Have you ever struggled with knowing and understanding your own value system in your career? If so, chances are, you were more prone to making decisions out of expectation, impulse, or instant gratification.
Your value system gives structure to your career by helping you determine what is meaningful and important to you. It also helps you express who you really are and what you stand for.
Today’s episode is a Client Spotlight, where Porschia will walk you through how to pinpoint your core principles and understand your own value system that affects all aspects of your career, with Dr. Heike Blockus. Dr. Heike is a Senior Scientist with Verge Genomics, in San Francisco, a Series B biotech startup developing breakthrough therapies for patients with unmet needs in the neurodegeneration space.
What you’ll learn:
- Understanding how to make a career change based on your values
- How to get the right career support early on
- The effect coaches, outside observers, and advisors can have on your career
QUOTES:
“Many people sit on the sidelines for weeks, months, or even years before they think about getting some help in their careers.” – Porschia Parker-Griffin
“Working through this process of what I want to do with my career was pretty challenging, but it was also very exciting.” – Dr. Heike Blockus
As a thank you for listening to this episode of the Career 101 Podcast, we are sharing our FREE master class – Career 911: Solving the Top 5 Challenges Executives and Professionals Have! It’s a training based on solving the common problems our clients have experienced to reach their goals. You can get access to the master class here!
Episode Transcript
Porschia: [00:00:00] Today, we are talking to Dr. Heike Blokus about understanding your own value system in your career. Dr. Heike Blockus obtained her master’s degree in molecular biomedicine from the University of Bonn in Germany and her Ph. D. in neurodevelopment from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. She then completed her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in New York City before starting a position as a senior scientist with Verge Genomics in San Francisco, a Series B biotech startup developing breakthrough therapies for patients with unmet needs in the neurodegeneration space.
Hi Heike. How
Heike: are you today? Very [00:01:00] good. Thanks so much for having me.
Porschia: Absolutely. Well, I am excited to have you with us to discuss really understanding and getting clear on your own value system in your career. But first we want to know a little bit more about you. So tell us all about seven year old Heike.
Uh,
Heike: when I was seven years old. I actually think I was more ambitious than I am now. Um, and I think I was looking up a lot to people in my family that includes my sister and my cousins who were older than me. And, um, I wanted to do basically everything that they were doing. And I remember that certain sports like European handball, I could only start when I was you know, a specific age.
And so I kept pressing like, oh, when can I start doing this sport? And then similar with, I wanted to play the trumpet because my cousin played the [00:02:00] trumpet. And so I think I was just, I had a lot of interest and I was very determined to, um, Pursue them all. So I’m really grateful to my parents for putting up with that and, you know, driving me around to all my different hobbies.
Yeah.
Porschia: Yeah. Well, it’s great. You’re right. Really encouraging hobbies and sports and just other activities, um, for children is really, really helpful and people get to be creative, right. And then start thinking about, you know. What they want to do moving forward. So around that time, Heike, uh, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Heike: Um, I wanted to be a vet always. I always loved animals and, um, started horse riding when I was pretty young. And so that was always my big career goal. Um, And, yeah, I think that sort of piqued my interest in science. My [00:03:00] father has a PhD in mineralogy, um, so I got also really interested in growing crystals at home and looking at different stones.
Um, so I think the scientific edge was in there pretty early on, although it was almost equally matched by my musical interests. Um, I played piano and trumpet. And so for the longest time until I graduated high school, those were sort of… Head to head, uh, whether I would become a musician or whether I would become a scientist, um, I then realized that I did not want to be a vet, um, but wanted to focus more on basic research.
Porschia: Very exciting. So one, it sounds like you, you were on the doctor track early with, with a dad who’s a doctor. So you had that. Uh, that went up and got to see that up close and personal, which is very cool. Uh, one thing about me, Heike, it was, I wanted to be a vet as well. That was one of my first, um, first career [00:04:00] ambitions, but I did not really like the blood.
So, uh, still love animals. Uh, I’m a dog person, but love all animals. But the blood part was kind of the, the no for me. What was the part of being a vet for you that made you change
Heike: your mind? Um, having to put animals down, I think just the heartbreak that comes with that when we lost our dog and I started to understand that this is a lot of what vets have to do and that there are difficult decisions to be made, um, even more so for animals than for humans because they can’t speak to us in the same language.
So I felt like that was I wasn’t sure that I could bear that weight throughout my career, and I think that was what changed my mind. Yeah,
Porschia: that’s, that’s understandable. It is heartbreaking to have to, you know, put our pets down and perhaps to see that regularly. So what kind of compelled you to move towards [00:05:00] the scientific side as opposed to music, which we heard you mention?
Heike: Yeah, you probably know this story. I think we talked about it before, but I lost my mother very early to cancer when I was only 16 years old. And that was just a very transformative event in my life. And so when I faced this situation of seeing the physicians in the hospital, not really being able to help my mother.
I started to understand that they were lacking the right tools to actually help cancer patients, um, because they were only as good as the scientific understanding of the disease would be. And that was really the pivotal moment in my life where I, um, felt compelled to dedicate my life to my career, to, um, fundamental science and basic research.
And I started out actually focusing on oncology in my undergrad. Hmm.
Porschia: Yeah. Well thank you for [00:06:00] sharing that with us. And that just really tells us a lot about you and you know, your drive for that scientific understanding. And it sounds like a, a common theme is helping people, right? Even as a vet that’s helping the animals, and with the research and the scientific focus that you have today, there’s still that aspect of helping others.
Heike: Yes, you’re right. I think it’s a very, um, strong theme and motivation that drives me every day to do what I do. Yeah,
Porschia: yeah. So what was your first job, Heike?
Heike: My first job was doing the newspaper route when I was still a child. Um, and I did that to, uh, to get some money for my horse riding hobby, which is…
It’s quite expensive, and my parents said that if my sister and I wanted to do that, we had to contribute, um, and so to earn more pocket money, my sister and I did the newspaper route in [00:07:00] our town, uh, to, to support our horse riding hobby.
Porschia: Yeah. Great. Great. Well, sounds like you were, you were building that character and that sense of responsibility early, Heike.
So I want to transition a little bit, I guess, to your academic career, you know, tell us about some highlights or pivotal moments, uh, in your career.
Heike: Oh, there are so many highlights in my career. I’ve really enjoyed, um, pursuing my academic career for almost 10 years. I met a lot of really smart, brilliant and unique people on the way and, um, during my postdoc at Columbia University, I, I learned a new technique to be able to see how neurons behave and are active in the brain of a mouse as the mouse is doing, uh, certain behavioral tasks.
So the mouse was, [00:08:00] for example, walking through a labyrinth and we were able to. Monitor the activity of the brain cell as the mouse is figuring out, um, a task, a memory task, for example, and I think that was such a highlight in my career because I such a deep fascination with how the brain works and then seeing it in real time in action.
I remember very clearly this moment of looking at the monitor and knowing that we’re able to see brain events In real time life that that was very impactful to me.
Porschia: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so tell us about another highlight, perhaps something, um, in your academic career. I know that you’ve done a lot of traveling from country to country and continent to
Heike: continent.
Yes. I, as you mentioned in your kind introduction, I started out in [00:09:00] Germany and then did my PhD in France and ventured to the U S afterwards. And I think when I, I was awarded the European young research award and 2015 for my PhD work, and that was not only the academic achievement, but that was also. A lot of outreach that I did and a lot of work for young scientists and the community and that really was very touching to me.
And I got to travel to Manchester and meet with a lot of, um, a large community of European scientists, uh, to discuss my career and my research. And that was really, um, felt very rewarding because it judged me as a whole person and not just for my scientific achievements. And that also took into, uh, into perspective the pan Europeanness of my career so that I hadn’t, in fact, been to [00:10:00] different countries.
Um, I had also done a summer class on ethics in Finland. So they were really focused on finding a person that embodies. European values in their research, their career approach, and also their outreach as to how get the general public interested in science. Oh, wow.
Porschia: And what’s so interesting, Heike, is I remember reading about that, um, award, you know, earlier when we were working together on your resume and I didn’t even know the depth of, you know, what it stood for.
So that, I mean, that’s a great achievement, a great achievement. Um, so tell us Heike, what have been some of your biggest career challenges
Heike: so far? Thank
Yeah. Um, as, as with the highlights, there’s also more than one challenge that I faced in my [00:11:00] career. Um, but I think the biggest one is the one that you actually helped me work through, which was my identity was so tightly coupled to my academic career that I sort of lost myself in the process a little bit because I was so focused on attaining my academic goals that I realized it wasn’t really in line with my personal values as to why I am a scientist.
And so I think working through this identity crisis, uh, maybe I, I want to make a career switch while I’m still very set and focused on my academic goals. And so this tangling, this identity from, Um, you know where I actually want to be because some of this identity is, of course, imposed by the environment.
And so I think working through this process of what I want to do with my career [00:12:00] was pretty challenging, but it was also exciting. Um, so I wouldn’t, you know, there’s no negative connotation to this challenge, but it was certainly something that shook me pretty, you know, very deeply in my core.
Porschia: So, yeah, let’s, let’s talk more about that, Heike, because many people sit on the sidelines for weeks, months, or even years before they even think about getting some help in their career.
And I see that with a lot of our clients and prospective clients, um, what motivated you to reach out for some career support?
Heike: Yeah, I, um, so I came across your work by reading an article on biospace, um, about biotechs versus bigger pharma companies and how they compare. And that, so I had already started the thought process of maybe industry [00:13:00] suits me better than an academic career.
And I knew that I knew very little about the industry and I knew way too much about academia. So I kind of wanted to rebalance, um, My knowledge space in a sense that I would, I would have. Outside observers and advisors that, uh, um, that do not have a stake in the decision that I make, and so I felt the career coach was very well positioned to, to play that role, uh, because they are committed to having your best interests at heart and they will also, they don’t know you, they haven’t known you for 10 years, so they will be able to maybe see things that, uh, you yourself.
Can’t see. Um, so that that was basically what I was hoping for with a career coach to provide this outside perspective that will open new [00:14:00] avenues for me as well.
Porschia: Yeah, so I can hear that you thought a lot about it, Heike, which is, is really best because a lot of times people kind of move, especially through their careers and just life in general, just kind of, um, going, you know, from thing to thing and not necessarily being intentional about what they’re doing and what their goals are.
So, um, You were definitely intentional, and that’s something I could tell about you very early on. Um, we talked a bit about values during our work together, um, and you took a values assessment. How was that experience of, you know, taking a values assessment for you?
Heike: Yeah, it was really eye opening, and I think I, I remember that so clearly because it’s not something that I had thought of as possible, [00:15:00] which sounds really weird, but because I was so focused on my academic goals and managing all these expectations from my academic environment, it wasn’t so obvious to occur to me that what I want and how that aligns with my personal values is actually something important in how I choose my next job.
So it sounds very simple, but when you’re so in the weeds of it, um, it’s actually. Not, not that easy to say, to take that step back and focus on who am I as a person? And what does that mean for the career choice that I’m going to make that suits
Porschia: me? Mm hmm. Yeah, you’re right. This isn’t something, and that’s actually part of the reason why, um, I started this podcast, Heike, because this type of values work.
And specifically with your career, a lot of us are not taught. Um, we, a lot of times go to, um, you [00:16:00] know, a university for a degree or three in your case, but no one actually helps us. Really get focused on our career and our career path and how to plan that in a way that is in alignment with our values, right?
And in alignment with who and how we really are. So I think you just articulated that beautifully. Um, but that’s really part of the reason why I started this podcast because we can get all of this education, um, but not necessarily know how to structure it in a way to really support us for our career.
So, as you know, you mentioned with taking that values assessment, how did you start to really understand your own value system?
Heike: I think it was when I was already working through the process of letting go of that identity of a very goal [00:17:00] oriented academic scholar. And I started to see myself more as a holistic person and that value assessment really helped propel that perspective on myself because the values are very raw.
They’re very human and, um, they don’t, they apply to everyone, but then it is up to you, what you make of them. And I think just. Seeing the values listed in the assessment as human and sort of raw as they are, it really helped me connect to that part of myself that I hadn’t really considered in, in my career choice, um, as much as I should have.
Porschia: Great awareness there. So, Heike, as you were kind of looking at the values, you know, in that holistic way, how do you think you started to align those with your career path or different job opportunities that you were thinking about?
Heike: Yeah, I could talk [00:18:00] about that for a long time, but I think it, I started contrasting sort of the incentives that I see my academic.
would have given me, which is, which is still relatively focused on the individual as, uh, you know, the lab, the head of a lab or principal investigator. Of course, you have a team working with you, but there is still a little bit of individualistic culture in that academic path as I see it. And, um, I realized I really wanted to feel part of a team and be sort of a part of a bigger goal where everyone works together in one direction.
And as I mentioned earlier on, this all should be serving a purpose. A greater purpose for helping human human beings and my academic research was very far removed from that. And I [00:19:00] realized that I was pursuing my academic goals more to serve my intellectual curiosity, but not to serve my deeper purpose.
Wanting to help others.
Porschia: Wow. Wow, that deeper purpose and wanting to help others. I think that a lot of times when clients really start to figure out what that is and apply that to their careers, they can be more fulfilled sometimes than just kind of, you know, surface level, um, endeavors. And so yours weren’t, I don’t think surface level, but I’ll tell you what I see a lot, Heike is sometimes people are chasing a title.
So that might be, you know, a manager title or a director title or a C level title, or they’re chasing a certain salary range. And they haven’t quite done what you just [00:20:00] mentioned, really connecting their purpose to their career. So, um, yeah, just, just great awareness that you have there. Something else I want to talk about, Heike, is, you know, support systems.
So having support from friends and family members can be great. Um, but one thing I see with a lot of clients and just, I think most people in general is that they’re friends. Um, maybe their colleagues, their family members are biased on you touched on this a little bit earlier. Um, and thinking about working with a coach, um, but those friends and family members, a lot of times they have their own thoughts or beliefs or expectations about what someone should do.
Um, what kind of expectations do you think others might’ve had for you?
Heike: Yeah. Again, that’s a great question. Um, and. I could talk about it for a long time because, of course, it [00:21:00] was so integral to the way that I had to make my decision. As you say, it’s very common for everyone to have an opinion on what’s best for you.
And so I really started to build my support network in places where I felt it was lacking, which is specifically in the biotech industry because I didn’t know that much about it. And then, um, sort of re experimented You know, extracting myself from the academic sphere a bit, because I knew that everyone in my family, as well as in my academic environment.
Just already saw me as this next young principal investigator, uh, who is going to pursue an academic career for the next 40 years. And so I knew that that was the expectation that everyone had. And so I slowly started building, reaching out, sometimes cold, reaching out to people in the biotech industry [00:22:00] if they were open to talking to me.
And it really led to me having an amazing group of people around me. Let’s say maybe. Three or four advisors. Um. You know, including you, of course, that we’re able to provide input on my next career step.
Porschia: And I want all the listeners to just take a moment and really pick up on what you mentioned. You proactively started reaching out to people, um, just to, you know, see if they might be open to talking to you.
And I know that that can sometimes be a scary thing, right? Reaching out to people cold. Um, what do you think, uh, motivated
Heike: you to do that?
I think I just needed to know. And I had also read that people are actually quite open to these sort of informational interviews. And, um, I didn’t think so, but [00:23:00] Now that I’m in this position, I’m of course, I would talk to people who are interested in this career. So I, I think that it’s It’s more common than not that people will be very welcoming and to have these kind of conversations about their job and, and that actually turned out to be true for me.
And I, I want to add one more thing, which is having a diverse group of advisors. I think it’s really important. Um, in my case, it was especially apparent in terms of, um, I had three male advisors and three female advisors and they gave. Very almost opposite advice on when it came to the job negotiation stage.
So just keeping that in mind, sort of, you know, it’s good to have someone in your support network who is in the job that you would like to pursue as well. But then think about, you know, who is the hiring manager and what kind of perspective might they have? And it w I mean, that was just such an eyeopening, um, [00:24:00] moment to me to see that my female advisors and male advisors had very different.
Advice for me as I came to the job negotiation stage. Uh, so just sort of thinking ahead. Thinking what kind of different perspectives do you need to come to the ultimate decision? Yeah, you
Porschia: make a great point about having a diverse group of advisors. And then also I can hear Heike, it sounds like you went about this in a very systematic way, kind of similar to, right, a scientist, right?
In comparing these things and, and really analyzing them. So hats off to you because I think a lot of people don’t really go that deep, um, when they are, you know, thinking about their career, uh, and perhaps making a transition.
Heike: Yeah. I’m so sorry. I cannot get rid of this structured way of thinking about things.
It’s just my way of approaching life. I’m a very structured person. I like to. Check off boxes and things like that. So yeah, I guess it comes [00:25:00] naturally to me, but I can recommend at least in my, in my, um, yeah, in my case, it worked out. Yeah.
Porschia: Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s great. I mean, everyone is unique. And so, um, you know, that structure can be really helpful for people.
Um, so you started talking about having, you know, this diverse group of advisors and kind of getting, you know, these outside opinions. But how else do you think that you detached yourself from the expectations that others had for you?
Heike: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think I needed to, I needed some of my academic Advisors to also be able to listen. And I know that not everyone is so fortunate, and not all of my academic environment was as supportive, but there were a few key people that were [00:26:00] open to listening to my point of view. Which hopefully, you know, everyone will be able to have at least one or two people, uh, because there’s a lot of stigma from the academic community to its industry and also vice versa in terms of how science is done in those two places.
But, you know, my key mentor in the academic environment was, um, ready to listen to me. And. Here, my, my motivation to wanting to do a career transition, and although I knew it was very painful for him because he wanted me to be that next principal investigator, he was able to be selfless about, about it and listen to what I wanted, and that in the end made it easy, although he told me that he was disappointed and sad about it, he was still able to listen and just for me to get out what it was that was Feeling about this career transition and why I wanted to do it [00:27:00] and have him listen and accept it.
Uh, that was very helpful. Mm
Porschia: hmm. So during our time together, Heike, we talked a little bit about, uh, looking for ways to, to work in your zone of genius. How were you able to understand your own zone of genius and how that applied to a different job?
Heike: Yeah, it’s actually quite funny because I have to give my current employer credit.
During the interview, that was actually one of the questions that I was asked. Mm hmm. And I thought it was really interesting because I never really thought about it in that way because I was so goal oriented that I didn’t even really deeply think about the things that I was doing. I was doing them all for the end goal of, you know, pursuing my academic career.
And then when I was asked this question, I started really reflecting on it. How, what [00:28:00] is it that makes time go really fast when I’m in my daily routine and what are the things I enjoy the most? And I just. Started sketching those things down and matching them to job descriptions that I saw out there. So I think, and that’s really an ongoing process because I think the zone of genius is something that can grow with you and your career.
So I always remind myself when I learn, now I’ve learned so many new things over the last year and a half in this new job that I think there are new, there are new capabilities that open up. Of things that I enjoy doing so I kind of keep tab of it and see, um, how that son of genius grows with me.
Porschia: Very well said.
Um, so Heike, how is your life different now after your career
Heike: transition?
I do feel very fulfilled in my job because it’s I know that we’re [00:29:00] working on something really important to a patient community that has unmet needs inherited generation, and I have started volunteering for the Parkinson’s Foundation, and you often meet with the patient community and patient advocacy groups.
And it’s just, it shakes you to the core to talk to these people and what they’re going through and just being able, I feel so privileged to be in this position where our science as a company. might in the future be able to help this patient community. I think that is just fundamentally different from how I have approached my career during most of my academic years.
And that, that is, I feel really privileged. I think that’s the best words to use as to where I am right now and what I get to do every day.
Porschia: Yeah, and it sounds like in interacting with the community, there might be that sense of [00:30:00] helping people that we kind of talked about earlier. Maybe just perhaps a little more, um, directly than kind of in an academic way.
Heike: Yes. I think talking to the patients. Really transformative. And it also again opens my perspective up to what the patients actually need, because oftentimes I’m still doing very basic science just with a focus on discovering drugs that will help these patients. But, of course, the patients themselves are more focused on what will help them in their everyday lives and how clinical trials are structured and designed.
And all of the learning from the patient community about all of these aspects that will make an impact on their life right now, that’s also very inspiring. So Heike,
Porschia: what is your definition of career success?[00:31:00]
Heike: Yeah, I think it really comes down to finding the purpose and feeling inspired by yourself or by others. So I reflected on where I would like to see my career going, and I think I’m in a pretty happy spot right now where I’m close to the science and making contributions that serve a bigger purpose. And so I think as long as I am in line with my values and instead of this happy, sustainable spot, I define that as career success.
So I have become. A much less goal oriented person and much more focused on what makes me happy in a moment. And that common theme of helping others, I think is something that is really a driving factor behind that. That’s
Porschia: great. That’s great. So how do you think executives or professionals can [00:32:00] get a positive edge in their career?
Heike: Um, great question. I think one, one thing that I see in our C suite executives or leadership team is that they are Not afraid to show vulnerability. And as I reflect on the effect that has on the team and the company as a whole, that is really important to me that we are all human and we all try to do our best every day when we show up and sometimes we fail.
And so I think just not forgetting that human component, being compassionate and showing vulnerability are two qualities that I have seen. And leaders that I really look up to.
Porschia: Yeah, compassion and vulnerability, um, are so important. I think a lot of people, I [00:33:00] could believe that they have to have it all together and that if they are, uh, vulnerable, then someone might think that they don’t know what they’re doing, right?
Or that they’re not cut out to, to do what You know, their job entails. Um, so thank you for sharing that because I think, you know, that helps other people, uh, to perhaps, you know, show a little more vulnerability, um, at work themselves. Um, so I
Heike: go, Oh, go ahead. If I could add one more point to this, I was talking to another executive coach, and she was also making a really great point that, um, we, I’m sorry, hold on one second, forget, I will, I will give you a pause there.
I need to think about what I want to say. Oh,
so that being a leader. Can mean a lot of things. And I think she really helped me redefine [00:34:00] my image of what a leader is because we have certain stereotyped versions of what a leader is supposed to be in our head. And she really worked with me to come to my own definition of what a leader is. And that might even be an individual contributor.
That leads in other ways. It doesn’t need to be connected to a title. It can be connected to you as an individual as you inspire others how you show up creatively at work. So I think really making that distinction and it was very liberating for me to realize that a leader doesn’t have to be the stereotype that I have in my head.
And I think that working with that idea can be really fun.
Porschia: Absolutely. And, uh, leadership and leadership development are fascinating. Just because of what you mentioned hiking, uh, you know, The definition of a leader is different to different people, and they’re different [00:35:00] philosophies and schools of thought and really getting people to understand what their definition of a leader is, and then also what kind of leader they might want to be is really important.
So thank you for sharing that with us, um, Heike, you have discussed a lot of, I think, really important insights, uh, today, and I’m sure That our listeners can use it to be more confident in their careers. We appreciate you being
Heike: with us. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun. I always really enjoy talking with you.
Yes. Likewise.
