In this work, we present data on impact and initial longitudinal outcomes of a pilot comprehensive career course designed to specifically aid trainees’ success in academic research, by providing structured instruction in a variety of tacit yet critical professional skills. The course, Navigating Academic Careers, was developed and piloted as part of a collaboration between the ITERT (Interdisciplinary Translational Education and Research Training) core and the Office of Postdoctoral Fellows at MD Anderson. Learning outcomes for the course were framed broadly within the 3 main objectives of ITERT: research education, career development, and supportive learning community. We intentionally structured this platform to provide an immersive experience on the tacit skills required to secure and manage careers in academia, particularly to serve the current generation of scientists. The instructional design of the modules allowed for workshops, break-out sessions, and self-learning components, serving multiple learner styles. While the course was delivered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the online delivery mode allowed flexibility, providing for both synchronous and asynchronous learning and was reported in evaluations as being effective. All live-streaming sessions were recorded, thus creating a permanent archive for prospective or enrolled trainees who could not attend a specific session. These resources generated during 2021–2022 continue to be routinely used to educate and train newly onboarding trainees at MD Anderson. Evaluations of the Navigating Academic Careers course support its role in preparing fellows for advanced research-focused careers (including faculty tenure-track careers), its role in instilling confidence in trainees for navigating academic career paths, as well as its inclusion as a valuable addition to current institutional programming.
While career offices at other institutions have variations of such training programs comprising one or more of the listed training elements, it is unclear if these resources are part of the routine curriculum for a postdoctoral fellowship, and if all graduating fellows necessarily experience the benefits equitably. Several highly respected institutions comparable to MD Anderson, such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine offer seminars, workshops, retreats, and courses related to various leadership and career development topics, but none are formalized mandatory courses for completing a postdoctoral fellowship [19,20,21]. There are two global programs that offer training to postdocs and have a similar course structure to the Navigating Academic Careers course (below), but neither covers the breadth of content that our course does, nor is their content tailored specifically for graduate student/postdoctoral medical researchers interested in pursuing academic careers. The Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership is based in Europe and is available to early-career researchers working in sustainability at European research institutions. This course is comprised of four seminars held over two years, and each seminar is held at one of the four sponsoring academic centers. The primary difference is that modules cover topics related to sustainability leadership such as human-environment research, systems thinking, research methodology, and career development [22]. The Postdoc Academy is available as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the edX platform as well as a separate website (www.postdocacademy.org). It was developed broadly to meet the needs of postdoctoral researchers in all fields [23]. Postdoc Academy is structured in two online asynchronous courses: (1) Succeeding as a Postdoc and (2) Building Skills for a Successful Career. As with the Navigating Academic Careers course, the goals of Postdoc Academy align with the core competencies outlined by the National Postdoctoral Association. The second course offers modules that cover several of the same learning objectives and topics as the Navigating Academic Careers course; however, our course offers unique content such as Networking, Effective Time Management, Work-Life Balance, and Developing Your Niche (unique specialization/building your personal brand). Our modular platform allows postdoctoral fellows to fill this training gap and equip themselves with the necessary tools to face the job search process and launch their career as independent scientists in academia. Eighty percent of participants who responded to the follow-up survey two years after completing the course reported feeling more confident in approaching their current role, or ongoing job search, as a result of participation in the Navigating Academic Careers course. Although 53.3% of these participants are still in their training positions, the other 46.7% have advanced to positions such as director of a research office in an academic institution, assistant professors, instructor, principal research scientist, and senior research scientist.
The responses to the 2-year post-course survey also provided interesting data to further explore. Aspects of the course such as project management were reported as being advantageous to participants regardless of their current role and overall, participants applied the learnings from the course to their current role. Other outcomes queried such as applying interviewing skills or updating their CV as a result of the course were not just as prevalent – perhaps reflecting the fact that a number of participants are still in a training position and just have not yet had the opportunity for those activities. Finally, only 26.7% of respondents indicated that the course had an impact on them applying to a faculty position. While this is not surprising as the participants were selected based on their interest in an academic position, it would indicate the training can provide a level of further support and perhaps confidence for participants to pursue their academic career interests.
This course is framed in a context that has seen the delivery of education changing drastically due to a global pandemic. In a recent survey, 61% of postdoctoral fellows stated that the pandemic has negatively affected their career prospects, and another 25% stated that its cumulative effects on their career remain uncertain [24]. The combined synchronous and asynchronous online learning platform of our new course allows for a great degree of learning flexibility, and provides trainees the much-needed networking opportunities that were strongly impaired in the last few years due to the pandemic. Currently, there is a pressing need to embrace remote learning [25] and create futuristic learning modules to address the evolving landscape of education and training. The Navigating Academic Careers course was offered via Zoom, and 98% of the participants who completed the survey concurred (agreed/strongly agreed) that this platform/venue was appropriate for this type of training. Further, over 90% of the participants were in favor of the instructors’ presentation skills and ability to engage students in the learning-centered approach on this online platform. Hence, this course offered a mode to provide continued career-preparedness and online-easy access. This experience also equipped us with a potentially scalable career-preparedness tool for the future.
Limitations and future directions
The work presented has some limitations. Primarily, this is a single institute study. The course was developed and delivered at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is a non-profit institution located in the Texas Medical Center in the US. Further, we pooled results from participants with different training and cultural backgrounds. The evaluation time was also relatively short; participants had 2 h after the end of each class to complete the survey, the default time-setting in RedCap. Based on informal participant feedback, it was revealed that while the opportunity to provide a quick response within the 2-hour time-frame enabled first-impression feedback when the course was still fresh in their minds, a longer-term feedback window may have allowed more participants to respond, as well as allowed participants more time to reflect on the sessions, before providing feedback. In the future, course evaluation will benefit from the extended feedback collection time-frame, as well as extended multicultural postdoctoral representation of nearby research- and educational institutions within the Texas Medical Center, such as Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, and Houston Methodist Research Institute, as well as other institutions across the US. Of the 30 trainees who participated in the institutional launch of this course, 21 indicated that during their tenure as a fellow at MD Anderson they were supported by an individual fellowship, career development award, or institutional training grant/training program. Some of the individual fellowships available to researchers also included a professional development training component. Therefore, for the next cohort, it will be important to assess the entry-level skills that all participants bring to the course and from there on, measure the success of the course in improving trainees’ career-preparedness. The structure and content of the course were presented at the 2021 TEACH-S educational symposium (Texas Educator’s Academies Collaborative for Health Professions – Southeast) to disseminate this concept to the greater scientific community and seek feedback from educators across multiple fields in biomedical sciences. The course was very well received by the educators, who also pointed out the necessity to include a distinct module on resilience and self-advocacy in future iterations. Although these concepts were constant themes highlighted and discussed in every module, we do agree that the formal integration of dedicated sessions on “building resilience” and “self-advocacy” into the course would strongly benefit the participants. Lastly, continued additional evaluations by our initial participant cohort over the next 5–10 years will highlight the course’s sustained success in preparing the next generation of scientists vested in academic careers.
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