15. "How Do I Talk To An Expert?"

Do you know what your dream job is? Well, now it's time to speak to an expert to see if your dream is their reality! But does this scare you? Do you feel prepared to seek out, email and then meet with an expert? This week, I share some tips on how to approach an expert, and get all the information you need out of your conversation.

My Experience Talking With An Expert About My Career:

If you are new to the TARE blog, welcome I hope you enjoy this week's entry!

For my regular readers, you know that I have not had a traditional or planned research career. Instead, I choose to walk a path until that path no longer makes sense, then I investigate a new path.

In the year I was writing up my PhD I read 104 books, one of these was 'Inside the O'Brien's' by Lisa Genova. (If you like fiction books based on [neuro]science, Lisa Genova's books are for you. Genova has the ability to explain complex brain processes and diseases in an easy to understand way that fits seamlessly into works of fiction).

'Inside the O'Brien's' is about a Boston policeman who finds out he has Huntington's Disease, how he handles the diagnosis, and the impact it has on his family, particularly his five children. As each child has a 50% chance of inheriting the Huntington's Disease gene. If they have the gene they will start showing symptoms in their 40s. In this story, there is a short scene where one of his daughter's visits a genetic counsellor to discuss whether she will get tested for Huntington's and how she might react to either a positive or negative test result.

I was awestruck. I didn't even know genetic counselling was a job, but thought it sounded fascinating and would bring together my love of research and patient interaction. So I did some research to find out all I could about this career. It would take a number of years to be fully qualified and include completing (another) Masters.

My first Masters was in Criminology. I loved this Masters. I loved learning about the justice system, social factors associated with crime, crime theory and behaviour patterns. But it was a $20,000 degree which had not really contributed to my career.

The Masters in Genetic Counselling was $50,000, so I wanted to make sure my idea of the job, matched reality. I also knew research needed to be part of the job, and I wasn't sure if genetic counsellor (GC) roles were only clinical, not clinical/research.

So I emailed the head of the GC Masters program and we organised a time to meet to discuss whether I would qualify for the Masters. I outlined my background and why I wanted to be a GC. I was also open about my lack of science background to see if this would affect getting into the Masters.

I knew what questions I wanted answered during the meeting:

• Would they accept me into the program?

• Was it competitive to get in?

• Is it common for GCs to also have a research career?

• What is the role / day to day work of a GC?

• Were there many jobs in the area?

The head of the program was very knowledgeable and I felt encouraged to pursue this career after our meeting.

We kept in contact and they sent me a list of names of GCs who were also researchers. I Googled them and they all looked quite impressive. One person worked quite close to where I worked so I emailed her, briefly introduced myself and asked if she would be open to having a conversation about her career.

We met and introduced ourselves over coffee and spoke about our careers. It was a great conversation. She shared her research interests and planned future research projects. She asked a few questions about why I did a PhD, and what I wanted out of my career. I was very honest about what I had accomplished in my career and what I was hoping to do next, become a GC that still did research. We realised that my skillset of big data overlapped considerably with a data linkage project she already had funding for.

She introduced me to the rest of the research group, including her boss. We met again for me to attend the weekly research meeting, and again for me to attend their clinic and sit in on patient consultations. At the end of the clinic visit, her boss asked whether I would consider a job with them. I ended up accepting a research post-doc position after I completed my PhD.

I was shocked. I emailed someone to ask about their GC career, and scored a post-doc job in big data!!

I never ended up doing the GC Masters. After working with the research group, I realised how much I didn't know about science in general, DNA specifically. I would need to put in a lot of extra hours to understand these concepts. Plus, taking another 2 years out of my career and adding $50,000 to my debt........All of a sudden a GC career was not what I wanted.

The Lessons for Approaching and Speaking with Experts:

Read on to find the 10 things you should know before you contact an expert.

• Find an expert

If you know the job you want, use Google to find someone with that exact job. See how specific you can get, if you know the industry you want to work in then speak to someone in that industry. If the exact role doesn't exist, speak to someone who has the most similar role. You want to make sure you are getting career advice from the most informed person, the person who has lived the path to get that job.

• Contact an expert in the country you want to work in

Jobs and careers can differ greatly based on geography, as can the salary and required qualifications. Contact an expert in the geographical location you want to work in to get the best picture of what your role would look like.

• Email the expert

Spend some time working on the email you will send to the expert. In the email you should write who you are, why you are emailing them and suggest the next point of contact.

Keep the email short, the longer the email, the less likely they will read it.

Emailing experts is a skill you will use throughout your career. Last week, I DM'd a person on Twitter asking what their role was as I had never heard of it but it sounded interesting. They responded within a day, and now I am aware of another data job that exists in the world.

An example email may be:

Dear Expert,

My name is Bianca Blanch and I have a PhD in pharmacoepidemiology analysing population-based health datasets. Through my PhD I became really interested in data visualisation which I believe plays a large part of your current job. Would you be open to meeting so I can ask you questions about your role, and the programs you use so I know what my next steps should be to update my data visualisation skillset?

Kind Regards,

Bianca

In this email, I introduce myself, I say why I want to speak to them and suggest meeting up in person. If the expert is busy, they may just answer my questions via email. If they consent to meet in person, then we both know how this conversation will begin and we can go from there.

It is best to meet an expert in person, or video call, especially if they are a stranger to you. Try not to have your first meeting on the phone, as it is difficult to build rapport with a stranger via a phone call. But if the expert only gives you one option, take it. A conversation over any medium is better than no conversation at all.

• Follow up if you don't get a response

Experts are experts for a reason and they can have really busy periods in their work. If you don't get a response to your email, after a week, email again. Forward your old email and ask if they saw your first email. If you still do not get a response, I would look for another expert to contact. If they don't respond to two emails, then they may not have enough time to meet with you or give you comprehensive answers to your questions.

• Respect the expert's time!

Think about what questions you want to ask the expert. What do you want to know about the role? Literally write out your list of questions. Then during the meeting, refer to them to make sure you have asked all of them and they have been answered. If you waste their time by being unprepared, this could be the first impression you give to a future colleague (or boss!).

Example questions may include: How did you get this job? What work experience did you have when you got this job? What degrees/qualifications did you have? What advice would you give me, a person wanting to get into this field? What are the must-have skills I need to develop? What skills would be good to have, but are not essential? What is your day-to-day role?

• Think about the best aspects of your dream job and validate it with the expert.

Write down the aspects of your dream job that most appeal to you. Confirm with the expert that they actually complete these tasks and how frequently they do them. Listen to all of their answers and ask any relevant follow up questions you need to clarify their responses. Does their description of their job fit in with your idea of your dream job?

• Be honest

These conversations can be difficult as you want to impress the expert. But if they ask you any hard or difficult questions answer them as honestly as you can. You will likely feel vulnerable being so honest with the expert, but if you are honest they will also be honest with you. The whole point of this interaction is to see if their job is for you, if it isn't you just saved yourself some years and possibly the hard work of acquiring a fruitless qualification!

• Be fearless!

Most experts are passionate people who will enjoy having a captive audience to speak in depth about what they do. If your expert is unkind, or not generous with their time, contact another expert. Do not let one brush off, or bad interaction, ruin your career path.

But, if you have bad experiences with multiple experts in the same field, this may actually say something about the field and the experts they attract!

• Stay in contact

If you get along well with the expert, and you feel like you have built some rapport (and you would feel comfortable meeting up with them again), ask if you can contact them again in the future. Opening up this connection will help you answer any additional questions you have, and may be a valuable resource if you are looking for a job in the field in the future.........

Have you tried to speak to an expert about your career? What was your experience? Did it go smoothly or was it really nerve-racking? Were they kind? Were they helpful? Let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

BB

Photo by Tom Hill on Unsplash

I will write a new post every Friday about another aspect of the research world. Please email me to subscribe to my blog. AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

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