In response to evolving interests, unexpected opportunities, and local challenges, I began—approximately 15 years ago—to pursue a series of transdisciplinary collaborations. These efforts have included: (1) co-founding, scaling, and ultimately selling (11 years later) an educational technology company with an I-O psychologist and two entrepreneurs; (2) developing multidisciplinary, international research collaborations focused on meaningful work, work as a calling, and human flourishing; (3) joining a predominantly European, multidisciplinary team that recently established a new research subdiscipline, spiritual knowledge management; (4) transitioning to a faculty position in an I-O psychology doctoral program embedded within the interdisciplinary field of occupational health; and (5) leading a large-scale, multi-institutional study of vocation, calling, and purpose involving students, faculty, staff, and administrators across 36 small, independent liberal arts colleges in the United States.
Collectively, these experiences have yielded significant intellectual richness, unexpected friendships, an expanded scholarly perspective, and opportunities to engage with new research literatures and academic communities. At the same time, sustained transdisciplinary engagement has introduced distinctive challenges, including professional identity ambiguity, a persistent outsider status, and reduced depth of relational and intellectual investment within my home subdiscipline. The presentation will close with reflections on lessons learned from transdisciplinary work, including the necessity of accepting opportunity costs, balancing breadth with depth of influence, and discerning the career-stage timing most conducive to such engagement.