photo credit: CCRM
I spent over a decade (12.5 years to be exact) getting university degrees in life sciences. Let’s also not forget the 4.5 years I spent as a post-doctoral fellow. All told, I have 17 years of experience as an academic trainee. When I finally decided to make the jump from academia to industry, I was faced with the daunting challenge of moving into a world where, honestly, I had very little experience.
I’m often asked for advice on how to successfully make this transition and I find my linear, precise, scientist-brain struggles to formulate a clear answer. That’s because there isn’t one. In my experience, this is a messy process where you will stop and start and make mistakes. Above all, this process will be fundamentally different for each person. While my experience of leaving academia and starting a new career in Business Operations is unique to me, here I’ll share what I consider to be general truths that might provide some guidance to trainees at any stage of their career looking to make a similar transition.
Want to find a job in industry and don’t know where to start? Congratulations, you just got a new research project
This should be good news to a smart, hard-working academic like yourself, right? If you are a person, like me, who had no formal business training, the first step will be understanding the career paths available in industry and determining if they are a fit. You should approach this as a research project since it will take as much time and energy as anything you are doing as part of your studies.
Unfortunately, there is no textbook for this and the information you need will not be readily available through a Google search. You can start by looking at job descriptions for positions that match your interests. Try finding job descriptions that are not publicly available, but this is easier said than done. One way of getting to this type of information is through a mentor who is generous enough to share their job descriptions or others they have gathered.
As much as you turn your research efforts outwards, you should also turn them inwards. Learning about your personal style, strengths and weaknesses will guide you to the right career path. This is the beginning of establishing a toolbox of professional development skills that you will use throughout your career.
Graduate training, in my experience, did not offer any significant opportunities to do this type of work so, more than likely, you will have to do it yourself. The Myers-Briggs and DiSC personality tests are two of the most common tools used to provide insights into personal style. You can start by trying free online versions of these tests.
Learning about my personal style was so eye-opening that I would recommend making a small investment in working with a professional like a career coach to complete this before you start making decisions about your career path.
People are your best resource
The best way to learn about potential career paths in industry is to talk to the people in those jobs. Academic training makes us adept at independent study and instils a strong sense of self-reliance. It is sometimes challenging to change this mindset and begin the process of reaching out to others.
If this feels hard or uncomfortable, that’s because it is! In the beginning you won’t know who to engage or how. Slowly you will build confidence at networking and the all-important informational interview. These are topics that are worth their own blog posts, so I won’t go into detail here. (Ed: Nicole is right and hopefully she’ll write that blog one day. In the meantime, we’ve previously shared a video about networking that might help you get started.) However, there are a few guiding principles to keep in mind as you take the first steps in building your professional network.
First, experiment with ways to make new connections and don’t be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone. Try a networking event, investigate joining a professional association, participate in a mentorship program, ask people you know to make introductions. It may take many attempts to connect with the right individuals who are willing to help you.
Second, as you experiment with making new professional connections, be aware that you can both gain and lose personal capital in this process. Every interaction is an opportunity to make a good impression by being professional, courteous and respectful of people’s time. You can just as easily lose personal capital by making gaffs that are simply a result of inexperience. For example, if you set up a coffee chat with a professional in your field of interest, one of the keys to building personal capital is the post-meeting follow up. You might shy away from sending a follow-up email for fear it might seem annoying. Quite the contrary! Following up with someone who was willing to give you time out of their busy schedule shows you are respectful of their time and that you are interested in building a relationship. Even better, if you are able to report back on some actions that came out of your meeting, it shows that you took their advice and that the time they spent with you had a positive outcome.
Finally, do your best to remain unbiased as you learn about the experiences of others. For instance, when someone tells you something negative about what you thought was your dream job, listen to them. They are giving you valuable information that you can’t find anywhere else and it could save you from making the wrong career decisions.
Define your pathway early
While it may be true that it’s never too late to pivot from one career path to another, the longer you wait the harder this transition will be. Your experience and network are some of the biggest factors in your career success.
Part of changing career paths is building your base of experience and connections from the ground up, again. This is particularly important when you are weighing the decision to pursue academics or get a job in industry. Obtaining a PhD can take anywhere from 4-8 years depending on where you complete your studies and how unlucky or lucky you are in terms of picking a successful research project. In fairness, an 8-year PhD is rare, but it happens. In planning your studies, you must account for the time it will take to write, defend and complete revisions to your thesis, which can take up to a year. Submitting job applications before you have defended your thesis is tricky, and many employers will be hesitant to consider you seriously until you have some certainty around your graduation date.
While having a PhD can be useful in industry, it may not be a pre-requisite in your industry and it is worth figuring this out early. If you’re not sure, don’t be afraid to take some time off to answer these questions.
For those in the life sciences, there has never been a better time to make the jump from academia to industry. Cell and gene therapies are at an inflection point and the critical importance of biomanufacturing has been brought to light by the global pandemic. Companies are hiring all over the place – including here.
Despite such promise, your pathway to a job in industry may still seem uncertain in comparison to the more well-travelled paths of graduate and professional school. Don’t let his stop you. A little bit of risk and some hard work can lead you to a promising career that was always there, you just didn’t know it.
Nicole Kuchinsky
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