Dr Dawn Scholey is a Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University. She never intended to become a researcher. After working for an extended period in industry, she returned to academia as a technician. It was the cheerleading of her manager that convinced her to embark on a PhD.

Dr Dawn Scholey’s career is a good example that for some people, entry into the world of research is not part of a professional masterplan. Her career driver was about learning and science, not the ambition of becoming an academic researcher. It took a lot of convincing from the part of her manager, who she describes as an inspirational leader, to make her believe that as a mum of two in her late 30’s, starting a PhD was something she could do.

The cheerleading from her manager, who became her PhD and Postdoc supervisor, has been critical in enabling her to pursue her research career. She is now embracing this cheerleading role with younger researchers who are on their own research journey.

Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:

• How you may not see your own potential, but having a cheerleader to make you believe in yourself may take you to places to had never imagined
• How it is never too late to take a professional challenge  
• Why choosing a research environment that works for you is a key decision in choosing who to work with and where to work

Some reflections to ponder based on my discussion with Dawn

We don’t all have a masterplan

Dawn’s honesty in sharing her entry into academic research is interesting, as it illustrates that starting a career on this path is not just the privilege of early career graduates, but a viable route for other professionals. Working as a technician for her manager, Dawn did not see herself as someone who could do research as a doctoral student. She was in the technician box and her professional development could have stayed there. What fascinates me is the persistence that her manager had in convincing her that doing a PhD was something that Dawn could do. Her manager could see it in her, when she could not see this in herself.

Dawn is not someone who had a professional masterplan about the types of roles she wanted. She explained that she had fallen into different roles but was not aiming at a specific job.

Traditional career paths rarely exist nowadays, so being open and flexible to explore career transitions is the crux of employability.

If you don’t have a masterplan for your career, exposure to others and their own career paths is an important way of exploring alternative options that you may have never considered. We so often just see the success stories of others and not the meandering path they have taken. Hearing from the twists and turns of careers, when people made mistakes with jobs, applied but failed at interviews, did not receive a grant…is all part of exploring what you want for your own path. We also do not always see ourselves in some more senior roles. It often takes others to tell us to apply for a job that we felt was out of reach for us. 

o   How can you stay open to unexpected opportunities in your career?

o   Who is encouraging you to take unusual opportunities that may create a spark of inspiration to decide what to do next?

o   Who is challenging you to take opportunities even when you feel you are not good enough, ready enough, smart enough….?

A supportive research environment looks like what 

Doing a PhD as a mature student will have come with all the challenges of balancing family and work, but it brought her some calmness that younger researchers may not experience. She embraced that listening to others and learning from them was more valuable than worrying about not knowing as much as them