How I got a New Job (under duress)
The Context
I found myself emailing individual versions of this, so decided to make a post. This is not so much about the story of my leaving NOAA but my experience looking for and securing a new job during an uncertain time (and frankly bad job market).
Some hard stats
Don’t let this post make you think I had an easy time. I started job searching “full time” (meaning, in all of my free time) in late January 2025 and will receive my first paycheck in a new role at the end of June. I applied to 85 roles, Received 6 first-round interviews, 4 second-or-more-round interviews, and 3 offers. That’s less than a 4% success rate
Soul Searching
I didn’t want to admit this part was
The Three Pivots
There are three basic components to any job: your sector, your domain, and your skillset. Sector is what type of employer you have: federal, private, NGO, academic, freelance, etc. The domain is the topic, or field, in which you operate (I think of this in general terms, like the undergraduate major that would roughly correspond to your field – marine science? chemical engineering?). The skillset is what you’re doing every day in that role. Are you generating insights from data? Communicating with stakeholders?
When searching for a new job, it’s easier to do a single pivot (change one of these things) than to change all three. It’s also easier to do a nearby pivot (Fed to NGO, since both interact with policy and grants).
So, if I am a federal (sector) fisheries scientist (domain) conducting statistical analyses (skillset), it’s going to be a tall ask to move to the private sector in fintech as a product manager – it’s not impossible, just a much harder sell.
Now, if you’re in the boat I was (leaving the Fed), the first component is going to have to change no matter what. So I decided to stick with my skillset (broadly, ‘data science’) and target roles that pivoted from fisheries/marine science to ‘earth sciences’ more broadly. This included energy, sustainability, agroecology, atmospheric science, carbon, climate risk – basically any role where I hoped that the hiring manager(s) would recognize the value of my environmental science degree and understanding of simulation modeling. This increased the
Tread lightly
There’s ubiquitous advice to network like crazy. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to build meaningful new connections at the same time as engaging in a heavy job search, and anticipate those connections to directly lead to a new hire. I had a dozen ‘new connnection’ conversations with folks at or adjacent to open roles I was excited about. Several of these convos went amazingly well, with one person even saying “I hope you become my colleague!” at the end…and then crickets. A new connection is not going to be able to pass your resume along with any sort of endorsement. At most, they’ll get you a first-round interview. The point is, informal networking “conversations” are useful, but jobs are obtained by applying and interviewing.
So, approach the networking task as part of the soul-searching task: to learn more about what’s out there, to get a feel for the personalities in certain roles…but don’t expect a brand-new contact (unless it’s a recruiter who specifically wants to talk to you about a role) to be your bridge into a position.