In our last post, we discussed reasons to consider a career in academic administration. However, we also recognize that many graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty know little about the trajectory of those who enter administrative roles, particularly postdoc office positions. Here, we address this knowledge gap by sharing our own experiences, the experiences of postdocs and other administrative roles, and offering advice for those interested in pursuing this career path.
Useful skills in the workplace
Although we each come from different backgrounds and careers, we realized that transitioning to a different field required time, reflection, and a restructuring of our professional identities and priorities. An administrative role requires a broader skill set than one typically requires as a tenured faculty member, and the measures of success are different. Although the transition can be difficult, we have grown personally and professionally in our new roles and value the networks we have built in the field. Below, we list the skills we found useful and some suggestions on how to cultivate them.
Communication. You will need:
Communicate with multiple constituencies, for example, by listening to postdoc experiences and feedback on policies and programs, addressing faculty mentorship challenges and updating faculty on postdoc policies, needs, and resources, and collaborating with mental health and immigration support offices for comprehensive postdoc support. Raise awareness across campus about postdoc work and their individual and collective needs. Share program outcomes and environmental survey data internally with administration and leadership and externally through publications and conferences. Practice active listening to integrate leadership priorities with the office’s mission and drive policy changes, for example, to effectively collaborate with campus partners and organizations that provide additional services to the postdoc population.
How to develop these skills:
Present at conferences. Participate in communications workshops. Volunteer as a communications officer for organizations such as postdoctoral associations or graduate student groups. Coordinate organizational events, such as inviting expert guest speakers or hosting workshops on your field.
Education, coaching, programming. You will need:
Coach postdocs to help them prioritize their short-term and long-term goals. Facilitate workshops covering topics such as mentorship, leadership, and career planning. Mentor postdocs to support their professional development. Support postdocs who are facing personal and/or professional challenges.
How to develop these skills:
Mentor students and document the effectiveness of your mentoring. Guest lecture and courses for postdocs. Host workshops for research groups, departments, and postdoc associations. Take advantage of educational resources offered by your institution. Volunteer on graduate student and postdoc-focused committees such as the National Postdoc Association (NPA) and the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
Strategic thinking and negotiation. The following skills are required:
Understand the organizational culture, norms, and change processes to achieve goals. Develop and/or revise policies addressing topics such as postdoc compensation and mentorship best practices. Consider priorities and decide whether to say “yes,” “no,” or “later” to various opportunities. Strategically plan resource allocation and timing of programming and evaluation.
How to develop these skills:
Participate in departmental or institutional committees. Co-write grants to gain insight into budgeting, purchasing, and reporting. Lead collaborative research projects across departments or institutions. Participate in strategic planning for the Postdoctoral Association.
View from the field
In this section we share advice from academic managers at different career stages, including postdocs and senior leaders, as well as our own perspectives as early career managers.
The postdoctoral fellow is currently based in the Academic Administration department. The postdoctoral fellow position is reserved for those who want to work in the Postdoctoral Fellowship Office or a similar department. We spoke with Claire Perrott, a Professional Development Postdoctoral Fellow at Syracuse University, about her experience.
Claire told us that after completing her PhD in Latin American History, she held a tenured faculty position before moving into the museum field. Claire’s experiences both in and outside of academia motivated her to find a position that would allow her to broaden her skill set, consider future career paths, and engage in community building. In Claire’s current postdoctoral position, she supports a postdoctoral professional development program. She enjoys the freedom to shape her role to fit her interests and explore her next career steps.
That said, Claire emphasized that the collaboration and oversight required for policy change takes time and is quite different from the independence she had as a faculty member. Additionally, the path to advancement is not always clear, so Claire recommends discussing this topic and other professional development opportunities at the interview stage. She herself has used the flexibility of being a postdoc to explore different career fields while planning her next role, gaining new skills and experiences.
Early career administrators. As recent transitioners into academic administration, we want to share our own perspectives as we reflect on how we got to our current roles and what we’ve learned along the way.
One of us, Victoria, now a program manager at Yale University, earned a PhD to broaden her teaching experience and decide if she wanted to pursue a career in academic teaching. Through Northeastern University’s World History program, she had the opportunity to teach as a full-time instructor of several courses. Recognizing the limited number of tenured professorships in history and the growing interest in improving the student experience overall, after completing her PhD, she accepted a combined professorial and administrative position at a small architecture and design school.
From there, her professional work focused on academic administration, teaching, and educational development. When an opening in the postdoctoral office at Yale University opened up, she reveled in the opportunity to collaborate with and holistically support postdocs and graduate students from a variety of disciplines. It also allowed her to define this newly created role. Now, two years in, she cherishes the opportunity to try new approaches, embrace failure, and expand her professional network.
Karena, another assistant director of postdoctoral services at Georgia Tech, earned her PhD in integrative biology from the University of South Florida, where she conducted research in environmental microbiology and disease ecology. Eager to hone her teaching skills, Karena secured a postdoctoral position through Emory University’s Research and Science Education Fellowship Program. She continued her research and developed advanced courses for the biology department at Morehouse College. She also participated in professional development programs through Emory’s Office of Postdoctoral Education, worked on the institution’s DEI Strategic Planning Community Initiative, and resurrected Emory’s Postdoctoral Association.
Through these opportunities, she clearly realized that her values lie in mentoring, contributing to the academic community, connecting people, and creating an inclusive environment where individuals can thrive.
When she began her job search, she used these values as indicators of the work that motivated her, and then aligned those skills with the work she was interested in. In her current role, she mentors individual postdocs on their career journeys, develops and facilitates professional development workshops, organizes and hosts community-building events, and collaborates with a variety of stakeholders to improve the postdoc experience at Georgia Tech.
Postdoc leaders. We also asked several postdoc leaders to share their best advice for those seeking jobs in academic administration.
Jana Stone founded the Office of Postdoctoral Support at Georgia Tech in 2013. Now assistant vice president for professional development and director of the Office of Postdoctoral Support, she said she recognizes that graduate students and postdocs who want to enter academic administrative roles may not have direct administrative experience. With that in mind, Jana looks for candidates who have led efforts to support postdocs. For example, serving as chair of a postdoctoral association, organizing a career panel, or serving on an institutional committee can provide insight into the duties and processes of a postdoctoral office.
Jana also encourages those applying for these roles to critically analyze their motivations for pursuing this career path. Making your motivation clear in your cover letter and tailoring your CV to communicate a deliberate move into academic management is key, she advises. Additionally, you should be prepared to discuss what skills you want to develop and ideas about how your future supervisor or institution can support that development.
Erin Heckler, vice dean for postdoctoral affairs at Yale University, advises that critical thinking and communication skills are essential because you’ll be working with a variety of different parties in a postdoc office. She recommends networking and conducting informational interviews with people in the field before applying for management positions. It’s helpful to gain leadership experience and begin to understand how organizations work through affinity groups, graduate student or postdoc associations, or volunteering with national organizations.
Finally, Erin advises that it’s important to explain how your skills can be applied to an academic administration role: Utilizing your mentor team and the resources of your institution, you can effectively articulate transferable skills that demonstrate your ability to pivot and succeed in an administration role.
Melissa Iannetta, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program, encourages postdocs who decide to pursue a career path in management through the university’s Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship to participate in activities that demonstrate leadership. Depending on the type of management position, this could include chairing a committee, conducting program evaluations, developing curriculum, or participating in donor relations. Postdocs should also be able to demonstrate that they can “secure funding, spend funds, prove that funds were used appropriately, and promote the impact of their work to key constituencies,” she said. Melissa stresses the importance of recognizing that there is a perspective on everything you do, apologizing when you make a mistake, and learning to build consensus to move people toward a goal.
In this article, we’ve peeled back the curtain a little to give you an idea of what a career in academic administration is like and how you might go about pursuing it. We encourage you to think strategically about whether these roles align with your values, skills, and interests. We’ve framed the discussion from a postdoc’s perspective, but graduate students and others will be able to adapt much of our advice to their own situations. Academic administration is a dynamic and growing field, and if you’re interested in playing a role that further supports and defines it, an exciting path awaits you.
