I Finally Added Every Job to My LinkedIn Profile — Even the Ones I Was Ashamed Of
One professional's honest reflection on adding every job — even the forgettable ones — to LinkedIn, and what that act of transparency reveals about career fulfillment.
#career
Conference Poster Session and the PI Who Didn't Come
I presented the poster. My PI was at a networking dinner. I stood alone with my results and free wine. Postdoc life is shipping visibility while your boss co...
LinkedIn Said My Degree Is a Brand
Career fair panel told us to personal brand our research interests. I study labor precarity. Hard to fit on a banner. The recruiter wanted buzzwords. I wante...
I Ran the Numbers on Leaving and Staying
Spreadsheet Sunday. Stay: health insurance, vest cliff in eight months, misery indexed daily. Leave: freedom, COBRA, panic. I added a column for dignity. Cou...
My PI Said "Let's Touch Base Next Quarter"
The paper has been ready for six weeks. My principal investigator keeps saying we will submit after the next set of experiments — experiments nobody asked fo...
The Sea Does Not Care About Your Five-Year Plan
A young guy on the crew keeps talking about his MBA and making shore management by thirty. I do not tell him he is right or wrong. I watch the weather window...
"Not Yet" Is Just a No With Better Manners
Being told "not yet" at work is just a polished no. Here's why outworking the verdict is the only response that actually changes outcomes.
Dear Mom, a Salary Is Not a Life Plan
Choosing a college major for salary alone treats a human life like a portfolio. Here's why that logic costs more than it saves.
Two Truths at Once: On Watching Others Win
On watching a bootcamp peer land a job abroad and feeling two things at once — genuine happiness and unresolved hunger — without letting either cancel the other.