Career Coach Series | Climate Ecologist & Policy Specialist | Dr. Aaron Grade

[SPECIAL SERIES] This episode is part of a special 3-part Career Coaching Series, where each coach at Success in Science shares their unique career journey in STEM. Guided by a set of thoughtful questions, the series explores pivotal moments like choosing a major, navigating graduate school, landing that first science job, and making bold career pivots. Along the way, you’ll hear candid reflections on identity, work-life balance, and the role coaching can play in opening new doors. If you connect with their story, they just might be the right career coach for you—scroll down for a link to our website where you can schedule a free 30-minute chat with them.

About Our Guest/Coach:

Dr. Aaron Grade is a Senior Project Analyst at an environmental consulting firm and one of our career coaches here at Success in Science. With a passion for conservation and climate policy, Aaron's career has spanned academia, government, and industry and taken him from Connecticut to Montana to Florida and back to the Northeast. His journey has led him to a remote field camp in the hills of Arizona, staring face-to-face with a barracuda in the Caribbean, and even in the White House Navy Mess for lunch with the President’s Science Advisor!

• Video Interview - ⁠patreon.com/diverseroutes ⁠

Episode Highlights:

• When it makes sense to generalize instead of specialize

• How to choose a major and build the most valuable technical skills for environmental policy

• The edge working with a career coach can give you on the job market

Timestamps:

Overview

0:37 Who are you professionally and personally?

3:53 What are the major milestones in your career journey?

Undergraduate

14:33 Why did you choose your major?

17:42 Most valuable course?

19:49 What did you do outside of classes?

Graduate School

23:30 Why grad school?

27:53 What was your application strategy?

Career Journey

32:52 What was your first real science job?

39:39 What was the day-to-day like?

42:54 Why did you leave that job?

47:14 Which skills have been most valuable?

Coaching

52:16 What brought you to coaching?

56:43 What challenges do you most enjoy helping with?

59:06 Who do you most enjoy working with?

1:03:26 How would you describe your coaching style?

1:07:35 What difference has coaching made in your life?

Closing

1:10:49 If you could change one thing in your career, what would it be?

1:12:41 What do you wish you’d known sooner?

1:14:46 Most important piece of advice for listeners?

Looking for career support?

• Check out ⁠Success in Science Career Coaching⁠