Feeling stuck on the career ladder? Follow your own path

I probably always knew that my career path was not necessarily going to be the most traditional, but it was only recently that two things happened in close proximity that got me reflecting more on this topic: 1) Someone I was coaching asked me “Is there anything you regret in your career?”? 2) PSI asked me to take part in a Career Relaunches lunch & learn session.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the decisions and choices I made in my career, so I’m not sure I have regrets and I’d never thought about my career being different to others. There have been times when I’ve been super clear on a career goal and worked my butt off to get there (particularly earlier in my career) and there have been times where I’ve been less focused on the end and more focused on what's a fun opportunity I fancy exploring now!?

I never had aspirations to lead a department which is what I’m doing now and I always wanted to live a large proportion of my time abroad, replicating the amazing memories I had as a child travelling the world with my dad’s job, but I’ve only lived 6 months in New Jersey and my opportunity to move to China halted after falling pregnant followed by the pandemic hitting. Who knows where I would have been if I’d taken some different decisions, but I’m super happy with where I am, what I’ve experienced and that’s all I can hope for myself and anyone else.??

After the lunch & learn session on Wednesday, I felt it might be worth sharing more broadly some pointers that have helped me navigate through my career and a little on my career journey in case it may bring inspiration to others.?

• Define your brand : You don’t have to be in someone else's defined box of you. You own your own narrative about who you are. Know it and own it!
• Build & maintain your network : Whether it’s in work or in professional associations like PSI for me. Having a strong network to leverage for career next steps or as a sounding board has been invaluable
• Don’t be ruled by titles and hierarchy : Titles in organisations are often not helpful. Judge people on how they show up and what they do, not what their title is. If you get the chance to speak to the CEO of your company. DO IT!?
• Share your hopes and ambitions : If people don’t know what you’re interested in and where you want to go they can’t advocate for or support you. Have a sprinkling of realism though on time-frames, some roles just require experience you have to gain over time?
• Trust : Impostor syndrome is so common, we need to start believing in ourselves a little more and in the people who have picked us out of a large number of people to take on a role. I’ve often found after a couple of months in a new role I’ve understood what it is about me that makes me the right person for a role
• You have more transferable skills than you think : Often we feel we don't have the right qualifications for a role. Life and work offer us multiple experiences that make us who we are that we can use to our advantage in many different roles.?
• No isn’t a bad word : Don’t be scared of getting a No, some people are really awesome at this. I’m still growing here, but I try to live by the philosophy that the worst thing in applying for a role is that someone says No and that isn’t the end of the world (in most cases).?
• Help others: We all need support, someone to ask advice or stupid questions to. Being that for someone is a win:win. They feel great from being able to share and learn and you feel great for helping someone.?

So what did these words of wisdom help give me in my career!!

• Clinical Statistician (roles in Biometrics): I spent the first ~10 years of my career. On the traditional path of a statistician, gaining more responsibility and promotions as I went. At the same time I knew I wanted to be a Global Development Team Leader (a role not traditionally held at the time by statisticians) with no interest in being a Statistics manager. I loved matrix leadership, I loved drug development beyond statistics & I knew this was the job for me regardless of the people who told me it wasn’t possible. I surrounded myself with people who could see my potential and learnt from a lot of experienced colleagues the skills needed to successfully apply and get my dream job.
• Global Development Leader (roles in Clinical Science): After many years trying and a couple of rejections. I eventually landed the job I’d spent the first half of my career trying to get! I dropped the statistics and focused on branding myself as a “drug developer”. I stayed doing this role on a number of different drugs for just over 3 years and this has probably been one of the most rewarding and influential times of my career. These roles opened my eyes to opportunities beyond R&D drug development.
• Medical and Marketing role in the UK (roles in the UK Affiliate): I did a one year rotation into a local versus global role, again with no focus on statistics. Here I got to see the other side of Roche. What are the challenges countries face in launching and getting the drugs I was used to developing into the hands of the people who needed them. I got to spend more time with patients, health care professionals, NICE and local regulators e.g. MHRA. It was a real eye opener and impacted how I thought about global positions in the future.
• RWD Affiliate Partnerships role (role in personalised healthcare): Bridging my new found passion for the challenges local markets were facing and my continual love of data. I went into a role with Real World Data (RWD), this was not a data type I had previously had experience with (feeding my continual learning needs) and was the first role I’d ever applied for as a manager. The transition to a manager I found really hard, mainly stepping back from hands-on work and being in the weeds of the projects/discussions which I’d always loved. I realised as I spoke about this openly with other managers, this was a shared struggle. Over the 4 years I was in this role I found a new passion for developing and seeing people meet their ambitions that was different to how I’d been able to influence these areas in matrix leadership roles. This was the leap-frog role to the China opportunity I referred to in the opening that never unfortunately became reality. Not through lack of trying!?
• Head of Data, Analytics and Imaging (role in personalised healthcare): With company transformations in full flight. I got the offer in mid- 2021 to take on the Head of Data, Analytics and Imaging ad-interim. This was yet another jump, going from managing five to around sixty people was a shock! As well as transitioning from drug development to software as a medical device. I don’t make things easy for myself. With all the roles I’ve had imposter syndrome kicked in. I had to trust in myself and that my manager had the experience to know what I was going to be able to bring my own unique flavour to the role.?

People may think I hopped around for promotions, but this is far from the truth. For the first 10 years I had nice steady promotions. I had one promotion as I started to wrap-up my role as a Global Development Team leader, but for the past 6 or 7 years I have been at the same level. Jumping between roles for the fun of the challenge and the new learnings I could gain than for the career ladder / money. Would I have liked to have been recognised in some of these roles in a different way - YES! But it didn’t stop me from applying and enjoying the ride.?

If you’re a PSI member you can listen back to the career session on the Video on Demand portal. Where alongside me, Graeme Archer and Lucy Keeling share their inspiring career relaunches.? Graeme Archer’s about taking a year out to do speech writing for an MP and Lucy Keeling’s story of taking a 9 year career break to look after her children (four children under 5 years old - WOW!) and retrain as a Maths teacher, before deciding to relaunch back as a statistician and we’re glad she did.?

I want to end by saying my career was right for me. It won’t be right for others and I’m not trying to advocate for that. What I want people to recognise is that you have ownership over your career and what you spend your life doing.?

Take control of it. You’ve got this!!