Alumni Spotlight: Kriti Jain

HBS alum, Kriti Jain (PhD '18), reflects on leveraging the power of collaboration, landing a postgraduate career opportunity, and managing a $22 million portfolio of research projects in her current role at the Administration for Children and Families. 

As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kriti Jain traveled to India and Kenya to participate in a series of public health intervention projects. It was then when she discovered her passion for addressing the social and behavioral aspects of health.

While conducting field work in India, Jain began applying to MSPH programs. Drawn to the broad expertise and breadth of opportunities at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Jain matriculated into the Department of International Health's MSPH program in 2009. She received a Global Health Scholarship from the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health to fund her studies.

After earning her MSPH, Jain worked in international women’s health, balancing evaluation and project management for a fifteen-country program. She then joined the Department of Health, Behavior and Society for two years, collaborating on a multi-site project aimed at connecting people with HIV to ongoing medical care. Later, Jain matriculated into HBS’s PhD program in Social and Behavioral Sciences. She graduated in 2018.

Now a social science research analyst, Jain spoke with HBS Stories about landing a postgraduate opportunity, leveraging the power of collaboration, and managing a $22 million portfolio of research projects as an employee at the Administration for Children and Families.

You’re currently a social science research analyst with the Administration for Children and Families. What are the major components of your position?

In essence, what I do is design and oversee research studies. I manage a $22 million portfolio of different research projects. When someone – a contracting firm or a researcher – gives me a data analysis plan or data collection plan, my job is to review that plan and work closely with them to make sure it runs smoothly.

Every year, I’m also responsible for organizing a day-long meeting on a new research method. For example, we just finished a meeting looking at core components of programs. Last year we talked about open science, how sharing and collaboration across researchers can move knowledge generation forward.

Additionally, I work on evaluations of the National Domestic Violence Hotline and its companion, love is respect, analyzing how well they can respond to the needs of their clients.

How has COVID shaped your day-to-day work experience?

Fortunately, my office did a lot of work from home prior to March. We were already pretty set up to include people who were virtual, so transitioning to working from home was pretty seamless. My office is super supportive and put things in place to help people stay connected.

Although my day-to-day schedule isn’t that different, our research designs have really changed dramatically. We’re largely working with communities that have lower incomes and have been particularly hard-hit by the COVID pandemic.

Folks haven’t been able to get in touch with research participants as easily. People can’t follow up in person or do surveys in person, so there has been a lot of adapting our research designs and asking and answering new questions.

What aspects of your role do you find most rewarding?

One thing I really appreciate about the role is the opportunity to innovate. I have a chance to do a lot of big-picture thinking – strategizing best approaches for research contracts and analyzing ways to make those happen. I enjoy coming up with topics for methods meetings and thinking about how we’re going to complete them and share our information.

I get to produce a variety of materials, not just reports and briefs, but visual snapshots and videos to share our research results with a more mainstream audience – not just an audience of researchers. I’ve found that really exciting.

Getting to work with and meet experts in different fields has been really great. I get to meet leading researchers in so many areas – from relationship education to domestic violence.

I also think there have been a lot of growth opportunities. I’ve been able to take on so many new responsibilities, and I really appreciate having so many career tracks and trajectories available.

What are some challenges you’ve faced in your position?

I think one challenge is that I’m not doing as much of the work myself. I’m not analyzing data. I’m not collecting data. I’m not in contact with participants. I’m not as close to it. I think that making that transition was a bit of a challenge.

I think a lot of folks really need that to feel connected in order to be satisfied. For me, I think that’s changed with time. Sometimes, though, I still worry about feeling too disconnected and what that means. That’s one downside is to a job like mine; we can be pretty removed from the programs that we are evaluating.

How did you land your current role?

As someone interested in a career as a federal employee, I made an intentional effort to familiarize myself with students who ended up outside academia. There were a couple other HBS alumni with similar doctoral training who had ended up at the Administration for Children and Families. As a student, I had familiarized myself with the work they were doing, and I found out about the role when one of the alums shared a job posting with HBS.

You mentioned that you knew earlier on in your program that you weren’t sure if you wanted to go into academia. What was that decision like, and what factors influenced your choice?

I think when I started the doctoral program, I knew I wanted to do one of two things: go into academia or become a federal employee and work on research from a federal side. Working in academia meant moving every few years, and that wasn’t something I felt like I could do.

I think it came down to lifestyle factors. I think I would have been equally happy being an academic researcher. I think I would have been happy with either role itself, but I think some of the contextual factors for this type of role outweighed the other.

Reflecting on your own career journey, what advice to you have for current students and new graduates?

In terms of general advice for students, I would recommend a writing accountability group or “WAG.” My advisor, Danielle German, introduced me to a group of people working on similar research topics and using similar research methods. We met every Wednesday night for our “Wednesday night WAG.” We’d spend a couple hours talking about and reflecting on what we were going to do. We read drafts of each other’s papers and shared code, contacts, and details about events we’d gone to. Then we’d get drinks after. Not only was it really fun, but it just made everything so much easier!

For HBS folks looking for career advice, especially federal careers, I’m happy to do informational interviews with them. I would really suggest students take advantage of informational interviews. They can be intimidating, but you don’t need to be afraid of them. Speaking for myself, I’m generally happy to do interviews with people who reach out to me on LinkedIn to request one. A lot of people did that for me, and I feel like it’s my opportunity to pay it forward.

This interview has been edited and compressed.