Embracing Non-Linear Career Paths: Professor Martin Gaynor

(Guest) Editor Note: Martin Gaynor, the Lester A. Hamburg University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, was recently honored with the Victor R. Fuchs Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Health Economics by the American Society of Health Economists.  His response (shared with his permission) was both striking and magnificent, emphasizing the contingency of his career path, and acknowledging the many different ways things might have turned out.  I’ve previously discussed in TR both contingency and success narratives (see also here), and I am delighted to share Professor Gaynor’s perspective with TR readers. – David Shaywitz

Martin Gaynor, On Receiving Award for Lifetime Contribution to Health Economics

Martin Gaynor, Lester A. Hamburg University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University

Obviously, I’m very pleased at this recognition, but I’m sharing this for other reasons.

First, many have the impression that people who have been successful professionally have walked a straight path – got the right degree, right first job, succeeded right away…. That’s true of some, but many have traveled a far more circuitous route – that’s certainly true of me.

I left grad school in 1981 with my dissertation unfinished, and held 5 jobs in the next 7 years, including getting fired from one for not having my dissertation done. After 5 years I was out of academia, with only one publication in a minor scientific journal.

It took me a long time to mature as a researcher and to figure things out professionally. I got some lucky breaks and was fortunate to connect with smart, supportive people in the places I was and things eventually came together.

The point is that not everyone is successful right away, and some people get off to a slow start, but that doesn’t determine eventual professional achievement.

Second, there are a lot of ways to have a successful professional career. I’ve greatly enjoyed academia, but I could have been very happy and fulfilled working in government or for a research or consulting firm. I’ve worked in those settings and there are really smart, dedicated people doing important work there that makes a difference in real time (unlike most of what is done in academia).

When I was finishing grad school and going on the job market what I really wanted was a job at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica. They had folks doing awesome research and people played volleyball on the beach at lunch (I think the latter may have been most of the source of my interest). If I’d gotten a job offer from them I might still be there, and be very happy about it.

Third, the most important achievements any of us will have are our relationships with other people. Family, friends, community – those relationships are more meaningful and have much longer lasting impacts than what we do professionally.