Having Both Career and Family Is Possible Posted on December 3, 2007 Noreen Reilly-Harrington (bio) points out the scheduling flexibility available in a research career.

I think it’s very important for women entering the field of psychology or psychiatry to have mentors that have been able to balance family life and their career. And for me personally it's been very rewarding to have both aspects of family life and career life as part of my life. And I have three little boys, and I also have a very rewarding and rich career.

And I think one of the benefits of going into a career in research is that it can be flexible. And I think it’s very important to find a work environment where you can achieve that flexibility. Certainly if you see patients your scheduling can be your own, you can schedule your hours, and now with computer and Internet and conference calls you can actually have some flexibility in terms of being able to do some work from home.

I think it's an important message for young people, men and women, to realize that certainly it can be challenging to balance both a career and a family, but it certainly can be done, and I think this type of a career lends itself actually fairly well to having both aspects in your life.

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