Roshni Rao

Roshni Rao is the Director of PHutures at Johns Hopkins University, a career center that aims to support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in their professional development and life design. Roshni completed her PhD at the University of South Carolina followed by a postdoc at the US Food and Drug Administration. She then transitioned from research to a career services position as Associate Director of Postdoctoral Affairs at the NIH, before landing her director-level role at Johns Hopkins. Roshni discusses how she took control of her career trajectory and brings us into the world of career services and higher education.

Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field?

I did a Master’s of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago, in New Zealand. I had to really put my head down and study hard because, when I started, I didn't even know how to hold a pipette. Eventually, I rose to the top of the class and joined one of the best labs with an amazing mentor, which I was very proud of---I tell this story often to illustrate the perseverance of international students. I enjoyed that experience so much I decided to do a PhD, so I went to study Immunology at the University of South Carolina. I was very active during grad school, becoming the president of the Indian Student Organization, the International Student Association, and the Medical Students Association, so while I was doing my research I was also exploring what I enjoyed outside of the lab, like leadership.

After my PhD I went into a postdoc at the US Food and Drug Administration, mostly because I had no understanding of what alternative career pathways were available. At that time, we didn't have a career center like the one I run now, and since everyone else in my lab had taken a postdoc right after graduate school, I honestly thought that was just the next thing to do. But during my postdoc I got married and had a baby, and that became a catalyst for me to really take stock of what I wanted in my career path and what would satisfy my personal values and motivations.

I began doing informational interviews, learning about other people’s careers, and reflecting upon my past experiences. A few things were clear: I love people. I love helping people, and helping them work through problems creatively. I liked teaching undergrads and grad students in the lab. I’m creative. I’m a leader. And though I do enjoy the creative aspect of experiments, I don't necessarily want to pick up a pipette ever again in my life. Combining those reflections with my LinkedIn-based informational interviews, I started to resonate with consulting and, unexpectedly, career services. At the end of my job search, I had an offer from a consulting firm and an offer from the NIH to become an Associate Director for Postdoctoral Affairs. My gut told me to go with the NIH, and I soon found that my values, skills, and needs all came together with this career path.

I spent a year and nine months doing that job. One day by coincidence I saw a posting for my current job on LinkedIn. It sounded like such an ambitious, radical job: building the PHutures office from scratch, in a new and innovative career department. I was intimidated but still I went to my boss to look at the job description together, and then she showed me another job description for a director-level role at the NIH. We both realized that I was ready to move to the next level and, even though I was an asset to her, she completely endorsed me and encouraged me to apply. Now I’ve been at Johns Hopkins for almost two years, having built a whole career office for PhDs and postdocs.

Can you tell me about your current responsibilities?

I've been a one-person career office for the last few years but now I have two grad interns and another staff member. My responsibilities include serving about 2000-3000 PhDs and postdocs across the campus, from every discipline---humanities to engineering to biomedical sciences to chemistry.

My specific tasks are different in any given week. I might do one-on-one consultations with students and drop-in sessions with groups of students where we talk about subjects like imposter syndrome. Every other week I also teach career-related workshops on resumes, LinkedIn, cover letters, networking, all that. And then I host fireside chats, for example with a famous author or a science communicator, to inspire students to meet these people and hear their stories. Every year we also plan a career conference and a hiring event for PhDs and postdocs, so I need to network with employers and connect with speakers through LinkedIn and Twitter. Other than that I also prepare reports, present to leadership, go to leadership meetings, and have meetings with my boss.

What do you enjoy or find challenging about this job?

What is challenging is trying to stay on top of all the practical organizational things and all the Excel sheets and everything. I just don't have the time to stay organized with everything that goes on, especially when the office was just me, and even if everything’s a mess behind the scenes, when you go on stage it has to go smoothly.

A fun part is when students tell me what happened as a result of our conversation---they networked, they interviewed, they got a job, they’re happy, they’ve moved on to their next step. That's the best part. The part that hurts sometimes is when you've been working with a student for a long time, and then they get a job, move on, and you never hear from them.

For your current position, were they looking for somebody with a PhD?

The job description required at least a Masters, but a PhD was preferred. They would ideally want someone with a PhD, who could connect with the PhDs. Otherwise, it would be someone who had a Master's but had been working in this space---of helping PhDs and career work---for at least five years.

What is the typical hiring and interview process like for this field?

It depends on the environment; governments will have a different interview process from universities and from industry. Typically you apply to the job on job portals such as LinkedIn. Ideally you're also tailoring your resume to the job and reaching out to the people posting the jobs, which I did with both of my jobs. Next a recruiter calls you for a short screening conversation, just to make sure that you match what they see on your resume.

For my job at the NIH, the next step was an interview with stakeholders around the NIH who I would be interacting with, and for that there was a set of standard questions that I could expect, like ‘Tell me about the work you've done previously’ and ‘Tell me about your vision’. For my current position, it was a lot of steps. I had a phone screen, a zoom screen with the two main bosses, a pre-interview call, a half-day on-site interview, a reference check, and then finally a lunch. I treated every interaction, from the phone screen all the way to the lunch, like an interview.

Usually for a director-level position they will ask you to present a plan of vision. Neither of the positions required me to present anything, but I prepared one anyway, just to make sure that I stood out as a candidate. For example when I interviewed for my current position, I handed out a vision sheet---a diagram with all the keywords that the job was looking for, with graphs and projections---along with a portfolio of my work and my resume.

Are there any internships or other experiences that would help get into this space?

Right now there are two graduate students who have fellowships in my office, and they are interested in going into higher education and professional development. So get involved with your university's Career Center. Go to the events, find out if you can volunteer by moderating events, and apply to fellowships or internships within the office. Other than that there are professional development entities that can expose you to the world of career services and higher education, including the National Postdoctoral Association and the Graduate Career Consortium.

How did you network when you were looking for a job?

For me, LinkedIn was a great starting point, low-risk and easy access to everyone that I needed to talk to. Everyone was very willing to have a conversation and refer me to their recruiters.

During grad school, I was very active in conferences, for example by helping planning an event or acting as a student emcee. When you get involved, you never know who you’ll connect with and who you’ll stay connected with. I still have some of those connections, and I'm able to reach out to them now to invite them to our career events or our hiring event. Networking is a long investment, not something that’s instant gratification.

Do you have any professional plans for the future?

Even though I run a Career Center, every day I’m learning and honing new skills that could be used in another job. I could see myself working in industry, tech, or consulting. Again, it comes down to my core values: helping people and problem solving. I'll never be a person who is interested in finance, so venture capital just doesn’t fit me. I don't know what the next steps are, but I'll definitely be keeping my mind and ears open.

Is there anything that would have been helpful to know before going into this field?

I think that with any job, whether it's an academic job or non-academic job, who work with makes a huge difference in how motivated and fulfilled you are in your job. For me, going into work and knowing I have an amazing team of inspiring, caring people helps me stay motivated. It’s so important to ask questions about the work environment, and find out what sort of work culture you’re stepping into.

It's not easy to be in ‘service’ mode all the time, especially if you have a family that needs you and the students also need you. You need to establish boundaries, and it helps to have a good support system, both at home and at work, that understands that this role can be demanding.