Succeeding outside of a system: Finding your professional happy place

When I was finishing graduate school, I knew of three broad career paths for an entomologist: stay in academia, work for industry, or join a government agency. I enjoyed my time in academia, but my lack of work life balance left me burnt out by the end of my PhD. Subsequently, I actively pursued roles in industry where I could create applied solutions to real problems and focus on my personal life as much as I focused on my professional life. However, despite several raises and promotions, I continuously received the feedback, “We love what you do, but we don’t know where you fit.” After the end of almost six years working at the corporate level, I found myself unemployed in the middle of a pandemic and asking myself where do I go next? A government role did not seem like a viable option for me for many reasons. So, what is a career entomologist to do when none of these three paths seem to fit? For me, I “grabbed a machete” and made my own path leveraging my strengths and network to cut across all three of the previously described paths. This talk will discuss my professional journey, how I am finding success outside of a system, and shed some light on at least one alternative viable career option for someone passionate about entomology and helping people.