When I tell people I now work as a career strategist for academics, they often ask how I got here. The short answer is that I spent a long time noticing what was missing.

As a graduate student and early career scholar, there were stages where I had very little support. Some of my experiences with supervisors and department chairs were difficult, and I watched classmates go through worse, including unfair treatment over authorship. Nobody sat us down and explained how the system actually worked. We figured it out alone, or we didn’t.

Years later, I was on the other side of the desk. I served as department head for many years. I oversaw PhD admissions and student progression, ran our faculty mentorship program, and was responsible for research grants. In each of those roles I saw young faculty struggling with the same things I had struggled with decades earlier: how to write a strong grant application, how to build a case for tenure, how to position themselves for the next step. Many of them were talented. Most of them were working very hard. What they lacked was someone in their corner at the right moment.

At the Harvard Management Development Program for Higher Education Leaders, I met new department heads and deans who were wrestling with similar issues as they stepped into leadership. The struggle doesn’t end once you have tenure.

Scholars value their independence, and that independence is part of what makes us good at research. Still, we go much farther when we have the right people supporting us, at the right time, for the right reasons.

So as I approached retirement from my university position, the question of what came next had a clear answer. I wanted to help scholars give themselves the best possible chance of success.

Why scholars come to me

People usually reach out because they realize they need someone on their team. Sometimes the colleagues who used to look out for them have retired or moved on, or they are simply stretched too thin. Sometimes they never had that support in the first place. Their adviser became ill, or they switched supervisors partway through, and they finished their PhD without ever learning how to write a research paper with confidence, apply for a grant, or position themselves on the job market or for tenure.

Others had wonderful mentors early on. They know exactly how much difference that made, and they want to build that kind of team again.

Either way, the logic is the same as training for a triathlon or committing to your health. You can do it on your own, but it helps enormously to work with someone who has been where you are and can tell you what is coming next.

What surprised me

After I started my coaching practice, scholars who had left academia began reaching out. Several told me, “If I’d had someone like you, I might have stayed.”

I don’t believe everyone should stay. Staying in academia is a choice, and there are good lives on both sides of that decision. But if you want to stay, or you want to advance, I want you to have your best shot, with someone experienced on your side who understands how files are read and how decisions are made.

Take stock of your team. Who’s already on it, and what help do you need to thrive in your academic career?