Interview with Jessica Feldman (abridged version)
Interview with Jessica Feldman (full version)
Interview with Wallace Marshall
Interview with Jessica Feldman, UCSF Tetrad Graduate '08, Assistant Professor at Stanford University (abridged version)
How did you approach career exploration during grad school at UCSF?
I didn’t explore many career options—I really wanted to be in the lab and stay in academia. I figured either this works out or I’ll figure out what else to do then! That said, I did do a lot of outreach as a grad student. I participated in SEP (Science Education Partnership program), and when I was a postdoc, I was part of a similar program at Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
How have you worked on your professional development?
I think the most important thing I did throughout my career was to go to lots of scientific meetings. Wallace used to send us to three or four meetings a year, which is a lot. As a postdoc I went to more meetings than most people as well, at least two meetings a year. The most important thing is to be a part of the community from early on so people know who you are and you’re not just a nameless figure.
Have you had experience organizing scientific events during early stages of your career?
I used to be part of a team at UCSF that organized an annual symposium. We would invite speakers from all over and had some really great ones attend. I also took part in organizing the Research In Progress seminar series at UCSF for a few years, and as a postdoc, I did help organize some local meetings.
Have you attended a career development workshop that you found particularly useful?
At the end of my postdoc, I did a new faculty boot camp. One of the useful things we did was the Myers-Briggs personality test. I think people should do more of this kind of training, it’s really helpful as you think about being a mentor. Whether you’re mentoring a graduate student as a postdoc or mentoring an undergrad, it is important to understand how to help people in a way that they need, as opposed to what you would need.
Have you had any teaching experience before becoming a professor?
I didn’t have much teaching experience, and that wasn’t an issue when I was applying for faculty positions. Of course, if you are applying to primarily undergraduate institutions, you are evaluated on your teaching and not just your research. When I started teaching at Stanford, it did surprise me how much work it was!
How did you approach writing your research statement when you applied for your current position?
I had experience writing fellowships as a postdoc. I was a Helen Hay Whitney fellow, and then I was writing senior fellowships. That process of thinking about my research for fellowships was very useful for solidifying the kind of research plan that I wanted to do in my own lab. Applying for fellowships forces you to sit down and think. Sometimes asking yourself: “What am I doing here? What is my long-term plan? What am I going to learn from this?” can be just as valuable as working really hard at the bench.
Could you share some advice for people planning to apply for PI positions?
It’s hard, and if you are feeling really down and overwhelmed, just know that’s what everybody is feeling. And the same applies to grant writing. As a PI you apply to so many grants, and you won’t get them all, so you get used to rejection over time. It is what it is. I still have bouts of impostor syndrome sometimes, but I try to use that as motivation and work really hard to get to where I want to be. My other tip is that everyone has a hard time in the first year after starting their lab—it’s so much work.
Which personal traits do you think are required to be successful in academia?
Ultimately, I think that if you got a PhD, it means you were successful. You don’t need to change who you are. But it’s helpful to think about what made you successful. One thing that is important for success in academia is giving good talks. If this doesn’t come naturally to you, then that’s something you can work on. Academic jobs are geared towards people who speak well, whether it’s presenting research or teaching. Yes, you should do great science, but people are trying to hire someone they are going to enjoy being on faculty with for years. It’s worth thinking about how you can express what an interesting person you are.
Interview with Wallace Marshall, Associate Professor at the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department at UCSF and former advisor of Jessica Feldman
What did you see in Jessica that made her well-suited for her current career path in academia?
From the very beginning of her time in my lab, Jessica had really interesting self-driven scientific ideas and a high tolerance for risk-taking in her experiments. Having someone like that in the lab attracts other innovative people as well, setting up a great environment for science. Jessica was my very first graduate student and lab member, and in many ways, she was functioning like a PI early on. She was instrumental in training everyone else as they came in, and she was ordering equipment and setting up the lab. I imagine it was great training for setting up her own lab, and she was very good at it.
How do you approach the discussion about career plans with your trainees?
When I first started my lab, I was a little more hands-off on this topic. But then I had a student who was taking a long time to graduate, and I eventually learned it was because she didn’t quite know what she wanted to do next. She had expressed an interest in biofuels, so we were able to organize an internship for her at a local biofuels company. That experience confirmed what she wanted to do for a career, and her thesis project moved very quickly after that. So now, on day one, I ask my trainees ‘What do you ultimately want to do?’ Whatever the answer, we work towards that together. Having a larger goal is motivating!
When is the right time for a trainee to dedicate time to thinking about and planning for their career goals?
It’s never too early to start thinking about your larger career goals. Whether your goal is academia or not, you need to network and make contacts. If someone has to read your resume to figure out who you are for the first time, then that’s an uphill battle.
Has it helped you to have trainees move embark on both traditional academic and non-academic careers?
Each trainee of mine that has gone into a different area of science has made me better at mentoring future trainees with similar interests. I can also learn so much from what my trainees are doing now. For example, I had a student become an entrepreneur and learn a lot about lab automation, and I’ve pulled on him for advice as we think about implementing automation in the lab. It’s also quite inspiring to see trainees take risks and follow their ideas into new scientific arena, it makes me want to take risks in my research and try new things too. At the same time, having trainees stay in academia means I know I’ll keep seeing them! But really, the most important thing you can do as a PI is launch your trainees, and it’s fun to watch their success.
