How did you get into Science?

If you had asked me a year ago, what my career path was going to be, I would have answered ‘Research Scientist’. In fact, if you had asked me 5 years ago, I would have answered the same. AP Bio was the only class in high school that sparked enough curiosity to sustain extended schooling and Research was the only career I knew about that could stem from a biosciences major. The epigenetics unit was what really sold me; up until that point the world of biology seemed to be straight forward set of logic and rules: DNA composes genes, genes create proteins, proteins build cells etc. All research would be was the rote activity of listing key players. Epigenetics was the first topic that illustrated that we actually have only the tiniest clue of how DNA turns into people. It was clear that this was field where I could ask new questions, and figure out processes for decades and that sounded perfect

Post high school is where life starts to feel like an endless string of big choices. I knew I wanted to attend an institution that was known for research and gave me several options for bioscience major. I attended UW Madison, eventually settling on a major in Molecular Biology after determining that my ideal bioscience granularity was: ‘small enough puzzle pieces to maintain a sense of mystery without verging too close to the world of math problems’.

I then had to go through the process of ‘choosing’ a lab; in reality, I was assigned to a lab for a freshman year project and stayed 4 semesters too long. I told myself I was gaining valuable skills and might be able to get a paper; I ignored the deficits in mentorship and toxic culture. After several major red flags, I woke up and made smarter decisions in the next lab that I applied to which resulted in two very happy years of lab experience.

 This was the first facet of my true north for career and life decisions: a healthy mentor relationship and work culture cannot be optional. The exact characteristics will look different for everyone, but for me I need an environment and a person(s) who will nurture growth, challenge your preconceptions, and support you and your career.

At some point in this journey, I made the choice that coding wouldn’t be a terrible skill to have; after all Next Gen Sequencing meant Big Data was here to stay in the bio world. Coding was another enjoyable puzzle and I decided to minor in Computer Science with a focus on AI and Bioinformatics courses. As much as I enjoyed these courses, I don’t know if I would have decided to minor had I not had a core group of friends who took these same classes with me. Studying together was the only way I was able to understand much of the material and more importantly to retain my sanity. I likely wouldn’t have passed the activation energy of registering for classes if I hadn’t known I would have a built-in support network.

This is the second facet of my true north: Our career strategy decisions do not always come down to interest or from the best net gain of skills. It is important to be cognizant of the influences on our decisions so we can better solve issues for ourselves and also help others on their path. This second facet I largely credit to my time as a student administrator for STEM Immersion,  a group which focused on creating a safe community and providing mentorship and resources for underrepresented students in STEM. I thoroughly loved the nitty gritty details of coordinating and planning a 300-person event but I cherish the perspectives and lasting emphasis on leadership through empathy and vulnerability given to me by various mentors.

Upon leaving college, a career in academia lacked appeal for a variety of reasons, so I found a job with a gene and cell therapy group in industry. Gene and cell therapy is a new enough field that the work was not too monotonous and the organization and structure of industry fascinated me. I planned on picking up a breadth of techniques, building my resume for a couple years, and then bouncing around industry jobs in sunny California.  I worked there for a year and half before making what felt like one of the riskiest decisions in my life.

Science is more than you think it is

If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever consider working as a Systems Specialist within an Informatics Department, I would have promptly googled that entire phrase, looked at some job postings, and then probably laughed in your face. Even when I was making the decision to switch fields, I had to confront the fear of ‘why would I throw away my planning and tailored expertise and start over?

Because it’s not starting over. It’s applying the same concepts I have always been passionate about Bio sciences and Computer Science and overlaying it on a new environment. Take a macro problem and break it down into smaller and smaller abstract relationships until you can solve it. Whether you are mapping a signal transduction network or writing a program or managing agile projects, the approach is more or less the same. It’s applying the same soft skills of organization and time management that keeps lab experiments running efficiently and the communication and leadership skills to facilitate teamwork and drive change.

In my day to day job, I get to analyze and solve a range of problems: from logical technology and data analytics quandaries, to organizational and business process efficiency bottlenecks, to effective user experience and interface improvements. Looking back, I don’t wish that I had known about this specific field before leaving college because I don’t regret my time as an industry scientist. It led to where I am now. I do wish that soft skills and strengths were talked as much as hard technical skills, because the technical skills you choose to acquire are usually fundamentally linked to your unique strengths. I also wish I had felt less pressure prioritize passions and to “choose a career path”. Every choice I made felt like closing the other doors behind me, when in fact those doors followed me and continued to expand my choices. You shape your career path with each small step.