Building bridges
getting to distant places easily
This is a quick post of some advice I gave about career development to an early career scientist. Take from it what you want.
Try to build bridges between where you are and where you want to go (this can include people, places, topics, techniques).
Touching on building, try to build (multiple) things (lines of research, data, code) which outlast singular projects or span several. This is why I’m relentless on using templates and formalizing code. This allows you to recycle old projects in a new context fast, so you can pivot into a new project quicker.
Diversify your portfolio, don’t get painted into a corner. By definition ecology is interdisciplinary and chances are that you will have to do fieldwork / lab work at some point. Getting experience before you need to supervise people doing so (without any true experience) is key. Use early career years to make mistakes which in a management setting would be unforgivable (as affecting other people’s career - even more than your own).
Build bridges for other people! The bigger your responsibility (older you are) the more you have the ability to pay it forward (give people opportunities). You shouldn’t cannibalize your own work, but sometimes it is as easy as sending a simple email in support (or letting someone tag along or contribute). Do so!
Build bridges between people, build frameworks (foundations) to work from / upon, build diversity in your skills / interests / people and if possible encourage, and support, others to do the same.
Reuse
Citation
@online{hufkens2023,
author = {Hufkens, Koen},
title = {Building Bridges},
date = {2023-10-10},
url = {https://khufkens.com/posts/building-bridges-science-management/},
langid = {en}
}