Today is October 21 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “What skills, traits, and habits can you rely on to travel down a winding career path?”
Among the 24 individuals chosen to receive the 2017 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, some described taking winding paths to their current occupation.
As reported in The New York Times, “Gabriel Victora, 40, a Brazilian-born immunologist at Rockefeller University who studies the mechanisms by which antibodies become more effective over time at countering pathogens, came to the United States at 17 to pursue a career as a concert pianist before pivoting to science.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 34, a Nigerian-born painter now living in Los Angeles whose work explores transnational identity, studied both biology and art as an undergraduate, and, as the daughter of scientists, had to grow into the idea of art as a potential career. “I think of my studio as a lab sometimes,” she said. “When I’m working out a new idea, I try to be as methodical as I can.”
Jason De Léon, 40, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan, trained as an archaeologist studying ancient sites in Mexico, before shifting focus to clandestine migration across the United States-Mexico border, which he studies using a combination of oral history, archaeological research and forensic science. “I wear a lot of different hats in my work,” Mr. De Léon said. ‘Most of my career has been defined by making it up as I go along.’”
If a winding career path is good enough for several MacArthur Fellows; might it be good enough for you? What skills, traits, and habits can you rely on to travel down a winding career path?