your workspace. You will be miserable if you spend your whole career hiding.During job search, stay away from [discussing / disclosing] drama. Keep things at high level if you had a bad experience. If you had a bad experience focus on what you learned through it Make mistakes, learn from your mistakes, never make the same mistake twiceLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode is our first myth busting episode of 2026.  We will also amplify good advice also. In this episode we will focus on advice for career planning and navigating your career covering these points below.  We have a lot more advice that we will go into in future episodes.  We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  We want to shoutout everyone who provided advice for this podcast.  we put out a call to our network for good and bad advice people have received and we received a lot of advice! It was really insightful to see so many pieces of good and bad advice…  Good career advice Jim and Lauren have receivedBad career advice Jim and Lauren have receivedAdvice people have shared regarding career planning If you move from academia you can never return - not true!  You should be passionate about your career Hockey analogy: skate to where the puck will be, not where it is Keep diversifying your skill set and explore different areas. It helps keep you sell-able and sustainableBe a sponge, be humble, be adaptable through changeIt is important to always try to see the big picture. Being able to tailor your communication to the audience is extremely important  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 89. We hope everyone had a nice holiday and new year.   Jim and Lauren are looking forward to 2026. For our first episode in 2026, we thought we would dive right in and talk about trends we are seeing that may influence 2026.  We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  Some organizations are still hiringStanding out as a candidate is still hardCasting a wider net is important in this current market Not all roles are broadly posted A few factors affecting the life sciences industry include funding uncertainty, SBIR/STTR funding expired in sept 2025 and has not been renewed yet, and Give kids a chance act has not been passed yet, which incentives rare disease research Lauren will be at JPM next week, week of Jan 12th, in San Francisco to keep a pulse on our sectorEpisodes that we plan on doing / topics that we want to talk about in 2026 Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

As 2025 comes to an end, Jim and Lauren put together a wrap up episode to reflect on 2025 and look forward to 2026. It was helpful for both of us to do this episode to realize how much we did in 2025 and also recognize that there is still so much to cover as we look forward to 2026…..   We want to thank you all for listening and we look forward to the 2026 Propelling Careers Podcast Season!  Audience demographics, gender, age, and location – we now have listeners in over 50 countries! Top 10 episodes by listens since podcast startedJim and Lauren’s favorite episode and why Hardest topics we did in 2025Favorite question in 2025Surprises in 2025Lessons learned in 2025Goals for 2026  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In the spirit of continuing with the reflecting theme that we have had over the last few episodes, Jim and Lauren planned this episode to give advice for how to use the holiday “slowdown” to help you as you set goals for 2026 and strategize for how you will accomplish or at least make progress on these.  We hope you find this episode helpfuland we hope you enjoy listening.  Why are we doing this episode: Self reflectionDo a Gap analysisReflect on feedback receivedDo you have unfinished/incomplete goals?Do you have ongoing or evergreen goalsRelevance to Ultimate goal (career, etc)?Goals come in different forms and timescalesDevelop a or update your skill development plan  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Given the holiday season Jim and Lauren put together an episode about giving thanks.   We talk about different ways you could give thanks as well as what we are thankful for. We hope you enjoy listening!.  Why should people focus on giving thanksAdvice for how people could give thanksWhen to give thanksWhat are we thankful for professionally and personally   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 85. Given the holiday season and the various networking opportunitiesthat come with it, we thought we would do this episode to provide advice for how to network during these various events/activities. We will cover advice for how to connect with your current network and build yours also. We hope youenjoy listening.  Be authentic as you engage with peopleThere are many different events and opportunities to engage with and build your network Advice to prepare for different types of events  Networking can occur in various forms – in person networking, online, email, informal events, etc Advice for how to engage with a potentially large cross-section of people Thoughts on individual outreach vs general messages to your network  Other ways to engage your network - sending holiday cards / emails / annual summary email / notes Leveraging LinkedIn to engage your network Your elevator pitch   Leveraging this time for informational interviews Advice to follow up  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode 84 is a follow up from the last episode, episode 83. In this episode, we share a few more lessons learned during the last few months of recruiting that Lauren has been involved with.  Jim and Lauren hope that you find these two episodes helpful especially if you are in a job search.  We hope you enjoy listening.  Timeline wise - things sometimes move really fast If you cannot move quickly / start quickly, let the organization knowInterview fatigue is real – how organization try to address itCandidates need to ensure they are prepared for interviewsQuestions candidates asked, and perhaps should not ask, during interviews   Candidate correspondence matters Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

The last few months have been really busy for Lauren with the recruiting work that she does for entrepreneurial  life sciences companies.  In this episode, Jim and Lauren share a few lessons learned over the last few months, to help others who are on the job search (or who are in the process of hiring).  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  So many applicants – advice to stand outSome orgs hiring a few people per role…. so not all “roles are posted”Advice to understand what job titles could be a fit and how to broaden what you consider Insights on referrals LinkedIn outreach by recruiters  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode focuses on ways to help your network help you especially if you are in a job search. We put this episode together to provide advice to make it easier for people to help you and we cover tips including these below. For many people, this might be their first real job search so they might not have thought about these tips before. Even for seasoned people, this job market is different than previous ones, so they may find these tips helpful also. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  Why are we doing this episodeBe specific in your ask, Don’t be so vague Be open to feedbackHave details in your LinkedIn profile Leverage LinkedIn to identify potential connections Provide info about your background to your contacts when making connectionsRevise Materials and Send aheadDon’t put time pressure on the person you are asking to help you  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover tips, including these below, to make mentoring relationships more successful.Jim talks about this topic a lot and Lauren has also covered it in some of her talks. This is a really important topic and we are looking forward to this discussion.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  Quit taking it personally (Q-TIP) Get a reality check Set goals and expectations together and re-evaluate often Always be prepared for a meeting Ask for feedback but make sure you have several ideas on hand  Seek out secondary mentors in addition to your primary faculty mentor Stay patient, mindful, and connected Realize that mentoring is a two-way street Remember that you are an adult and this is your career Use the resources available to you  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode will continue from episode 79 to continue to focus on advice on questions Jim and Lauren get often about career readiness, self-advocacy, and how to mentor up. Both episodes 79 and this one, are Inspired by a recent Q&A session Jim had at BCH. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.  How should postdocs handle mismatched expectations between themselves and their PI or institution?  What are some practical ways to navigate competition in academia, including in-lab competition, whilemaintaining collaborations and a supportive network? How can postdocs manage career uncertainties, especially when deciding between academia and industry?  What are some red flags that indicate a postdoc is at risk of burnout, and how can they proactively prevent it?  How can institutions better support postdocs in maintaining a healthy work-life balance?   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Jim and Lauren both get questions about career readiness, self-advocacy, and how to mentor up. Inspired by a recent Q&A session Jim had at Boston Children’s Hospital, in this episode, we answer the questions from the audience, and other advice to help our listeners. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening. Why Jim was at BCH? Strategies we have found most effective for prioritizing time and energy to balance research, writing, mentoring, and networking? Advice for postdocs to set realistic short-term and long-term goals to stay on track in academiaCommon time-management mistakes postdocs make and how these can be avoidedAdvice for postdocs to approach difficult conversations with their PI, especially when there are disagreementson research direction?Advice for how postdoc can maintain a healthy work-life balance and professional boundaries when their PI has high expectations, including making requests at all hours and occasionally overstepping personal boundaries? Steps postdocs can take early on to prevent authorship disputes Institutional resources or best practices for resolving authorship conflicts Developing productive relationships with colleagues, your boss, and other people you engage with in your work  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In the last episode, no 77, Jim and I talked about the 2 body problem and reasons why this might occur, and in this episode, we thought we would continue the discussion to talk about how to negotiate if you find yourself in a two body situation.  We cover points such as these below.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.   From the institutional perspective, the 2 body problem presents both strategic opportunities and operationalchallenges. What are a few of the strategic opportunitiesWhat are a few of the operational challengesWhen you should let an organization know about the 2 body situation  Who to talk with at the organization Options that could exist internally to the organization to address the 2 body problem  Options that could exist in the larger community to address the 2 body problem Considerations to be aware of and the importance of communication   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!  

Lauren was in Chicago and Ohio a few weeks ago and the question of the two body problem came up a few times.  Jim and I decided to do this episode to provide insight on the two body problem.  We also cover insights on the academic nomad situation.   of career planning also since this can relate to the two body problem.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful as you plan for your career and life and hope you enjoy listening.   What do we mean by the academic nomad? What is the two body problemWhy does the academic nomad situation happen… Aspects to consider in planning for your career  Advice to navigate the academic nomad situation  Advice to navigate the two body problem  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

Jim and Lauren both had busy weeks last week as part of national postdoc appreciation week (NAPW) which is the third week in September. In this episode, 76, we will cover topics below including what we talked about, questions from the audience, and other advice to help our audience. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.   What Jim and Lauren were up to during national postdoc appreciation week Jim gave a workshop at University of Central Florida - “Hero’s Journey: Making the Most of Your Training” workshop.Lauren gave a talk at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio, on “Building and Developing Career Relevant Skills” Lauren also coached a number of postdocs and grad students on resume advice while at NCHJim gave a keynote at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterJim hosted NPAW events for the HMS postdocsLauren traveled to Chicago. to give an interactive workshop at the Career Development Symposium on "Transferring Your Academic CV to a Resume for Industry"   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover advice for how to assess opportunities and evaluate job descriptions in terms of how to understand and interpret some of the language in them.  Wording in job descriptions are not there just to fill space. Wording is often carefully chosen to provide information about the organization and role. This can include information about the company stage, growth, culture, etc  We also add insights about what you might want to highlight in your application materials and to inquire about as you interview, based upon what you see in the job description. We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.    Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In our last episode, we talked about the steps in the job search process (26…).  To follow up this episode,  Jim and I decided to focus on advice for how to structure your time when you are in a job search in this episode.  We provide advice for people who are currently working and job searching as well as those who are fulltime job searching due to a RIF or other reason.  We will provide tips for how to organize your schedule to help you be more efficient as you do the many things that you should be doing as part of the job search process.  We hope you find the advice in this episode helpful and hope you enjoy listening.   Before we dive in, it’s important to mention that for many people, when they are working, their schedule is prettystructured.  It can be a shock when you find yourself suddenly not working, since the unstructured and unpredictable nature of your day can be really hard to deal with. This is why Jim and I are a big proponent of puttingin some sort of structure if you are job searching, otherwise, things may seem super haphazard, and nothing might get done…  We start with general concepts that apply to whether you are full time working and looking for a role or full timeunemployed looking for a role….   We talk about advice that is helpful to do if you are early in the job search We talk about advice once you get into a rhythmWe give some advice when you are mid Job Search ProcessWe give some advice when you are late in your Job Search ProcessLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren outline all of the steps involved in a job search process. There are so many things you need to do if you are job searching and it can beoverwhelming to keep on top of everything. In the next episode we will talk about ways to help organize your schedule to help you be more efficient during the job search process.  We hope you find this advice in this episode andthe next one helpful and we hope you enjoy listening.  Steps in the job search process  (generally in this order)Reflect!!!!Identify organizations/sectors relevant to you identify job titles that interest you (and are relevant)Find job postingsIdentify external recruiters / recruiting firms / contacts in your spaceActivate your network - Look at LinkedIn to identify people to network with and reachout Identify networking orgsIdentify events to attend - networking and skill building events and attendWrite master resume Tailor individual resumes - for each role Write master cover letterTailor individual cover letters - for each role Get feedback from people on your application materialsWrite/update Linkedin profile Post on LIDo something fun/re-energizing!! Informational interview Follow up with people you networked with Follow up on applications  Find / ensure clothes that fit for interviews Interview prep Prepare job talkActually interview  Follow up on interviews  Get / engage referencesNegotiate job offerTop 10 most important stepsReflect on what you want in your next role, org, environmentIdentify organizations relevant to you identify job titles that interest you Activate your network Write master resume and CLTailor resume and CL for each role  Get feedback from people on your application materialsWrite/update LinkedIn profile Informational interview Do something fun!!   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

With so many people impacted by RIF’s (reduction in force, layoffs, etc) we thought we would do this episode to provide advice specifically for people who have been impacted by this.  RIF’s can apply to everyone - people in academia, industry, on-profits, government, etc. We will focus on a few topics in this episode focused on helping plan your job search if you have been impacted by a RIF. We hope you find this advice helpful and we hope you enjoylistening.  Are there different types of RIFs? When do you start applying – right away, or should you reflect first before you send out so many resumes Do you mention the RIF when you apply or talk with people?  How does a RIF effect references How do you talk with your network about the RIF Should you do the “open to work on” LinkedInAdvice to help your network help youif you are international and on a visa and are part of a RIF how do you navigate RIF’sLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode continues from the last one, episode 70, to add a little more reflection on the last 69 episodes. In the spirit of reflection, we will also share a few thoughts around reflecting on your job search and why this is important to do. We hope you enjoy listening.  Our reflection of the podcast:Our biggest surprises from doing our podcastA few lessons we have learned from doing our podcast Current specific pain points Job search reflectionIf you are not hearing back from job applications, we mention a few reasons why If you are not making it past the HR screen, we mention a few reasons why If you are not making it past the Hiring Manager screen, we mention a few reasons why If you are not making it past the interview teams with colleagues, we mention a few reasons why  If you are not making it past the presentation part of the interview , we mention a few reasons why   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode is more of a retrospective of the last 69 episodes.  A few weeks ago, we had our 5,000th play and this got us thinking about doing a retrospective episode, since we have so much content. In this episode, we reflect on a few topic areas of the podcast to help for our listeners as they navigate the many episodes.  In addition to reflecting on the episodes, we also reflect on the themes, lessons learned and a few other points below. We hope you enjoy listening.  A few reflections on episodes covering Self-reflection: Intro (Ep 1), SF Trip (Ep 2), March Madness/Job Search/Interview (Ep 6/7), Summer Slowdown (Ep 15), Skill building & Myth busting (Ep 37), Silver linings in change (Ep 43), Game Face (Ep 58)), Salary Negotiation (Ep 60), Universal Advice (Ep 64) A few reflections on episodes covering Self-awareness: Skill building & Myth busting (Ep 37), Silver linings in change (Ep 43), Giving & Receiving feedback (Ep 45) Some of Lauren’s favorite episodes - Superpowers episode (Ep 10), Engagement with your community & myth busting (Ep 18), Advice for international scientists (Ep 53) Some of Jim’s favorite episodes Getting your game face on (Ep 58), all of myth-busting episodes, Finding silver linings in change (Ep 43), New year new administration (Ep 41), Giving gratitude (Ep 38), Thanksgiving/end of year (Ep40), Interviewing red/green flag series (Eps 19-23)  A few reflections on episodes covering Resumes and specific resume advice (Eps 9, 12, 13, 14, 69)A few reflections on episodes covering Interviewing (Eps 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 67, 68)A few reflections on episodes covering Networking (Eps 33, 34)A few reflections on episodes covering Informational Interviewing (Eps 15, 16)A few reflections on episodes covering Job searching and navigating career choices (Eps 6, 29, 30, 32, 64) What episodes have we gotten the most feedback on  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode , Jim and Lauren cover a range of advice focused on job applications, applicant screening, timing for filing roles, and a few other topics we have been asked recently. We hope you find this discussion helpful covering these points below and we hope you enjoy listening.  How do companies usually process applications? Is it in the order they are received? Or is it something else? Hundreds of people apply to each posting. Should I still apply if so many people have applied?  Is there a general average for how many positions people apply to before getting an interview?  Can an applicant apply to multiple positions in the same organization at the same time?  How common is it for companies to use AI to filter through CVs in hiring processes?Why am I not hearing back when I meet all the qualifications of a job posting. Do you have any suggestions for how to get an interview? Is applying to companies that you don’t know anyone at, worth it? How fast are positions filled nowadays? In your estimate, what % of job postings are not real After applying for a position, when should we expect to hear back from the company? Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.  As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

This episode continues from episode 67 and covers a few more pieces of advice relating to interviewing including presentations as well as how to assess culture fit and also how to follow up from interviews. These are really important topics and many of you listening may have similar questions to these points we cover below. We hope you find this helpful and we hope you enjoy listening. How to convince the hiring manager that while you do not have one or two techniques they want and you do not have it, to be not an issue? How can I come across as competent and confident if I have a low publication record? What helps more: Practicing in front of mirror or like giving mock interviews with peers and friends? Practice using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or PAR (Problem, Action, Result) technique to prepare responses for common interview questionsElevator pitches - how to tailor these Advice for presentations duringinterviews (we also have an entire episode (51) on this Are there things to look out for during interviews regarding company culture ?How a candidate might use the interactions to assess whether the prospective employer is a good fit.Should we send a “thank you” email to each person after the interviews?Should you follow up with a thank you on LinkedIn if you don't have the email address for the people you interviewed with?When is the best time to follow up with the hiring managers? Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren cover advice for interviewing. This is the first of two episodes focusing on interview advice.  Lauren recently gave a talk to postdocs and grad students at Harvard Medical School on interviewing in early June and this episode covers questions received during this talk as well as questions that Jim and Lauren have received during coaching discussions. We cover these questions below in this episode. We hope you find this episode helpful and we hope you enjoy listening.  Should candidates apply to jobs first or prepare their materials first for job applications? Advice to sound more enthusiastic during HR Screening Advice to tailor interview responses to the role you are interviewing forShould candidates prepare an overview slide ppt for the first interview with hiring manager?How should candidates answer the question “Why do you want to leave academia?“ Should candidates prepare differently / prepare different responses for interviews at big organizations vs startups?Advice to answer the question "what is your biggest mistake” or “a weakness that you have”? Advice for how to approach interview responses if you have worked on various projects across different areas  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.  As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, we cover Jim’s recent trip to Louisville Kentucky. He travelled there to give a few career focusedtalks to grad students and postdocs at University of Louisville as part of their CRAFT (Career Research Advancement Focused Training) series for professional and career development. We cover a number of pieces of advice that Jim covered, such as these below. We hope all of you enjoy listening.  Why were you in Louisville Jim? How was it being there? Was it all work, or were you able to see friends/family also?Jim’s talk on Day 1 - Future-Proofing Your Career: Taking control in Uncertain Times – a few things he coveredAdvice for uncertaintyInventory Your SuperpowersMaster the subtle powersEvaluate and lean into your Transferable SkillsDay 2 - Career Clinic – a few things he coveredCrafting your CV and Resume: summarize the highlights of your career in just a few pagesDemystifying Cover Letters: quickly and concisely convey interest and fitInterview Prep Strategies: convincing others (and yourself) of your relevant experienceQuestions Jim was asked during his visit  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren talk about a few conferences that Lauren attended / spoke at between June 10th and 23rd 2025 covering these points below.  Lauren was at the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC) conference in Minneapolis MN from June 10-13, The BIO conference in Boston from June 15-18 and the American Society of Microbiology Microbe (ASM) conference in Los Angeles from June 19-23.   What is the GCC conferenceHow was the GCCOur talk at the GCC – along with Vanderbilt and the Science Communication Lab about our respective podcasts - The title: “Still listening?  a Comparison of three Ph.D. podcasts and a discussion of their relevance in 2025.   Questions we got about our podcastsInvolvement in the Scholar Mentor and Development Program - as part of BIO https://smdp.icpdprograms.org/ Panel moderation at the SMDP program on Getting HiredAdvice that the panelists shared during the panel  BIO conference networking and engaging with international groupsThe possible talk at BioDeveloping a high impact resume talk at the ASM Career SymposiumMentoring at ASM Takeaways from Lauren’s talk at the ASM Leadership Symposium on How to develop and engage your professional network Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren discuss universal pieces of advice, including these below, that apply to everyone,regardless of career focus, functional department, or industry sector. We hope you find this helpful as you navigate your career and search and we hope you enjoy listening!     You should keep an updated resume even if you are not looking for a role since you might need it for other types ofopportunities - such as volunteer opportunities or board opportunities. People cannot read your minds - be careful with jargon and being so specific with details that people cannotunderstand what you do / what your impact was Your resume is built for someone else to read – remember this Tailor your resume for each role that you apply to  Don’t just cultivate your network when you need a role - you should be cultivating it all the time. Find ways to reachout to and follow up with people in your network  Keep your LinkedIn profile updated to enable others to know what you might be up to Share updates on LinkedIn to let your network know what you are up to and amplify others Have your elevator pitch ready in case you need to use it - at the baseball game, conference, networking event, etc Self-reflect - understand/remind yourself that you have blindspots, biases, strengths, value, and areas to improve Periodically check in with yourself to see where you are in your career Show gratitude, say thank you, show appreciation Realize that others face similar challenges and may be struggling as well - it’s not always about you Give yourself grace Be organized  Be intentional Be realistic  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren discuss myths that we have heard from people regarding the job application process, application review process, and interview process.  Wedispel these myths, including points below, and share insights about why these myths are not accurate. We hope you find this helpful as you navigate your career and search and we hope you enjoy listening!     Myth: The best-qualified candidate with the best technical skills always gets the jobMyth: You should apply to as many jobs as possibleMyth: If you don’t hear back quickly, you didn’t get the job Myth: AI/ATS controls the whole application processMyth: You can only get hired if you know someone Myth: The more resumes you send, the more interviews you will receive Myth: You only need to have 1 resume Myth: Your resume needs to be one page. Myth: Resumes are only work related Myth: You can only apply if you meet 100% of the job requirements Myth: You should hide employment gaps at all costs Myth: Industry doesn’t care about your publications  Myth: If a job is only asking for a BS and you have a Ph.D, then you are overqualified and should not apply Myth: No one reads your cover letter Myth: Interviewers are trying to trip you up Myth: Do not follow up after the interview. If you do, it will be viewed as nagging and will be annoying Myth: If you don’t get this job, it means you failed or you’re not hirable Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listenersnavigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

In this episode, Jim and Lauren share insights about career options we are seeing people looking to pursue now giventhe current job landscape and flux in the US job market.  We thought this could be helpful to share in case it helps others as they are considering their career choices. We dive into these points below. We hope you enjoy listening!     We are seeing people considering new roles they had not previously considered due to the need to cast a wider net in the current environment  We cover what a few of these roles are We are seeing more people consider career opportunities outside of the US  ~50% of graduate students and 60-70 % of postdocs are international so it makes sense to consider careeropportunities outside of the US. Many come to the US to do their Ph.D. or postdoc and want to stay here, but if we don’t make it possible for them to stay here, they will seek employment elsewhere We provide advice for how people can start to think about what other options might be a good fit for them We highlight transferrable skills for a few of the roles we are seeing a lot of interest in such as research, patent law, medical writing, scientific communication, data science, consulting, medical science liaison Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!