Propelling Careers

Lauren Celano
  • 4.8 (6)
  • CAREERS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. This podcast provides insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences.

  1. 1D AGO

    Ep 102: Jim’s talk on Organizational Behavior - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, we will focus on one of Jim’s recent talks. He has been busy over the last few weeks talking at places such as Wheaton College, the 3rd Annual New Mexico Postdoc Research Symposium and MGH. We are looking forward to this discussion and we hope you enjoy listening.    Point Jim Covered during his talk at Wheaton College   Know Thyself: What leadership strategies help create a strong and collaborative culture in research teams?Leadership & Culture: privilege, diversity, leadership style, psychological safetyFostering/creating Culture and group dynamicsHandling pressure and uncertaintyMotivating and engaging employeesConflict resolution  Lessons learned Jim talked about Don’t ask anything of anyone without being willing/able to do it yourselfDon’t let perfect be the enemy of good Don’t do it alone if you don’t have to; Ask for help, share the load/accountabilityIt’s almost never about the work, it’s about the people doing the work…check in with themRemember, you have agency, power, and choices  Career Advice He Covered What advice can you share about navigating the grad school process after college?What are some challenges graduates face after completing their PhDs, and how can universities better support them?What advice would you give students about building careers that are both successful and personally meaningful?    Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    29 min

  2. APR 10

    Ep 101: Advice for building your personal brand on LinkedIn - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to building your personal brand on LinkedIn. In Feb 2026 Lauren gave two talks at the Transition to Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium including one on building your brand on LinkedIn. This podcast covers questions that she received during this talk including onesbelow.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. We hope you enjoy listening.    What should I do with my profile if I am not actively looking for a job at the moment For mid-career professionals who are quietly exploring industry roles, how do you balance visibility with discretion?Does it matter how many connections a person has on LinkedIn? Is the summary/about section absolutely necessary in LinkedIn?  I’ve noticed these LinkedIn research summaries highlight recent or most current roles. How would you incorporate skills learned in past experiences (undergraduate or prior) briefly in a personal summaryHow important is using a work banner or emojis in a profile? What is actually necessary for a personal brand? Could writing your hobbies into the LinkedIn profile sometimes also come off as unprofessional?Do you recommend listing certifications related to things you are interested in on LinkedIn? Will it give you a leg up? How often do recruiters contact grad students and postdocs? I've heard it's more common at higher levelsDoes the recruiter see our job score?  Do recruiters see How many jobs we applied forCan recruiters see how many responses we got back?  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.  As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    40 min

  3. MAR 31

    Ep 100: Celebration of our 100th episode and our first guest - Propelling Careers Podcast

    Welcome to Propelling Careers Podcast episode 100. We cannot believe we have made it this far… One source I foundindicated that 6.25% of all podcasts make it to 100 episodes. Another source I found said about 5% - regardless, a small amount of the entire network of podcasts make it to 100. We are really proud that we have been able to developmeaningful content to help our listeners navigate their career journey over the last 25 months.  When we started, we were not really sure where this would go - we just wanted to put good, truthful, honest content out there to help people. Since Feb 1, 2024, people have been listening and giving us positive reinforcement. This has helped motivate us to continue and we really appreciate this.    During this episode, we also will reach another milestone - we will have our first guest! Our first guest is Joey, my nephew, who painted the picture that is our podcast logo.   Lets talk about  celebrating milestonesKeeping momentumCreating goalsHow goals and milestones are differentFeedback from our listeners has kept us motivatedEpisodes that we have gotten a lot of feedback on include episodes that are part of a series as well as these below Ep 82 help me help youThe interview red, green, yellow, beige flag episodes 19-23 and also episode 97, 67, and 68Ep 73 the 26 steps in a job search process  Ep 33 and 34 networking adviceHow to navigate the current landscape Ep 58 getting your game face onEp 81 proactive tips for mentoring relationshipsLauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    42 min

  4. MAR 27

    Ep 99: Informational Interview Questions from Lauren’s recent talk at Torrey Pines Training Consortium Transition to Industry Event - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to informational interviews. Lauren recently gave a talk at the Transition to Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. Lauren, along with other panelists with extensive industry experience shared our insights and providedguidance to help clarify the pathway to establishing a successful career in industry from academia.  Lauren gave two talks there - one on advice for networking and informational interviews and one for developing your brand on LinkedIn.  This podcast will cover questions that came up from the audience regarding informational interviewing talk. A future podcast will cover questions that came up from the developing your brand on LinkedIn talk.  We hope you enjoy listening.    There were a few hundred people in the audience, mostly graduate students and postdocs,  from a range of institutions including Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scripps Research and University of California San Diego and a few others.    Lauren’s best tip for informational interviewing Jim’s best tip for informational interviewing For people you informational interview, is it a one time thing or do you try to meet multiple times?What method works best?  Phone, video, in person? If you do this in person, who pays for the coffee/snack if there is one? Do you send a resume or LI profile ahead of time? Should we send information to the person ahead of time on what we are looking to learn in the informational interview?  Are any questions off limits to askAdvice to keep in touch after an informational interview   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    40 min

  5. MAR 19

    Ep 98: Networking Questions from Lauren’s recent talk at the Torrey Pines Training Consortium Transition to Industry Event - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on advice relating to networking. Lauren recently gave a talk at the Transitionto Industry Event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium.  This event was developed for early career scientists who are thinking of transitioning to a career in industry. Lauren along with other panelists with extensive industry experience shared our insights and provided guidance to help clarify the pathway to establishing a successful career in industry from academia. Lauren gave two talks there - one on advice for networking and informational interviews and one for developing your brand on LinkedIn. There were a few hundred people in the audience, mostly graduate students and postdocs,  from a range of institutions including Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scripps Research and University of California San Diego and a few others. This podcast will cover questions that came up from the audience for the networking. A future podcast will cover questions that came up about informational interviewing and also from the developing your brand on LinkedIn.  We hope you enjoy listening.     Jim’s best tip(s) for networking JimLauren’s best tip for networking LaurenWhat is the best way to connect with people you meet in a networking event? What is your opinion about going to vendor shows? Do you have advice on how to approach this?Advice to communicate what you are looking for from networking Is it better to contact people by using your current work/academic email address, or by your personal emailWhat about text messaging? How exactly do we “connect” with pretty much strangers? Via LinkedIn or referrals or other? How do we follow up from interactions    Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    40 min

  6. MAR 10

    Ep 97: Effectively Maximizing Your Initial Interview - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on interview advice.  In the last few months, Lauren have interviewed hundreds of people for a  variety of roles.  Some of these people are recent graduates and others are very experienced people applying for Sr. Director and VP level roles.  As she reflects on these interviews, a few themes have emerged. We thought it would be helpful to talk about these points in the podcast to help our listeners who may be interviewing. We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!    The job market is so competitive right now - if you make it to the interview stage, you are most likely one of a few people, out of hundreds or thousands of people who applied and you have been picked by the organization, since they are interested to talk with you.  They are interested to hear more about your background and experiences to see if they align with what the organization is looking for in the role you areinterviewing for.    A few mistakes we have seen  Have an answer to the question, what excites you about this role  Don’t ramble - try to keep your interview responses shorter - a few minutes Use the STAR/PAR technique Answer the question - don’t keep the interviewer guessing if you have the experience they asked about Be careful talking too fastDon’t talk over people Don’t “complain” about previous roles/companiesHave questions to ask and prepare questions relevant to the interviewer    Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    39 min

  7. MAR 3

    Ep 96: Applying to jobs, networking, and resumes - myth busting bad advice, amplifying good, and in between - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren focus on myth busting as well as amplifying good advice regarding to a few areas including applying to jobs, networking, resumes, and a few other topics. We enjoy doing these episodes to help people We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!  Advice for Job applications – Networking and getting referrals vs. cold applying Stop Relying Only on Online Applications Advice to identify other sources for roles Stop applying to everythingKnow your numbersTailor your resume to highlight the experience that’s relevant to the role you’re targeting. Don’t bury it undereverything else.Be ready to explain your story clearly.  Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice weprovide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    38 min

  8. FEB 19

    Ep 95: Learning to let go - getting out of your own way in your job search - Propelling Careers Podcast

    In this episode, Jim and Lauren provide advice for how to let things go so that you can get out of your own way during your career search. We decided to do this episode since many things can lead to candidates getting in their own way such as fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, fear of being an imposter/not being good enough, lack of control, fear of not being “ready”, fear of closing doors/opportunities, not having a process, and more. We cover points including these below. We hope you find this episode helpful and that you enjoy listening!    Let go of your application materials - don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good Let go of control in your search - lean into serendipity  Let go of things outside your control Let go of a bad job   Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School,launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.   As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!

    31 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers. This podcast provides insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences.

Information

  • Creator
    Lauren Celano
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    102
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Lauren Celano
  • Show Website
    Propelling Careers

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