Career Arcs WG members presented our paper “Understanding Factors that Influence Research Computing and Data Careers” at the PEARC22 conference in Boston. The paper was awarded Best Full Paper, Workforce Development, Training, Diversity, and Education, as well as the Phil Andrews award, granted to a manuscript deemed to be the most impactful in practice of research computing. See also the University of Central Florida post and the CI Compass post.
The primary objective of this research was to identify factors that attract professionals into the field of research computing and data, factors that influence their career advancements or changes within the RCD field, and factors that cause them to leave and pursue other fields.
This work is part of a larger project to describe different possible paths for RCD roles, and to help hiring managers recruit and retain people in these roles. In the next phase of our work, we are looking to gather deeper individual narratives through a series of interviews of RCD professionals in various phases of their RCD career journeys. Our hope is that these narratives will illuminate possibilities for individuals considering or already in RCD careers, as well as helping hiring managers understand fruitful domains and populations for recruitment.