I’m a member of the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) Employment Committee and participated in a AAS panel discussion about career planning in the space sciences. This discussion was aimed at undergraduates, but graduate students and postdocs (and even professors!) might find some useful kernels of wisdom.

Want the tl;dr? The key message I wanted viewers to leave with was that careers are not linear, predetermined trajectories, but rather, that they are fluid and can take you in unexpected directions if you let them. Much of the planning you should do for your career is to know what your passions and values are so that you know how to respond if an opportunity presents itself.