Successful career conversations

Whilst annual professional development review (PDR) discussions with your postdoc provides the opportunity to discuss their career ambitions, this is not always the ideal setting for a more in-depth career conversation. 

Having distinct and frequent career conversations can be beneficial to both your postdoc and yourself, particularly given the short-term nature of the majority of postdoctoral contracts. These conversations offer a chance to consider aspirations and possible pathways, and to plan development in a directed way. We’ve also co-created a resource on career conversations for postdocs themselves. 

“Organizations and in particular direct managers, often assume that a little “career talk” can be dropped into a performance review process and that is sufficient for facilitating critical Career Conversations between a manager and employee. But when asked, the majority of employees are looking for more information and advice about a wide range of topics”. 

(Right Management, 2016, p. 7) 

Best practice is to keep PDRs and career conversations separate. A career conversation is: 

• Future-facing - what do you want to do? where do you want to go? 
• Exploratory - may have an agenda of points to cover but can expand. 
• No specific outcomes attributable to it, although actions could arise from it such as making an introduction and so on. 

Having career conversations with your postdoc(s) benefits you: 

The Global Career Conversation Study of 4402 employees, across 15 countries aged 25 to 55 found that if career conversations were held more regularly 82% of employees would be more engaged in their current work and 78% would be more likely to share their ideas (Right Management, 2016, p. 5). Career conversations boost productivity.

Ahead of the conversation, it may be a good idea to suggest that your postdoc considers three broad areas: 

1. Who am I?

A reflective conversation about the postdoc’s current skills, motivations and values. Encourage your postdoc to use the resources in our Reflect section to prepare. 

2. What should I develop and how?

A conversation about growth in their current role but with an eye to the future. What new skills should they develop? Is there any training that could be beneficial? How might this development activity be undertaken during the course of the research project? 

3. What's next for my career?

A conversation focusing on the postdoc’s future and the careers options available to them. This is an opportunity to discuss a range of different career pathways and perhaps draw attention to roles that the postdoc may not have considered before. 

You do not need to be the person they have all of these conversations with, but it may be a useful way to approach these conversations (adapted from Squiggly Careers podcast episode 109: How to have a career conversation). 

Only 30% of employees feel confident about starting a career conversation (Right Management, 2016, p. 13) so your postdoc is likely to feel at least a little apprehensive about asking for a career conversation and the actual conversation itself. 

Requesting a career conversation may have been a big step in itself for your postdoc. Maintaining a positive attitude to the career conversation and prompting your postdoc with open questions if they require it, will help the career conversation to flow. It’s possible that your postdoc isn’t fully aware of all of their strengths and skills. You can assist them by highlighting what you see their strengths are and when you see them working and performing at their best. 

Active listening is a real skill. Consider exactly how you pose your questions, elicit further information and check your understanding of what your postdoc is trying to communicate. 

This article provides a concise overview of how to be an active listener. 

As PIs, you are in prime position to discuss career aspirations with the people you manage. This has been recognised as part of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and in the League of European Research Universities’ (LERU) vision on multiple pathways for the careers of researchers, which states the expectation that: 

“Supervisors and principal investigators do not solely focus on the perspectives within academia for their staff but adopt a broader view on pathways. Supervisors and principal investigators openly discuss career options in career talks with their staff. Those who seem unlikely to pursue an academic career (for whatever reason) receive clear and timely advice”. 

(2018, p. 23) 

We recognise the time pressures PIs are facing and no-one expects PIs to become a part-time career coach. As identified in the Researcher Development Concordat, it is not all on you, since managers of researchers “Support researchers in exploring and preparing for a diversity of careers” but this can be “through the use of mentors and careers professionals, training, and secondments” (Vitae, 2019, p. 7). 

• Hold annual PDRs and career conversations separately 
• Acknowledge that your postdoc may have been brave to even ask to have a career conversation with you 
• Encourage your postdoc to consider their career development early in your working relationship 
• Make it explicitly clear to your researchers that you value all career outcomes, not just ones within academia 

• Don’t assume that postdocs know the routes to securing a tenured role within academia, talk to them through the details if they’re interested in this career path 
• Signpost your postdocs, you’ve got lots of knowledge and a network of people that you may be able to signpost your postdocs to as appropriate 
• Bear in mind that career development isn’t just about getting a new job, consider the development opportunities you are aware of that you could highlight to your postdoc so they can grow whilst in their role