Transcript

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

My name is Anne-Sophie Bohrer and I am the Program Manager for Professional Development in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at the University of Michigan. 

Maurinne Bonnet

Hello, everyone. My name is Maurinne Bonnet, and I’m currently wrapping up my postdoc journey at the U of M in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the College of Pharmacy. 

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

So welcome everyone to  ‘What’s Up, Doc?’, which is a new initiative that Maurinne is going to talk to us about. 

Maurinne Bonnet

Yeah, sure. So ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ is actually a professional development interview series created by Anne-Sophie and I to support the career exploration efforts and professional development needs of current U of M postdocs. So we actually created that as an alternative and low commitment way for postdocs to engage in professional development activities. And so maybe Anne-Sophie, you can talk to us a little bit of where the idea came from. 

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

Yeah, absolutely. So for this, a little bit of background about me. So I was a postdoc myself, and realizing that I didn’t want to go into a faculty career, I had to go through this whole existential crisis of figuring out what my career was going to look like. And I realized that by doing this, I realized that first of all, I was very much not informed about what was available to me to participate in professional development activities in my campus. But I also realized that it was going to take me a lot of time and a lot of effort to pivot and transition into a new career.

And so from the bench, it took me about three solid years to really figure out what career I wanted to go into, which is the career that I am in right now. And so really, the idea of  ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ was to help postdocs at U of M, essentially start their career exploration journey and specifically understand the importance of informational interviews in the process of career exploration and career transition. And so for this, Maurinne, you too have a bit of a specific journey you’re in right now that’s also contributed to creating this initiative. 

Maurinne Bonnet

Yeah, absolutely. So actually I’m wrapping up almost my third year of postdoc and I started realizing probably like a year ago that I didn’t want to stay at the bench. I didn’t want to become a PI for so many reasons. And the same, I was like, what is out there? What type of career can I pursue? How can I use my PhD and my postdoc experience? How do I compete with people that are already in the job market? And just like when you open LinkedIn and you’re like, okay, let’s find a job. What is the keyword you’re gonna look for, you know? So same, I started doing some IDP, so personal development plan, trying to look for other alternative career. And like you said, it just takes time and effort.

And then you start connecting with somebody who is, you know, has this type of job and you’re like, oh, that sounds cool. Okay, you dig more and you’re like, oh, actually I don’t like that. Okay, go back to the starting point. Let’s find somebody else in another type of career. So you contact them, try to discuss with them. And you’re like, that sounds cool, but actually not for me. And so all of these, on top of your like full-time job at the bench mentoring student, when you’re inexperienced, it takes time and effort. And like when you go home, after all of that, you just don’t want to spend more time digging on the internet and like what is out there. So I was like, if I could just put something in my ears, listening to people talking about their career, their journey, just to give me an idea of like what they’re doing and so later on I can contact them for a follow-up question, but I would have like the first idea without me doing anything. It’s just the podcast talks to me basically. So that’s how, like my background and how I thought like, we might need this like initiative and who’s better than you to do that set up the podcast with. So that’s how we started.

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

And it was really serendipitous that you reached out to me to schedule an advising session with me. And turns out we’re both from France.

Maurinne Bonnet

Yay!

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

So we could connect, right? We had that shared experience of coming to the US to do a postdoc, realizing we wanted to stay in the US and having to figure out what we wanted to do. And so I think it was really, right, the right time, perfect storm for us to meet and essentially have the same idea, but just meeting someone else to help us get this off the ground. So this is how ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ was born. 

So now what we really want you all to understand is what the benefits of listening to ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ is going to be for you. And really, Maurinne, you already touched a little bit on this. It really is a great opportunity for all of you to essentially be introduced to a variety of careers to kickstart your career exploration journey, if you’re unsure of what you want to do, or to just connect, right, understand better what a certain career is about, and also start connecting with professionals in this career. And like I said before, the informational interview process is really essential when transitioning outside of your postdoc. So we’re pretty much providing that informational interview that you can listen to when you’re at the bench or during your commute. So that this way, you are taking that first step into your own professional growth. 

Maurinne Bonnet

And I think I would add that, you know, like you highlight the importance of those interviews and sometimes it’s not easy to stop. You’re like, so who should I contact? Like, are you just going to open LinkedIn or like open Google and say, well, um, give me the name of an IP lawyer. You know, like I can talk about patent and IP, but it’s not as so easy to contact those people. They don’t know who you are. So like cold emailing, cold calling, doesn’t work out for everybody. And some people are not comfortable doing that. So the idea of also behind the podcast for us is to provide a network, like an alumni portfolio of people who are already open to the idea to be contacted because, you know, we all share this journey at the U of M. So like you have a first point of contact and usually, and if you book an appointment with answer, she will tell you that usually after each interview, you should come home with like a few other names to be introduced to. And that way you keep going with your network and you build your network that way. So we really want the podcast by our guests to provide you this network of people you could start being introduced easily with. 

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

Absolutely. And I think it’s really, right, essential to understand that all our guests are going to be former postdocs of U of M, which provides already that first connection, right? It’s a shared experience that current postdocs will have with all these alumni. And by choosing to interview specifically UM postdoc alumni, it’s also a great way for us to highlight a lot of the resources that are available at U of M that some people might not be aware of. So that ultimately, by listening to these episodes, we really hope that you’re going to become more aware of what’s out there. And it’s also a great way for you to just start the process of thinking of what you want to do next. 

Maurinne Bonnet

Yeah, and that’s something I think you would hear on the first episode, but we really want to emphasize that you need to take charge of your own journey as early as possible. It’s no pressure. It’s just like finding a job takes time, networking takes time. So just, if you can start thinking about it as soon as you start your postdoc, on the top of everything else, we know it’s not easy, but that’s why we wanted this to be low commitment. Just put it in your ears before you go to bed, on your commute, like you said, and just start thinking about it. And so if you decide like, oh, this career sounds very interesting, what should I do to be a good candidate and a good applicant at the end of my postdoc in two, three, five years, whatever. So start looking at resources. If you want to be a faculty member, that’s great, but maybe you don’t have the teaching background. So you’re going to hear about teaching opportunities at the U of M. If you want to become a sales person, maybe you need customer experience. And so we have all the resources available on campus that you can look at or career fairs or stuff like that. So it’s really also like we want to give you enough time to think about your career and have enough time to take the step of like taking a workshop, taking a course or whatever you need to be the best candidate at the end of your postdoc. 

Anne-Sophie Bohrer

Absolutely, could not have said it better. So with this, we really hope that you find these conversations valuable and informative. And with that, happy listening.