Reflections …

As each year comes to an end, we are all encouraged to look back over the past 12 months and reflect on what we’ve done: To recall highlights and achievements, challenges and accomplishments, to review our current situation and to envisage a successful year ahead. Some people are even known to write this out in a ‘round robin’ letter that they send out to family and friends in their Christmas and greetings cards. I see this to be an achievement in itself as, for me, it’s a challenge to recall what I’ve done during the previous week, let alone the last year, not in detail anyway.

This may not seem too important from a personal and social perspective: like me, very probably you have images of your most happy and interesting moments captured on digital media or posted on Facebook and Instagram. However, from a career perspective, it’s unlikely that you have photos to remind you of key moments related to your professional and semi-professional work, although there are always exceptions; I recently spoke to a PhD student who is recording her scientific life and posting it on Instagram to illustrate what she does for the benefit of her family and friends.

Completing a reflective learning log is not everyone’s cup of tea and is usually unpopular with student and researcher communities – and many others. But it’s easy to forget what you’ve done as the months and years go by. This means that when, for example, you find yourself being asked in a job interview to highlight a recent achievement, you may struggle to find an impressive answer. Interviewers, especially those in non-academic companies, regularly interrogate candidates with questions requiring a specific example of an occasion in which they felt a sense of accomplishment, overcame a challenge, solved a problem or worked with others to complete a goal. Furthermore, you can forget other important happenings such as people you have met, ideas you have had or even projects you have completed. Adding achievements and latest developments to your on-line profile(s) can also enhance your reputation, improve your employability and help you to move on to your next job.

For me, recalling the last 12 months of my professional life is causing a bit of a dilemma at the moment: I need to complete a reflective learning log as part of my continuing membership of the Career Development Institute for which I’m a registered careers adviser. Luckily, however, I have my trusty A5 week-to-view diary to hand in which, turning back the pages, I can see some of my more significant activities scribbled in amongst the regular career workshop entries. For example, I can see that in January a joint proposal I submitted with other European careers adviser colleagues was accepted, which meant we were able to meet up in Toulouse in July to deliver some excellent career sessions to PhD students and researchers at ESOF 2018, as well as have some fun networking and watching the World Cup. In March I published a review paper on networking for Microbiology Letters, which had taken me a full year to write and revise, but the feedback I received and my sense of achievement made it worth the effort. In July I started learning German (although I have only achieved beginner level so far) and in October I delivered a CV workshop at the Naturejobs career conference in just 30 minutes! Finally in December, only a few weeks ago, I managed to sell my car and officially become a pedestrian and user of public transport.

So whether it’s your diary (digital or otherwise), an official learning log, your CV or on-line profile that serves as a reminder of your latest successes and achievements, try to record them somewhere so you can capitalise on them one day. And if you think you don’t have enough or the right kind of experiences to match your career aspirations, this exercise will also help to guide your continuing professional development.

Related links: Flying high
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