Propelling Careers

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!