The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Anita Krishnamurthi, an astronomer turned STEM education after-school executive and advocate. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.
For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles.
What field do you
currently work in?
Science,
technology, engineering, math (STEM) education, policy
What is the job title
for your current position?
Vice President,
STEM Policy
What is the name of
your company/organization/institution?
What city, state, and
country do you live in? Work in?
Washington, DC
What is the highest
degree in astronomy/physics you have received?
Ph.D.
What is/was your
ultimate/final academic position in astronomy/physics?
Postdoc
What were the most important
factors that led you to leave astronomy and/or academia?
Didn’t feel the joy in doing it anymore and started
thinking about a different approach to my career. I became very interested in science education and
realized I cared deeply enough about the issue that I could work on it
professionally.
If you have made a
career change, what was your age at the time?
· I was about 30 when I made the switch
from academic research, but have made lots of job moves since then. My most recent sector/career switch was about
5 years ago.
What, if any,
additional training did you complete in order to meet the qualifications?
I did not need to
complete courses to access the jobs I’ve held and learned on the job. But moving from science education into policy
was a harder move than from research into science education as I had little
background in policy. I applied for policy fellowships and also started taking
some courses thinking I would need to get a Masters in policy. But then I landed a policy fellowship with
the AAS, and stopped taking the courses.
I took a pay cut to do the fellowship but felt confident it would lead
to more opportunities and I was right - it led to my being recruited into my current
role. As I became more senior, I felt I
could learn more about being a better leader.
I recently completed a year-long leadership development program, called
the Noyce Leadership Institute, which was a great experience and taught me a
lot.
Describe job hunting
and networking resources you used and any other advice/resources.
I talked to people I knew both in and
out of astronomy, looked at various job posting services to see what people
were doing and what appealed. I also
cold-called lots of people when I was looking to move into the non-profit
sector and found that most people were extraordinarily generous about giving me
some time and talking about their organization and their work there. That helped tremendously to build connections
in a brand new sector (non-profits) for me.
What has been your
career path since you completed your degree?
- Postdoc
- Program Officer at the National Academy of Sciences
- Program Manager at NASA Headquarters
- Lead for Education and Outreach in astrophysics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
- John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow for the American Astronomical Society
- Director for STEM Policy, Afterschool Alliance
- Vice-President for STEM Policy,
What have been
particularly valuable skills for your current job that you gained through
completing your degree?
The
degree itself has been very useful in opening doors and providing credibility
when I talk about science or science education issues. And the things I learned through my graduate
school experience continue to serve me well – being fearless about asking
questions and taking on hard projects, how to identify the most important
problems that need to be tackled and structuring projects that can do that,
synthesizing material and writing about it, how to talk to people articulately
about my work, how to manage my time to meet deadlines and get things done, how
to think at both a big-picture level and the strategic moves needed to
implement the vision.
Describe a typical
day at work.
I
work on a blend of federal and state policy and advocacy, research, and
capacity building initiatives for the afterschool field. So my days are usually a blur of meetings and
phone calls, writing (papers, reports, blogs, proposals), presentations, working
with colleagues (internal and external) on specific projects, supervising my
team, being part of the senior management team at the organization and issues
associated with that, etc.
What advice
do you think advisors should be giving students regarding their career path?
There
are many ways to be fulfilled in your professional life. I meet so many smart people doing so many
incredible and interesting things that are often not connected to their degree
at all. You do what interests you in the
moment and see where that takes you next.
What you study and the degree you get are tools and should never become
a millstone around your neck that you feel compelled to carry around for the
rest of your life. You bring your past experiences and expertise into any jobs you take, so nothing you do is ever wasted effort.
Do you still interact
with people who work (directly) in astronomy and/or are you still involved in
astronomy in some way?
I
am married to an astronomer and have lots of friends who are professional
astronomers. I still enjoy reading about
astronomy and thinking and talking about it, and I will always think of myself as an astronomer. But I don’t feel a need to grasp at straws to stay deeply involved - my world has expanded. Ironically, that has led me to my working with NASA again, they value my expertise on the "outside" and ask me to serve on various committees. And I was just invited to the White House Astronomy Night, mostly on the basis of my STEM education work. So as I said before, various parts of our life start to come together in cool and interesting ways.
There is a worry
among those considering careers outside of astronomy or academia that you can't
"go back" and/or that you feel that you betrayed advisors, friends,
colleagues. Have you felt this way?
I
think it is true that it is hard to go back into research after you have been
out of it for a while. But it can be
done with some effort and strategy, I’ve seen colleagues do it. My biggest hurdle was myself – I had wanted
to be a professional astronomer since a young age and it was hard to discover
that I didn’t actually want to pursue it further. Everyone around me was very supportive even
if they didn’t quite know how to help me out; I had to figure things out by
myself. Some people were a bit negative
- the main question I used to get was people wondering why I bothered to do
something that I no longer “use.” But as
I said before, life is a journey and you do what gives you joy in that
moment. I loved being a research
astronomer for 10 years and then I changed my mind. When you no longer feel fulfilled, you move
on – the point of getting an education and advanced degrees is precisely to
give yourself options and not feel trapped.
How many hours do you
work in a week?
Between
40 and 50 hours a week depending on what is going on.
What is your salary?
High
enough that I don’t worry too much about money.
What is your level of
satisfaction with your current job?
Very
high – I love my job, my colleagues, and the field I am in.
What are the most
enjoyable aspects of your job? Least enjoyable?
I
love my job. But you have to understand
that there are stresses and less enjoyable things in every job. In a non-profit, you are continuously
fund-raising – but I have come to enjoy that and treat it as a challenge to
build relationships with funders and convince them that my work deserves to be
funded. There is also always more work
to be done than I can fit into a day, mostly because I have all these ideas for
things I can do – but we keep plugging away and do what we can.
What do you like most
about your working environment? Dislike most?
I
am going to repeat myself – but I love everything about my job.
What opportunities
does your job provide to be creative and/or to take initiative?
I
came into a new position and created it from scratch. I get to decide what I work on for the most
part, so my job requires me to be creative and take the initiative to see what
the field needs and how I can serve them best.
How satisfied are you
with your work-life balance in your current job?Very
satisfied. Our organization was recently
included as one of the “50 best places to work in Washington” and a big reason
for that was how happy the employees are about the work culture. We all work very hard, but we emphasize
work-life balance and set an example for it from the boss on down.
How family-friendly
is your current position?
It
is very family-friendly.
What advice do you
have for achieving work-life balance (including having a family?
Look
at organizational culture when you are looking for jobs. A high-profile job in
a high-profile institution might sound great and look good on your resume, but
it is pointless if you are not happy there.
Manage your time well and be efficient and disciplined at work. Make your hobbies and family activities a
priority. That way, all the things that
are important to you are on your calendar and you are giving them the time they
deserve.
What do you do for
fun (e.g., hobbies, pastimes, etc.)?
As
hobbies I actually schedule - I do pottery, rock-climb, and take violin
lessons. I also like to hike a fair bit
and garden and cook.
Can we include your
email address for people who may want to contact you directly about your
specific career route?
Sure, people can reach me at akrishnamurthi [at]
afterschoolalliance.org
No comments :
Post a Comment