December Martin
Program Manager at Sofar Ocean
Why physics?
A happy accident
Born and raised in the Philippines, December worked diligently in grade school and performed well; however, she had not yet discovered her love for science. She had learned to focus on her studies to later make a living rather than to explore her passions, and she lacked scientific role models. December calls her start in physics a “happy accident”; she was accepted to a rigorous, all-scholarship high school in the Philippines where she studied several hours of science and math every day. It was at this school that December became enthralled with physics.
Finding opportunity in college
December’s rigorous high school education eased her transition to college in the U.S. Her strong physics background allowed her to immediately take on several part-time jobs without falling behind in her classes. She found that becoming part of a physics study group early in college also fueled her success. Although few physics majors were women, December felt supported in the department; she had a professor that would regularly organize dinners for women in physics, and December made lasting friendships in the group.
Throughout college, December enjoyed astrophysics, but she knew she desired a career outside academia. One night, a student club and nonprofit dedicated to supporting women in science that she was involved in organized a recruiting event for the school. Employees from a startup biotechnology company spoke about their work involving protein microchips, which sparked December’s interest. While she did not go to this event with the intention of finding a job, after their presentation, December struck up a conversation with a scientist from the company that landed her an interview and her first industry job. She says that if she had “pigeon holed” herself into doing something with physics in the title, she would have never been open to this opportunity.
Meet December
Using physics
Discovering a new passion
Years later, December moved into hardware engineering, where she helped to design and launch a medical device for monitoring HIV/AIDS in resource-limited countries. She loved being able to help people, and she was invigorated by the scientific community she worked in. “You’re surrounded by a group of people who are very accepting of integrating difficult concepts… Even if you never use [these concepts] in your career, as long as you’re training yourself to think critically, it’s not a waste of time,” December says. “This mentality is one I love and know I share with people in science.“
Outside of work, December is an avid surfer. As she began to travel internationally to pursue this hobby, she realized that she wanted to access the communities she visited at a deeper level than as a tourist. Acknowledging her enthusiasm, December’s company sponsored a service trip for her to work abroad as a writer at a cervical cancer clinic. Since then, she has volunteered in Uganda, Rwanda, and several other countries teaching science and English, supporting NGOs, and helping out however she can.
These volunteer experiences led December to become interested in a career in global development with strong social responsibility. When she hit a crossroads at her hardware engineering job, she decided to explore a new career path that would allow her to combine her passions.
Transitioning to project management
December found a job through her network, as a full-time project manager at Stryker’s Neurovascular Division. Her team was working on a device to treat brain aneurysms and stroke. Though December’s management job was much different from engineering, she still used the critical thinking skills and discipline learned through physics to quickly integrate difficult concepts and manage her large team spread across two continents. December monitored the project budget, worked with stakeholders, confirmed that regulations were being followed, and ensured that team members were performing well and were satisfied with their careers. “Being able to run projects in the medical device industry is a really nice way for me to feel like I’m feeding my soul with things I’m passionate about, while staying true to what I’m strong at,” December says.
After working for Stryker for several years, her whole life changed when her father and sister passed away from cancer within a year of each other. This turned her passion for making a difference from treating strokes to treating cancer. Looking for positions that would suit her engineering expertise landed her at a company that produces linear accelerators for radiation treatment that actively images the cancer with MRI during the dosing to make sure that the location of the radiation is as accurate as possible.
Life and career changing illness
After working on cancer treatment technology for around a year, December was diagnosed with breast cancer. While she was in the middle of treatment her company liquidated and she was laid off. After years of cancer treatment, she felt that she was ready to take a break from working in oncology and wanted to go back to one of her life long passions, the ocean. For years, she had been active in the sailing and surfing communities, but had to put those activities on the back burner during her treatment. Now with an opportunity to find a new career path she chose to apply for a Program Management position at Sofar Ocean. Sofar designs and manufactures a marine sensing platform with different sensors to help their clients monitor the state of parts of the ocean. On the surface, Sofar seems like a company that would be way outside of December’s expertise, but with all of her positions in different fields she was extremely well qualified. Her experience as a project manager and as a hardware engineer allowed her to come into the position with confidence that she could do what Sofar needs and more.
Advice for students
Allow your career dreams to change
“Do not allow yourself to be defined by the dreams that you have when you’re 20 or 25… you’re going to be a sum total of those dreams you pick up along the way,” December says. As a college student, December was unsure of the direction her career would take. Had she remained an engineer, she would not have found her current job that incorporates her passions. “The things you think you’ll end up doing as a career will always change,” she says. “You just have to trust the process.”
December emphasizes the importance of arming yourself with skills that allow you to access your passions. “Don’t apologize for the life path that you form for yourself. … if you pursue something that is important to you and feeds your soul and uses a lot of your tools in your toolbox… that’s exactly where you need to be,” she advises.
Develop strong communication skills
Careers like December’s require effective and efficient communication. December believes that although scientists need strong communication skills, the application of those skills differs from that of a project manager. December found that as a scientist, she had dedicated time to concentrate on one project, whereas now she works with a large team on various topics, and she has to communicate very quickly. “An engineer could talk to me for three hours at the end of the day, I could distill it into one salient sentence… that kind of skill is important,” she says. December also participated in speech contests through Toastmasters International to work on honing that skill.
Be self-aware
When looking for new jobs or opportunities it is important to be self aware. December shared that later in her career, after gaining a lot of experience as a project manager, she was still surprised by how qualified she had become. Recognizing her qualifications opened doors for her because she had the confidence to share her skills with employers. December also pointed out that the other side of understanding your skillset is knowing the gaps that you need to fill.
Being self aware also allows you to find opportunities that would have otherwise been hidden. By knowing what you enjoy, want, and are capable of and then sharing that confidently with people, you’ll have more amazing things come your way.