8 Ways to Nail a Job Interview
How My Year of Pounding p. 13
the Pavement Paid Off
A S P EC I A L PU B L I CAT IO N FRO M
p. 24
ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY H O W T O S T U DY U P, S TA N D O U T A N D G E T A J O B
INSIDE JOB:
Biostatistician
p. 26
I N D U S T RY R O U N DTA B L E
Top R&D Leaders from Dow, Eli Lilly Tell All p. 28
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From the Editor ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY
I
recently had one of those serendipitous overlaps of personal and professional life that reminded me that lessons are around us all the time—if only we lift our gaze to see them.
At the office, I was puzzling over ways to address participant questions generated by our popular AAAS CareerWebinar, “Working in Industry.” Our panel of expert presenters had addressed many concerns, but there were still many students and early-career STEM professionals struggling to learn how to retrofit their academic training to be competitive in industry. How could we offer them frontline guidance on such a wide topic? That weekend, I happened to take an orienteering workshop at a local state park—a sport that involves competitive trekking through unknown terrain with just a compass and a map. I tromped off through the brush and easily located the first two control points—or markers—but somewhere between a beech grove and a stream that wasn’t on the map, I began wandering in unplotted directions. I did a quick mental rundown of orienteering basics: study your map, orient your compass, decide on an attack point, identify major geographic features, locate your control sites, race to the finish. As I flipped my map sideways (duh), everything instantly came right again. The landscape had recognizable
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contours. No competitors in sight. Attack point located, and off I sped. Back at the office, it occurred to me that industry job hunting is a lot like orienteering. For people trained in academic settings, it requires a new set of tools to get your bearings. You need to know your abilities, stave off competition, and have an end point in sight. And most importantly, you have to be a little intrepid about negotiating uneven terrain. Orienteering For Industry is a practical, tactical guide to help you reorient for industry. You’ll find advice from leading industry experts, top recruiters, and innovators who are shaping the face of R&D. You’ll also hear from ordinary scientists, engineers, and technologists who acquired their skills “in the thickets,” by simply jumping into the learn-as-you-earn environment of industry. We hope this guide gives you insight and confidence to pursue an exciting career in industry—no matter how unfamiliar the landscape. Happy trekking! Sincerely,
Selby Frame Assistant Commercial Editor, AAAS sframe@aaas.org
CONTENTS
February 2015
4 Orienteering for a Successful Career in Industry By Selby Frame
6 Notes From a Recruiter’s Playbook on Industry Job Searching By Dave Jensen
9 Pros and Cons of Industry 10 Biotech Pioneer Builds Startup With Smarts … and a Great Postdoc: Q&A with Elisabet de los Pinos
“ I always ask this one question when I recruit: Do you think you’re lucky? And if they say ‘normal,’ then I don’t recruit them.” Page 10
By Selby Frame
13 8 Ways to Nail an Industry Job Interview By Carrie Madren
14 Strategies for Bridging the Academia-Industry Gap By Summer Allen
16 Working as an Early-Career Industrial Chemist By Eric Null
18 The Savvy Job Hunter
Elisabet de los Pinos, CEO, Aura Bioscience
By Carrie Madren
22 Should Scientists Be Programmers Too? By Summer Allen
24 How My Year of Pounding the Pavement Paid Off By Carl Rios
26 Biostatistics: Where Big Data Meets Bioscience
Publisher:
Ian King
Editor:
Selby Frame
Art Director:
Tzeitel Sorrosa
Editorial Contributors: Summer Allen, Brad Hooker, Dave Jensen, Carrie Madren, Eric Null, Carl Rios Special Thanks: Toby Freedman, Tianna Hicklin, Peggy Mihelich, Allison Pritchard, Julianne Wielga, Bill Zimmer
By Brad Hooker
28 Industry Roundtable: Leaders in Industry Compare Notes On the Jobs of the Future
“Orienteering for Industry: How to Study Up, Stand Out and Get a Job” is a publication of AAAS MemberCentral. For more expert career advice— including webinars, blogs, member profiles, and videos, visit us at membercentral.aaas.org.
© 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Orienteering for a
Successful Career
in Industry By Selby Frame
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N
ot too long ago, scientists who pursued careers in industry were ostracized by many of their academic colleagues. But as industry and academia have become more entwined, and tenure-track positions dry up, the scramble is now on for jobs in industry, government and the private sector. Because training pipelines are producing more STEM professionals than most sectors can handle, many graduates hoping to enter industry find themselves in hyper-competition for jobs—made worse by slowdowns and downsizing in several major industries, including pharmaceuticals. This glut of workers in the market is prompting an increasing number of Ph.D.-trained scientists to leave research altogether. But many industry experts insist the jobs are there for the taking—if you take the time to learn the different rules and goals of industry and open your mind to the zigs and zags a commercial career often can take. “Just jump in and start working,” urges Toby Freedman, Ph.D., president of Synapsis Search recruiting and author of the comprehensive job hunting guide, “Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development.” “There are many more jobs than people are aware of,” she says. “Find a niche, an area where there’s demand that interests you, that you’re good at, and grow from there. Staring at your navel doesn’t help you. People move around in industry.” What does “working in industry” actually mean? An industrial engineer could cite everything from manufacturing-process optimization to business systems to wind-energy production. A chemist might highlight multidisciplinary biochemical research. A microbiologist could as easily qualify for roles in business development as for bench projects bringing new medications to market—depending on their skills. The main hurdle early-career job seekers face is in translating their linear, academic training into the broad skills needed for industry—and then determining where they fit in. “Typically, it’s not the science that will help them move into industry, it’s actually the transferable skills they have utilized in their research,” notes Christopher Taylor, associate director of the Center for Professional Development & Entrepreneurship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. “We use the concept of professional DNA,” he adds. “Every person has their own set of skills and experience, education and core values that make up who they are. By really understanding themselves, they can understand what roles and career options are going to fit for them.” One mistake that new job hunters often make is to think too narrowly about what they have to offer—and
to neglect to research the kinds of roles available for someone with their skills. “You have to repackage and rebrand yourself by taking inventory of your skills and analyzing the different functional roles out there,” insists Taylor. “It’s like doing a literature review: Go to aggregators like Indeed and Glassdoor and look at the job listings to understand not only what the title is, but what the actual responsibilities and roles are. LinkedIn is another tremendous resource for gaining insight on what the industry is looking for.” In a perfect world, this kind of advising and cross-training for industry would be an integrated part of higher education. It is, in fact, becoming more of the norm at universities with industry ties—excellent examples include UCSF, Carnegie Mellon, Washington University, UPenn, Wake Forest and MD Anderson. But in large measure, it is up to the individual to orienteer for a career in industry. A great way to begin to get your footing is to research leading sectors, as well as organizational types. As with much in industry, these distinctions aren’t standardized. The field of medical devices and diagnostics, for instance, has long been known for fast-paced innovation in hardware, but the rise of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine is blurring traditional categorization. The shape and size of industry also is changing, especially given the downsizing of biopharma in recent years. Contract research organizations (CROs) are now playing a critical role in drug development, particularly as new biotechs operate with virtual, or minimal labs, in order to keep R&D expenses low. According to the Association of Clinical Research Organizations, CROs generated an estimated $21.1 billion in revenues in 2013—nearly a third of drug development spending. Just as academia has its progressions from postdoc to assistant, associate then full professor, an industry scientist can expect to advance through successively challenging roles. It’s a learn-as-you-earn environment. “You can’t just jump in,” notes Toby Freedman. “To be truly successful you have to be progressive. There’s no one way to do this, but generally if you start as a Scientist I, you then become Scientist II, Group Leader, Associate Director, Director, Senior Director, Associate VP, VP, Senior VP. It takes five to seven years for a promotion. If you’re starting in industry in your 40s or 50s, it’s a bit late.” In spite of the hurdles, STEM professionals currently working in industry extol the benefits of a team-oriented workplace, the excitement of bringing new products to market, and the opportunities for new job-growth areas. “I went into industry because it’s loftier,” Freedman says. “You’re working toward a higher goal, not just adding to the very large body of knowledge that’s out there in academia. You’re going a step further to actually make something that can have an effect, that can help people. That’s a giant impact.” §
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Notes from a recruiter s playbook on Industry Job Searching ,
A conversation with Dave Jensen, Managing Director at Kincannon & Reed From the AAAS MemberCentral webinar, Working in Industry
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The world of academia and the world of industry are so different, and you know what? They operate by different rulebooks.
You will find some open positions advertised, but just a percentage of them. There’s going to be a tremendous amount of open positions that are just not visible. In fact, it’s probably 60 percent hidden jobs that you can’t find on the Net, and 40 percent that are advertised.
For example, you go to the industry job search and it will say, “Apply at company website.” You go to the academic job search and the ad says, “Send this set of documents to the hiring committee and we’ll get back to you.” In academia, you can’t break those rules. In the case of industry, if they say,“Apply on the company website,” I always chuckle because what is the absolute worst way to find a job in industry? Applying at the company website. It’s at the bottom of the list.
I’m going to clue you into something: All the competition for these jobs is lined up at the front door, which in most cases is their website. But companies have their side doors wide open! Use them. The way you find jobs in the hidden network is by networking. You might start up by contacting friends and acquaintances, but you’ll move rapidly beyond that. Networking is an investment in learning how others made their transition.
Learn New Rules So “rulebreakers” succeed in industry but they don’t succeed in academia. Scientists need to understand that the world of job searching is not fair. It’s completely one-on-one competition, and you’re not trained for this. The most qualified scientist doesn’t always get the job offer. It goes back to the fact that these job market rules are completely different between the world of academia and industry. And you just don’t learn about those rules during your graduate studies. Your professor probably told you during your graduate studies: “Don’t worry about anything else. Just do good science, good science will always sell itself.” Of course companies want great scientists. But what’s the worstcase example for a recruiter like me? I send a scientist to an interview and they forget that it does require a little bit of selling on interview day, and, unfortunately, they end up at the bottom of that company’s list. The first thing you find is that you’ve left the world of collaboration behind. You’ve entered the world of competition, and this is a major choke point for a lot of people. When you enter the job search, all that friendly discussion you had with the Journal Club, and going out for a beer with your colleagues in the lab—it’s all gone. This is a dog-eat-dog world of competition, and some people make that transition and others don’t.
Find the Side Door The way you find out about these rules in use outside of academia is by talking to other people. That’s really the core of your job search—talking to other people, reading other people’s experience on websites. Visit the ScienceCareers.org Science Careers Forum. You find that this OPE (Other People’s Experiences as I call it) is the essence of networking. It’s the essence of informational interviewing. And in order to really succeed in the job search process, you have to get out of the comfort zone. You’ve got to get away from your computer and break out into real life, which takes place in meetings with people, in live conversations, both formal and informal.
“The first thing you find is that you’ve left the world of collaboration behind ... and entered the world of competition. ” If you’re a bachelor’s or master’s-level graduate, then perhaps you’ll have an easier time of it because more of those jobs are advertised, but for Ph.D.’s, you’re not going to find lots of Ph.D. positions advertised. The way that you actually find those jobs is by accessing a different tool, and that is, of course, networking.
Try Peer + 2 Networking A key lesson in networking is that you never ask for a job unless that person is indeed a good friend. After some time, you can ask about jobs—but in those first critical minutes, don’t give them an excuse to send you to HR. Once you get transferred to Human Resources, you’re going to have to go through the whole process of being one piece of paper in that giant cog. So let’s talk about what kind of networking works best. I call it Peer + 2 networking. It’s the process of talking to someone who is just a year or two ahead of you, someone who is going to have a lot more empathy for your situation, someone who will remember what it’s like because they came through that same process. Did you ever try and reach a vice president of research to do a “networking call?” That is tough. When you reach your Peer + 2, you’re going to ask how they did it, how their transition to industry occurred. Ask them what it’s like to work for XYZ Company. Ask them what their process was all about, because people don’t mind talking about themselves—as long as you don’t ask for a job. The funny part about it is, companies will incentivize their people for you to actually make contact with them. In 90 percent of companies there’s a little addition at the end of the year for benefits called “referral bonuses.”
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When someone who they have referred to the company gets an opportunity to work for that company, then the person who referred them gets a nice bonus in their paycheck.
Plan to Succeed So, how do you succeed in an environment where it’s ultra-competitive? You need a plan. And you’re likely to need a Plan B as well. Maybe Plan A is defined as an assistant professor position in a tenure track, but, boy, you’re going to need that Plan B because perhaps only one out of five or six will actually make that Plan A happen.
ScienceCareers.org
Another good thing to think about is to carefully sneak in some self-promotion, which is a sort of disgusting-sounding term when you think about it. It sounds like salespeople from a used car lot. But this is really a time when you have to talk a little bit about yourself. Just to give you one example: When I ask academically oriented scientists to tell me about themselves, they’ll always use the “we” word. “In the Smith lab here at the U, we do work with nitrogen fixing bacteria.” Well, that’s fine. Everyone wants to see that you’re part of a team and that you’re a collaborator. But when you’re out in the interview process, you need to talk about yourself in a positive manner, and you need to use the word “I.” I think each job seeker needs to have a good selection of those “I do this,” statements. Use the academic “we” much more sparingly. As you move into an industry job search, don’t approach it with lots of preconceived notions from academia, because the world of industry is subtly different. Build your network all the time, not just when you are job seeking. And learn how to talk professionally to people about your strengths. That’s critical. Dave Jensen is a recruiter and leading speaker and author on topics related to careers in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He writes the monthly career tips and techniques column, “Tooling Up,” for Science Careers and is the founder and moderator of the AAAS Science Careers Discussion Forum. §
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Learn more and don’t let your job search leave you washed up. § § § § §
Search thousands of job postings Create job alerts based on your criteria Get career advice from our Career Forum experts Download career advice articles and webinars Complete an individual development plan at “myIDP”
Target your job search using relevant resources on ScienceCareers.org.
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+
of Working in Industry + More robust financial resources for materials and technology, particularly in large companies that can conduct science on a large scale. + Satisfaction of knowing your work is part of direct efforts to help individuals and society. + A sense of community, being part of a team working toward the same goal. + Hours are more structured, allowing for more work-family balance. + Exposure to many disciplines and opportunities to learn new skills. + Researchers often have the option of returning to work in academic settings if they choose, especially if they continue to publish. + Can see tangible results of your work. + Salaries are competitive and sometimes include stock options. + Good managerial skills are appreciated and well-rewarded.
- Can’t always investigate areas that interest you. - Relinquish control of strategic decisions regarding your project, including deadlines, or even whether it gets scrapped. - Less individual freedom: Your time and tasks are intermeshed with a team and you may be asked to work in areas outside your comfort zone. - Less job security, particularly with trends toward outsourcing. Young biotech companies and discovery research are particularly vulnerable. - The regulatory environment is strict and requires you to follow many rules and processes. - Organizational structures can be frustrating—high-levels of bureaucracy in larger corporations and fewer infrastructural supports in smaller ones. - Less public recognition, since competition and patent considerations may prevent you from being able to share data or publish your work.
Source: Adapted from “Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development,” by Toby Freedman, Ph.D.
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ELISABET
DE LOS PINOS
§ Ph.D., molecular biology, University of Barcelona Photographs by Patricia McCarthy
§ MBA, IE Business School, Spain § Postdoctoral fellowship, Institute of Cancer Research, London § MIT Entrepreneurship Program graduate § Prior to founding Aura Bioscience, de los Pinos worked at Eli Lilly’s Oncology Business Unit
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B IOTECH P IONEER
Builds a Startup with Smarts and a Great Postdoc Q&A with Elisabet de los Pinos, CEO and founder, Aura Bioscience
vaccine, so he knew what to do, how to bring a product from the bench to the bedside.
Molecular biologist Elisabet de los Pinos was just 37 when she had the novel idea to use viral proteins to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to tumor cells—to enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxic side effects of traditional chemotherapies. To sound out her theory, she turned to the world’s top virologists, who encouraged her to develop the technology.
SF: Where did you go for startup funds and how are you continuing to attract investors?
She raised $4 million from angel investors to get Aura Biosciences up and running, and carved out a spot in Boston’s booming biotech hub. But to actually set up her lab, she turned to someone perhaps unexpected— a postdoc. De los Pinos, who recently won the prestigious World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer award, spoke with AAAS Assistant Editor Selby Frame about growing a startup from the ground up and the vital role of postdocs and early-career scientists in bringing innovative, lifesaving products to market. Selby Frame: Tell me a bit about the evolution of your idea. Elisabet de los Pinos: I felt that we (the medical industry) had an arsenal of really good cancer drugs and if we could deliver them better we would have more effective treatments for patients. Using viral proteins was something novel. We knew that some viruses were associated with tumors and that some actually created tumors—so the association between virus and tumors had always been there, but no one had approached it to create a first-in-class targeted cancer therapy. I had no technology when I started incubating the idea, so I started with a few viruses and selected several groups that were working on new technologies—in Germany, France, the UK and U.S. Ultimately we had to choose one virus to work with as a startup. We screened with different academics and found that John Schiller’s work with papilloma viruses and viral prophylactic vaccines at the U.S. National Cancer Institute was the most reliable and had the best data. John had been the first to develop a cancer
EP: I leveraged a network I had built through my career and as a student to pull together a syndicate of private investors: a network that spanned professors, colleagues and mentors, and people I met through my time at the MIT Entrepreneurship program and during the MIT business plan competition. It’s never too early in your career, or as a student, to start thinking about building your network and continuously expanding it. Become part of entrepreneurial and professional organizations early on to expand your network, participate in business plan competitions and seek the right mentor. SF: Is it true that you worked primarily with a postdoc to put your company together? EP: Yes! The key person who was most important was one of the postdocs in John Schiller’s lab, Dr. Rhonda Kines, who actually moved to Boston to help me build our lab. She was amazing because she was one of the few people with the know-how of the technology and a top scientific background. I had her with me so I could focus on the business and she could do the science. She helped me establish the lab, get the contracts. She trained the first scientist. To run a company you need a mix of people with different expertise and with entrepreneurial skills—who are not afraid, who are not going to go to a corporate job right away after their Ph.D. This was great science that was developed in my lab, so I think she said, “I’m going to jump to this startup and see what will happen.” SF: Do you think startups are a good option for recent grads who want industry experience? EP: There are many ways someone with a Ph.D. or postdoc can transition from academia to industry and the startup ecosystem is fantastic for that. This type of profile of the scientist who moves from a pure
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academic career to an early-stage business or startup is something that should happen more and more. And, you know, big pharma loves these profiles, because they have the entrepreneurial drive and the ability to solve problems. SF: On the downside, well over 50 percent of startups fail. Is it wise to cut your teeth on a job you might only have for a couple of years? EP: That’s true. But regardless, I think the experience they have—even if it fails—it’s much, much better than just being a part of a well-established organization that trains you in a very specific part of a big process. You have very little creativity or involvement in the big picture. I would encourage many more scientists to create more of these ecosystems, back and forth, where there is not a fixed career but there’s movement between one and the other. It keeps you better skilled for the future. SF: When you interview someone, what makes you say this is someone I want to hire? EP: I always ask this one question when I recruit: Do you think you’re lucky? And if they say, “normal,” then I don’t recruit them. But if they say, “I’m so lucky, because …,” I hire them. Because lucky people are usually happy people who can help solve problems. They are selfconfident and at the same time humble. The best thing is to have someone with a variety of skills—not a single one—then they have the possibility to move or evolve in their roles as the company grows. SF: You’ve said that you don’t have to run a company like a male CEO. How do you run yours in a way that you think is distinctively your own? EP: For me, I hate hierarchy. I don’t impose roles but I ask everyone to give the best. I obviously have to develop timelines and sometimes apply pressure, but it’s more of a teambuilding effort. I am a first-time CEO and I have hired people who are so much better than me, who have much more experience and who come with amazing backgrounds in different companies. So it’s difficult to rule them like you know everything. I have to rely on their experience to contribute to the overall goal of the company. SF: Nanodrugs are being called “magic bullets” in cancer chemotherapy. Where does your class of nanoparticles fit into the picture of new drug-delivery innovations? EP: I think that the field is still young but it certainly has a lot of potential and will be an important new class of drugs moving forward. We create pseudovirions, which are synthetic viruses similar in structure and behavior to wild viruses but lacking in viral DNA—just empty protein shells. The most important thing is that it has two components: The delivery alone doesn’t do anything and the drug alone has too many toxicities or does not
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have enough activity. So when you combine it, you have a strong drug to move forward that is more targeted, has better tolerability and optimal efficacy. There are a few other companies that use a delivery based on polymers and they have gone faster into the clinic, but we are the only ones using a (pseudo) viral delivery that we know of. Our data are looking extremely positive, so we will hopefully have a first-in-class when we move to the clinic next year. SF: What’s your advice for students preparing for careers in biopharma? EP: Ideally, to be a scientist with broad experience, instead of working in a silo or defined subject for very long. To get some business experience in combination with science is great, and that can be done in working. One thing is to publish papers and the other is to bring drugs to patients. To bring drugs to patients you need as many different capabilities as you can think of. It’s not a bad idea to jump from one to the other. Sometimes we have been negative about “jumpers,” but no, having a broad base of experience when you are young is fantastic. §
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Be truthf ul, but tac tful. Ask smart questions! ways to Nail an industry
Job Interview
A successful job interview starts long before you walk in the door. If you do your homework and follow a few basic rules, you’ll boost your odds of getting a job. By Carrie Madren
Know yourself.
Be truthful, but tactful.
Promote your technical expertise, but be prepared to talk confidently in detail about anything listed on your resume or CV—even if it was years ago. Be prepared to demonstrate at least one project where you led others and one where you demonstrated strong technical skills. Be able to articulate your value and demonstrate your knowledge of the company by showing them how you will contribute.
Never misrepresent your credentials, history or current salary, as background checks are commonplace. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t make something up. Truthfulness is especially important in industry because employers need to know that they can trust you to be transparent and thorough in your scientific work and discreet about proprietary information.
Turn on the charm.
Ask smart questions.
While your knowledge and skills got your foot in the door, interviewers will be evaluating how you might fit into their existing teams, so be personable and flexible. One of the biggest things you’ll be evaluated on is whether you’re a good fit. That means blending in but also letting your personality serve as an asset to the group. “Be the person everyone wants to work with,” says Connie White, head of college programs at Genentech.
When it’s your turn to ask the questions, pose a thoughtful question to every person you interview with, advises White, who suggests preparing four questions in advance and expecting to ask two. “You can learn something from everybody.” Don’t focus on vacation or work-life balance, rather, focus on the company’s needs. Try to discern why they are hiring for the position, what your priorities would be, and the part you would play in driving results for their company.
Do your homework. When you’re researching the company, the products and the industry, make sure you also look into the backgrounds and working roles of the interviewers on the agenda. Search PubMed to see what they’ve published and be prepared to talk about how you could contribute to their work—and the greater work of the company.
Prepare for the tough questions.
Leave a good impression. Before, during, and after the interview, remember that everyone you encounter in the company will make an assessment. From the administrative assistant who schedules the interview to the potential colleague you encounter in the lobby, anyone could report good or bad to human resources. Keep in mind that during an interview, it’s not about your needs or what you want, it’s about them.
Many companies use behavioral interview techniques, where interviewers glean insight from past actions to Follow up. help predict what you would do in the future. Prepare It may sounds obvious, but many job candidates neglect by thinking through your experiences and articulating to say outright that they are interested in the position. Be them in a positive way. Common questions include: Tell sure to end your interview by thanking your interviewers me about a time when you made an unpopular decision. and stating your enthusiasm for the position. Follow What was your most important goal in your last lab and that up with an email or letter of written thanks that also how did you achieve it? If asked about conflicts, focus reinforces your interest—and which references a key goal on how you kept communication open and found or project area that you talked about. § a resolution. ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY: HOW TO STUDY UP, STAND OUT AND GET A JOB MEMBERCENTRAL.AAAS.ORG / 13
Strategies for Bridging the Academia-Industry By Summer Allen
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Gap
S
tudents who decide to make a last-minute leap from academia to industry often find themselves in an academia-industry career gap, struggling to land their first jobs in fields for which they have been inadequately trained.
While many STEM grads have technical and soft skills that can easily translate to an industry environment, most educational pipelines don’t orient them to a life outside of academia. Fortunately, there are a growing number of programs and training strategies that can help you tool up for industry.
Choose a Major in High Demand If you know early on that you want to keep industry options open, choose an associate’s or bachelor’s degree that is in high demand–or consider an industry-specific major, like biotechnology or industrial engineering, with programs tailored to prepare students for specific industries. Employers in some fields—branches of engineering and computer science, for example—are desperate for fresh talent and often will provide their own training or pay students to further their education. Some undergrads forgo an advanced degree—at least until it can be paid for on a company’s dime—and head straight to industry. Depending on the field, having a master’s or Ph.D. can boost your earnings significantly. But it’s also important to factor in the length of educational preparation needed for the degree, which may affect your earnings overall (the average age for Ph.D.s with R01 grants is now 42).
Get an Industry Internship or Fellowship Internships and fellowships can teach both tangible, industry-specific skills, as well as those much-touted “soft skills,” such as communication, meeting deadlines, and working with a budget. Many companies routinely hire their interns and fellows for long-term employment, and recruiters and hiring managers will consider it a plus if you can show that you’ve successfully worked in a regulated, bureaucratic, deadline-driven environment. Although there are many internship opportunities for undergraduates, industry project-managers often seek out Ph.D.s to work on research projects that require more technical skills. For postdocs, several companies offer industry postdoctoral fellowships for those with a Ph.D. already in hand, while others partner with universities to offer joint programs. For example, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has teamed up with Novartis to offer a two-year postdoctoral fellowship focused on pharmaceutical policy. Many colleges now offer summer internship programs in industry (see George Mason University’s Virginia STEM Industry Internship Program, for example). Some companies, like Genentech and Jackson Labs, offer internships specifically for graduate students who want industry experience—if they can convince their advisors
Tool Up: MyIDP The first stop for charting a pathway to industry is to do a thoughtful assessment of your skills, values and interests that will shape your educational preparation and subsequent job hunting. There is no better tool for this than Science Career’s Individual Development Plan (MyIDP), a free online tool developed by leading experts in education, industry and government. An IDP can serve as a guide for finding careers that mesh with particular skills and interests and will give you a framework for setting measurable career goals. to let them take a break from their thesis work. There also are websites that list internship opportunities, including InternMatch and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities page. College and university career centers also list internship opportunities, as do many scientific societies (such as the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).
Tap into Industry-University Collaboratives The explosion of collaborative R&D between industry and academia is creating multiple opportunities for grad students to do industry-relevant research. Many biotech/pharma companies are tapping the knowledge and basic research data of academic scientists to accelerate new R&D—and offering university researchers funding and resources for their work. While the differing goals of education and for-profit research don’t always translate into ideal training for either path, industry-academic partnerships can boost students’ industry skills and orient them to turning research into products. Another way to get industry experience is to do research in one of the 50 or so Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) that are administered through the National Science Foundation (NSF). These centers leverage academic knowledge and skills to solve specific problems that industry partners have had difficulty solving. Most of the research is undertaken by graduate students, who develop skills valued by industry, such as dealing with proprietary information and handling strict deadlines. “They see for themselves what they want to do next, and those who choose to go into industry have a strategies for bridging the academia-industry gap much better focus on that because they’ve met the companies,” says Robert Baier, who runs the University of Buffalo’s Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces. (Continued on page 30)
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Working as an
Early-Career
Industrial Chemist
AAAS MEMBER
ERIC NULL Sr. Chemical Measurement Scientist, Corning Incorporated, Ph.D. in chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
After trying his hand at teaching in grad school, Eric decided he’d be better suited for industry. So he leaned into his problem-solving abilities and sought out projects and collaborations with others at his university to develop skills that industry needs. He got hired by a startup right out of grad school, then moved to Owens Corning—first as a contractor, then progressing to full-time. He’s now been working in industry for three years.
What was it in your graduate research specifically that made you attractive to industry? I guess it was because I’ve tended to be mechanically minded and like to solve other people’s problems. In the lab, I often helped others in the group set up equipment or designed ways to run more complicated experiments. My situation also was eased because the startup came out of my PI’s lab, so the work performed in industry was fairly similar to what was done in the lab.
Your next career move was a bit of a leap— from startup to major industry. What was that transition like? I am part of a dual career couple; my wife is also a chemist—at Corning. I was commuting between Illinois and New York, so when a contracting position opened up at Corning I took it. Contractors offer companies flexibility and can be brought in for one project. I was brought in for multiple projects and they were happy with my work and brought me in full time. Science is very international now, with companies developing a wide variety of goods.
How have your skills transferred? I work on entirely different things than I did previously. I found that I now needed to be an expert in the techniques I’d seen in grad school, so I talked to others to give me techniques and resources. The approach in industry is to use every tool and technique at your
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disposal. We’re not limited in how we solve a problem. At any large company, networking is very important. There are many training opportunities; it does take initiative to set them up and ask around, but there really is no hurdle except in asking for the assessment.
What is your typical day like? Usually, I’ll have a few morning emails that change the course of the day. I do a mix of lab work and sorting through literature looking for new products and capabilities to solve a given problem. Some wet chemistry, some instrumentation—it varies. I work on between three to six projects at a time, with different teams on each project. I try to do a fairly good job of keeping a lab notebook to keep up my calendar but there’s certainly a lot I need to keep in my head. I work for internal customers in the company doing problem solving. To some extent, it’s the same as academia where, in a group meeting, one of your lab mates might have a problem and you offer a solution and work together on it. It’s a very collegial work environment and I get to learn new techniques and systems all the time.
What is the most important career advice you can offer others? It’s a broken record: networking. It’s standard advice, but it’s absolutely true. I will occasionally reach out to people I know if I hear of a position. Also, you need to be willing to work on a variety of things, to be flexible and apply your skills to any given situation. §
“YOU ARE WATCHING THIS BEAUTIFUL ECOSYSTEM BE DEGRADED BY CLIMATE CHANGE OR HUMAN INTERACTION … THEN YOU SORT OF PULL UP YOUR SOCKS AND GO SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO.”
Marine conservationist and Kenyan coral reef expert, Tim McClanahan, AAAS Member
Every scientist has a
story
Read his story at membercentral.aaas.org, the website that takes you to new depths. Connect with others who share your passion. ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY: HOW TO STUDY UP, STAND OUT AND GET A JOB MEMBERCENTRAL.AAAS.ORG / 17
The Savvy
Job Hunter By Carrie Madren
Job searching in industry can seem daunting, but savvy job hunters can get a head start by meeting the right people, learning about hidden job openings, and preparing ahead of time for success.
T
he first part of job hunting may actually be the hardest: doing an honest evaluation of your interest, abilities and goals. You need to understand what skills you can leverage in the marketplace and have a clear idea of the industries where your skills and vision will align to your best advantage.
Science and Nature are good because they cover many fields, and trade journals are useful in specific areas. Also read the popular media to stay on top of business trends—Forbes, Fortune and the Wall Street Journal all cover what companies are doing. Look at it from the standpoint of the companies.”
Start by contacting your school or university’s career center to help launch your job search with targeted tools and resources—including skills assessment programs and job banks. It’s a great idea to join professional organizations, which typically have career development resources and a list of jobs.
Networking Made Easy
To get a handle on companies that align with your interests and skills, “read things that you don’t know anything about,” advises AAAS member Ray Cracauer, an engineering management consultant. “Journals like
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Professional networking is the single-most effective tool for finding out about job openings and gaining access to those in charge of hiring. Career counselors recommend devoting as much as 90 percent of your job hunting to networking. Begin before you even graduate by tapping into your professors’ and advisors’ networks: Ask them to put you in touch with industry contacts, then start working to nurture your own network.
“Grads can create their own network by connecting with former grads from their program who have gone on and gotten industrial positions,” says Megan Driscoll, founder and president of PharmaLogics Recruiting. These alumni contacts can offer insight into what it’s like to work at a particular company or in a certain type of position, give you hiring managers’ names, and maybe even alert you to open positions. Put yourself in situations where you’re likely to encounter industry professionals, such as job fairs. Many science organizations hold conferences that draw professionals with industry connections as well. “Have your elevator speech ready, and be willing to walk up to people that you don’t know and exchange business cards,” says Driscoll. Talk to people standing in line with you,” urges Matthew Seavey, a pharmacology project leader at Tevapharm. “Everyone’s got a story to tell,” he says. “You can find out so much information—who’s hiring and who isn’t.” Do a little digging to discover what companies sponsor clinical trials run by your contacts, or use ClinicalTrials. Gov and publication information to track down scientists collaborating with industry within your university or geographic area, suggests Seavey, who came into science as an immunologist before becoming a project leader. Most importantly, Seavey says, keep up your network relationships even after you land a job and be generous when others ask for help. “Always be on the lookout for the next potential job.”
Take Alternate Routes: Internships and Postdocs Internships are a great way to build your network and they add demonstrated industry experience to your resume. Internships are paid at most companies — which stay mindful to fairness as well as industry and labor standards. From an industry hiring-manager’s standpoint, “having that [industry internship] experience tells me that you have some idea what’s going on,” notes Seavey. You’ll find varying opinions on how effective it is to do a postdoc in industry. Megan Driscoll says it’s a waste of time: “It doesn’t help you get a job—when a hiring manager is comparing you to a new grad it makes no difference,” she says. Seavey has a different take: “I have seen many work this angle and establish themselves as a research scientist via the postdoc method,” he says. Connie White, head of college programs at Genentech, suggests that postdocs can be useful for certain kinds of industry jobs, such as scientific and technical positions, while an MBA can help if you’re aiming for financial or marketing positions.
You can use your postdoc to develop highly marketable skills no matter where you do it, suggests Alaina G. Levine in a Science Careers article: “You have to learn and hone certain skills that hiring committees look for when recruiting talent. It may not always be easy to chip away time in your day to become a better communicator or to solidify your fundraising expertise, but it is necessary to gain a competitive advantage.”
Tool Up Through Contract Work Contract work is another route for showcasing your potential and getting a foot in the door. These types of jobs are becoming more common at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, especially in product development and other research groups. Contract work comes more easily with a B.S./M.S. rather than a Ph.D., Seavey says, because Ph.D. contracts are rare. “Many are techs for day-to-day lab work—in vivo animal work for models, in vitro work for assays, cell culture, etc. Someone can be fresh or be a veteran of pharmaceuticals, and if they are below a Ph.D. they can get any type of tech work,” he says. While some companies hire contract workers directly, most work with a staffing agency that specializes in hiring and placing workers for contracts that last from mere months to several years. Contracts can give you an advantage because you get assimilated into the company culture, says White. “If you can get into industry with a six-month contract go for it, as these usually turn into semi-permanent or fully permanent positions,” Seavey advises. “With either a limited contract or postdoc contract, a person can use that to gain experience, get to know people at the company, gain a reputation, and expand their horizons to see what other positions and options are open to them.”
Invest in Informational Interviews New graduates and early career job-hunters can upgrade their network with valuable relationships by pursuing informational interviews. During these brief meetings, experienced professionals offer their experience and advice to help others chart their own career course. “Be sensitive to the person’s time,” says White, who advises spending no more than half an hour in the informational interview. Instead of broad questions that put the burden on the person you’re speaking to, prepare specific questions around decision-making, autonomy, culture, or technical expertise required, suggests White. As you talk, focus on learning about your new contact’s career experiences and industry insight and avoid bringing up jobs, advises Seavey.
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These meetings could turn into professional relationships that yield future benefits when the contact learns of a job opening or gives a positive referral for a position at the company. Says Driscoll, “Most companies hire through internal referrals or their own internal network for entry-level positions.”
What to Cover in Your Cover Once you’ve identified an open position, your resume and cover letter will serve as your introduction. Because recruiters and hiring managers look for carefully crafted, spotless resumes and cover letters, ask two or three people to review your documents pre-submission. Job seekers should tailor their resumes to each job opening by highlighting particular skills or knowledge that correspond with the needs of the employer—that’s a seismic shift from the academic practice of defining yourself by niche or field of science. Place your skills section at the top but list only the skills in which you’re absolutely proficient, says Driscoll. Adding business experience to your resume can boost your profile even more.
“Sending a one-size-fits-all resume doesn’t usually work,” Driscoll says. Cover letters should also be specific to the role you’re seeking. Driscoll recommends supplying references and their contact information with your resume—not upon request. “It’s a small world and this is a very niche group of people,” Driscoll says. If you list a couple of professors who you know will say good things about you, she continues, a hiring manager may know one of those professors, pick up the phone, and call them—putting you at an advantage. Gain another advantage by using your LinkedIn profile as an online CV: Add details about your work and experience, list your contact information, and get former supervisors and colleagues to recommend you and your work. Headhunters and recruiters often use LinkedIn to scout candidates for jobs. Most importantly, avoid jumping at jobs you’re not really interested in. “People can tell when you’re forcing enthusiasm,” says Seavey. Focus on applying for jobs that resonate with your passion and natural curiosity. §
What Do Hiring Managers Want? As you apply for a job in industry, consider what hiring managers look for and how your unique skill set— including soft skills, such as communication—can help a company meet their goals. Hiring managers want to know how you would be an asset to the company. “Think about practicality, what will be useful, what can people use, what is the unmet need,” says Seavey. “You have to think about the usefulness of science, not just science itself.” It’s also important to know about the company where you’re applying. For instance, Armstrong expects candidates to have some understanding of how CROs work—and that the final products are reports, not new drugs or medical devices. Working within a group or company requires scientists to delegate, share responsibilities, and work as a team, so emphasize collaborative skill sets in addition to scientific and analytic abilities. Use past research experiences to show collaboration and leadership, ability to learn quickly, and time management skills.
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Serious candidates must also be able to clearly communicate their research to both high-level scientists and the general public. Polished written and oral communications skills and presentation can make all the difference, says Alison Armstrong, senior director of development services at BioReliance, a CRO that offers research and testing for medical devices. Many industry interviews include the all-important scientific presentation, your chance to showcase a problem or project from start to finish. Make sure you identify the problem and expected results, describe methods and tools you used to conduct your work, and summarize the outcome. Prepare an anecdote that demonstrates how you worked through a problem and had to rethink your approach. And practice, practice. Put time and thought into your job search, and in the end, landing that first position could be the start of a rewarding science career. By working in industry, you could help develop lifesaving drugs, advanced prosthetics, environmentally friendly technologies, or safer chemicals. Says Seavey: “Some of the best science is done in industry.” §
Ideas Grow Here
Meet the team and discover how Trellis is changing scientific communication: Thursday, 2/12 : 3pm, Room 210ABEF, San Jose Convention Center Friday 2/13: Social Media Soiree Friday 2/13 - Monday 2/16: AAAS booth in the Exhibit Hall ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY: HOW TO STUDY UP, STAND OUT AND GET A JOB
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Should scientists be
programm
too? By Summer Allen
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Much of today’s science and engineering revolves around developing new algorithms to manage and analyze large amounts of data, combine datasets, and model experiments. Should scientists and engineers who are considering working in industry learn how to program? Benefits
Challenges
There is a strong case to be made in favor of learning programming if you are scientist considering an industry career. Here are three reasons why it might be worth it to add programming to your skill set:
Learning how to program is not required for everyone in industry. Here are three reasons why you might pass on learning how to program:
Speed: Programming can “enable you to work 10
to 100 times faster” according to computer science professor and blogger Philip Guo. Tasks that previously took days or weeks to do by hand—like filtering and cleaning up data—can be accomplished in hours with the right program. Assuming there are no bugs in your code, data processing done by a computer program may be more accurate than that done by hand. There is no better way to impress an employer than by showing that you have skills that will save the company time—and money.
mers
New types of questions: Writing your own program can also help you do projects that were previously impossible to imagine due to scale or complexity. You could write a program to extract publically available data, or perform more sophisticated analyses by integrating different types of data. The ability to answer questions with large and complex datasets changes the questions that you can answer with your research, makes your skills more translatable to an industry setting, and may even result in an idea that could spark the idea for a startup.
Your industry may not require it: Not all industries require working with large data sets or complex analyses. A scientist doing straight bench work for a small pharmaceutical company, for example, likely will not need to do the types of data processing that would require writing a custom program. It takes time: Learning how to program is like learning a foreign language and becoming proficient in a new language takes time. You may be able to learn the basics quickly, but becoming an expert programmer can take years—especially if you don’t have much time to devote to the task. Lacking the proper skills to design and test code could result in skewed research data. You may decide that it is a better use of your time to develop other industry-relevant skills. Collaborators may do it: Whether or not it is worth it for you to learn how to program depends on what role you imagine you will play in industry and what size company you are targeting. If you plan to work in quality control or new device development, programming skills might not be vital for those roles. And while startups generally require their first employees to be highly versatile, larger established companies may have dedicated full-time professional programmers on staff. §
A new literacy: “I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think,” said Steve Jobs in a 1990 interview. A growing number of people (read: employers) agree with this sentiment and view knowing how to code as “literacy for the 21st century.” Coding skills can be a real communication asset in projects where experimental scientists collaborate with modelers, as is often the case in industry.
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How My Year of
Pounding the Pavement
Paid Off
By Carl Rios, Ph.D. Global Marketing, Vifor Pharma Ltd. Zurich, Switzerland
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F
or most people who get a job in industry soon after grad school—in my case, one year post-doc—there’s a lot of information gathering involved. My preparation took a solid year of information gathering, making phone calls, interviewing and tooling up.
Industry is a very broad sector—it’s not just bench science. There are multiple functions beyond bench research where a scientific background can be beneficial. The key task is to explore and be open to surprise. Irrespective of job sector, if you can imagine a job, it exists. My entry to industry came after exploring many other paths. By the time I was ready to depart academia, I had a vast network of working friends and contacts, so I was able to get pointers from them. I was shamelessly inquisitive. I didn’t hesitate to pick up the phone and explore areas that were the less-traveled path. Many of my classmates were focused on bench research or one particular industry—business, consulting, patent law, typical non-traditional careers. I tried to think creatively and keep an open mind. I did a lot of hunting on the Web and would see job descriptions that were interesting. I read trade magazines. I pounded the pavement and uncovered an amazing wealth of opportunities. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of informational interviewing, and it doesn’t have to be targeted: Each path that is explored can give some great insights that can be taken elsewhere. During informational interviews, I never asked for a job. I asked my “interviewees” what they did, what their path was, and if I wanted to be in their shoes what their recommendations would be for me to take. I asked them where they thought the opportunities were and where I should explore. My efforts did result in many paths across many sectors (nonprofit, government, industry) each with a job offer. I went to an intelligence agency at a job fair and was one of a few guys with a science background ever to approach the recruiter. The response from him was, “Woah!” He wanted to talk job opportunity right away. Basically, I was saying: “This is who I am, this is what I bring to the table.” That discussion did advance to an offer, but due to a personal situation I didn’t pursue it. Although I did a short postdoc and was armed with a few publications under my belt, it wasn’t that alone that helped me get into industry. During my later years of Ph.D. training I was involved in community service, which fostered my ability to have a broad network while allowing me to leverage skills I couldn’t exercise in the lab, such as being customer-service oriented, carrying leadership responsibility, and representing a large publically facing organization. Additionally, I took courses to further my knowledge in areas outside my expertise, such as people management and business.
I also focused on my CV writing and interviewing skills. One of my colleagues in my community-service network was pivotal to me. He was a financial consultant, and he looked at my very academic CV and ripped it up in front of me. He said, “You’re great in science, that’s crystal clear. But you can’t see from this that you’re truly a smart guy in terms that a layman will understand. What value should I take from this?” He helped me learn how to differentiate myself—at least on paper and verbally— from my academic peers. In fact, my first industry job was as a medical science liaison—a customer-facing role—and that’s what got me in the door. It was clear that I was not just another academic but that I carried some other valuable skills, as demonstrated by my non-laboratory activities.
“I was shamelessly inquisitive. I didn’t hesitate to pick up the phone and explore areas that were the less-traveled path.” In those early days of job hunting I did hit many brick walls. I can’t count the number of phones that got slammed on me and the number of doors that closed when they heard I was another Ph.D. holder looking for a job, with only academic experience. You need a tough skin and you need to keep going. Especially in a job market that is subject to global competition. I’ve been working in industry now for eight or nine years, in various capacities with increasing responsibilities, but for me the job objectives have been similar: leveraging science to improve patients’ lives while contributing to the commercial success of the business. All of my team colleagues have scientific and/or medical backgrounds, so, while we may not be doing discovery-based bench research, we’re still leveraging our scientific knowledge to get the job done. The science is always there. §
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Biostatis
Where
Big
Meets
Bios
By Brad Hooker
T
he ease of collecting data in recent years has inspired a variety of fast-growing, cross-disciplinary fields. With a projected growth of as much as 27 percent by the year 2022, biostatistics touches on many realms of science, with an unlimited number of applications and job functions in private industries, government labs and academia. It attracts those who want to apply a love of math to a career with a direct impact on public health.
“We collect data, we try to make sense of it and we try to make predictions from it,” says Barry Davis, a biostatistics professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center. “Biostat” jobs are found wherever big data and bioscience meet, especially in agriculture, for improving crops, and in animal breeding and fisheries. Medical biostatistics has the most opportunities, mainly in the pharmaceutical industry, but also biotech companies, community health centers and research think-tanks, such as the Rand Corporation or RTI International. These biostaticians work on a host of problems, from finding trends in factors that affect cardiovascular diseases to testing new drugs and analyzing cancer studies. It is one of a few positions that has applications at all stages of drug discovery, development and release.
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stics: Data
s cience
Biostaticians are increasingly seen as “crucial members of research teams, rather than as people to consult after the data’s been collected,” according to statistics professor Jessica Utts, president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). Biostaticians are involved from the start, helping with the design of the clinical trials or experiment—a recent shift due to funding agency requirements. With a new drug, biostatisticians guide and analyze the data collection. As statistical liaisons with the FDA, they prepare the pharmaceutical company for the approval process. Inside the FDA’s Office of Biostatistics, government statisticians work with the “sponsor” to make sure all requirements are met before and after applying. When the product is released to the public, the FDA biostats track its effectiveness, while monitoring for safety and helping to refine regulations.
of statistics, epidemiology, forestry, agriculture and veterinary medicine. For entry-level positions, experience in the subject field helps, but employers often look for a strong math and statistics education. Undergraduates in those majors can take quantitative biology and computational language courses to boost applicability for a graduate program, says Utts. For independent consulting or managing a biostatistics team, a common path is to follow up a doctoral degree with a job in a university statistics program. While the ASA is hoping to develop an accreditation program for biostatistics, currently the profession does not have a certification process.
“It is one of a few positions that has applications at all stages of drug discovery, development and release.”
Traditionally, many biostatisticians had medical degrees, since the field was a high-level offshoot of medical science. Today, it’s a more common job and a M.D is not necessary; employers are looking for applicants with a graduate degree in biostatistics and some experience with real-world data. “If your aim is to develop new theoretical statistical methods, then you would be well served obtaining a theory-based doctorate,” notes statistical scientist Katherine L. Monti. Though often connected to public health departments, biostatistics programs are now found in schools
ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY: HOW TO STUDY UP, STAND OUT AND GET A JOB
The most important skill a biostatistician can have is being able to translate scientific questions into appropriate statistical questions, come up with statistical answers, then translate those back into the answers to the scientific questions. “The ubiquity of computing resources means that much more complex data analysis methods can be used,” says Utts.
“A big part of my work is working with regulatory authorities, like the FDA and MHRA, which is the UK regulatory agency,” adds Chuck Davis, a biostatistics consultant who lends his expertise to 35 to 40 different client companies in any given month. “I’m helping companies do things the right way so they can do the right studies to get their medicines approved.” “It’s never dull,” says Barry Davis. “Always something new comes up, some interesting project, some interesting idea.” §
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LEADERS IN INDUSTRY COMPARE NOTES ON THE
JOBS OF THE FUTURE
Jan M. Lundberg, Ph.D.
A.N. Sreeram, Ph.D.
Executive V.P., Science and Technology, President, Lilly Research Laboratories
Corporate Vice President, Research & Development, Dow Chemical Company
AAAS asked the leading innovators behind R&D at Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly to talk candidly about where their industries are headed—and what the job hunters of today can do to prepare for tomorrow.
Q:
What are the major pushes and challenges your industry is facing now?
Jan M. Lundberg, Eli Lilly
A.N. Sreeram, Dow Chemical
The challenges facing the biopharmaceutical industry today are daunting. As nations around the world struggle to care for aging populations, severe strains on health care budgets are exerting strong downward pressure on prices for new medicines—increasing demands from regulators, patients, payers, and prescribers for greater value from those medicines. Combined with an abundance of low-cost generics, these pressures are raising the bar for pharmaceutical innovation higher than it’s ever been.
The next few decades are pivotal for society and our planet. According to the UN, by 2050, the global population will balloon to 9 billion people—all needing access to healthy food, clean water, sanitation, shelter, mobility, education and health care. By the time children born today enter their teens, the world will need 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water.
On the other hand, biomedical science and technology is entering a golden era, as new scientific insights and new tools and advanced technologies create the potential to revolutionize our work in health care. We see this with companion diagnostics and precision-medicine blockade of driving mutations of cancers … Diabetes has an increasing number of novel, glucose-lowering mechanisms and innovations. In Alzheimer’s disease, brain imaging allows detection of pathological hallmarks and emerging data suggests that cognition decline can be reduced, providing early diagnosis and treatment.
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The good news is, there are tremendous opportunities for businesses to do what we do best: innovate, adapt and collaborate to create solutions that allow us to do more with less. Dow research efforts span many markets, but we are keenly focused in areas that address many of these “challenge” areas: Improving access to clean water, through purification, reuse and desalination; increasing crop yields through agricultural products and improved packaging to help eliminate food waste; engineering insulation products that enable more affordable and energy-efficient homes; and delivering solutions in the automotive industry that enable better fuel efficiency through light-weighting, to name a few.
Q:
Which of your business areas are particularly attractive to early-career scientists and why they are needed?
Jan M. Lundberg, Eli Lilly
A.N. Sreeram, Dow Chemical
We have one of the richest development pipelines in Lilly’s history, with a complementary mix of biologics and chemical molecules that address the urgent unmet needs across each of Lilly’s key therapeutic areas, including oncology, diabetes and its related comorbidities, neurodegeneration (Alzheimer’s disease), with emerging areas of autoimmunity, and pain.
There has never been a better time for young scientists and engineers to be in the chemical industry. We are finally seeing chemistry for what it is: a means for solving problems, not just producing commodities. At Dow, we are able to leverage our size and scale to innovate across diverse markets, in a multidisciplinary way.
Many early-career scientists are attracted to these therapeutic areas because they represent some of the most complex and stubborn health challenges of our time. I also believe early-career scientists are attracted to Lilly because of our strong commitment to building successful careers for our scientists and doctors. We believe in nurturing strong relationships early on with scientific leadership and management and we encourage everyone to challenge the status quo, and to work with a courageous, determined spirit.
“ We seek people who are insatiably curious, who can identify root causes and underlying patterns and trends.” Jan M. Lundberg
Q:
In our Water and Process Solutions business, reverse osmosis (RO) is used to purify water. We continue to uncover new applications in the Polyethylene business. In Coatings, Dow scientists engineered a way to separate and disperse titanium dioxide particles in paints allowing less energy-intensive titanium to be used. The Dow Agrosciences business is under constant pressure from Mother Nature to innovate. IsoclastTM Active was recently launched to help address a growing problem with sap-feeding pests that have become resistant to current insecticides. This product represents a whole new class of chemistry, and treats sap-feeding pests in all major crop groups. Each of these businesses has a different level of maturity, size and market-focus, yet they all have strong development pipelines.
What is the future of your industry and what qualities and qualifications should early-career STEM professionals develop to be competitive?
Jan M. Lundberg, Eli Lilly
A.N. Sreeram, Dow Chemical
In our industry, we need scientists who not only have deep knowledge in their own fields, but also the ability to work with other people from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, and who are curious enough to want to know what’s going on in labs across the hall and across the globe.
The future in our industry is bright. We don’t just hire chemists, chemical engineers and material scientists. We also hire electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, biologists, information researchers and more.
We seek people who are insatiably curious, who can identify root causes and underlying patterns and trends, who draw upon broad sources of knowledge, who are open to others’ ideas, and who can take the risk and heat in challenging times and lead change. In our experience, successful researchers often learn and master companion scientific disciplines in order to effectively advance hypothesis-driven drug discovery.
Of course, we are always looking for the best and brightest— people who are technically strong, that’s a given. But as a differentiator, we really want innovative, creative thinkers who have demonstrated the capacity to solve problems in unique ways. Solutions are frequently found at the interfaces, at the edges of science, and this requires collaboration. We look for candidates who have a history of teamwork. We want scientists who will internalize customer needs and have the curiosity and motivation to connect the dots across multiple disciplines to create value.
I’d also like to see scientists have greater exposure to computational methods including protein structure, function and pathway networks. This serves as the backdrop for many of the problems they will study throughout their careers. Additionally, courses on patent law and protection of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry would also be of great value in our current, complex global business environment.
In some cases, we hire fresh Ph.D.s or postdocs directly into their field of interest. In other cases, we place them in a “Rotational Assignments Program,” which provides employees the opportunity to experience several different businesses and types of research before they are ultimately placed in a position. During their rotations, early-career scientists are able to develop skills, build their network and work with us to find the best fit. §
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BRIDGING THE ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY GAP (Continued from page 16)
“They know where to apply and they often do very well.” On the downside, these centers are designed to disband after five years, which makes them an unsustainable solution for specific industry training.
Hitch Your Star to Startups A growing number of university technology-transfer offices are permitting faculty members to commercialize intellectual property by forming their own startup companies based on student-assisted research. While startups probably aren’t the most secure workplaces (some 75 percent of U.S. startups fails) they can offer a fairly seamless transition to the commercial sector for recent grads who have worked with professors on their innovations. Another route that is growing in popularity is the NSF’s Innovation Corps (I-CORPS), which Robert Baier also is developing at the University of Buffalo. According to Baier, I-CORPS seeks to help academic scientists turn NSF-sponsored research into startup companies. Baier describes this research as “the gold nuggets that have been left at the bottom of the mine” after I/UCRC projects have ended. Being involved with the I-CORPS program will give graduate students and postdocs valuable industry experience, networking opportunities, and knowledge to learn about startup companies. As part of the I-CORPS effort, Baier has developed coursework for students that teaches them industry-relevant information, such as the process of developing technology discovered in the university setting into commercial applications and Food and Drug Administration regulations. The University of Washington takes a similar approach—it offers a training program with an entrepreneurship certificate for graduate and Ph.D. students interested in the world of startups and new technologies.
Put Your BEST Foot Forward In recent years, federal agencies—like their university counterparts—have gotten heat for not adequately supporting the training of graduate students for careers outside academia. These agencies have responded by instituting new training programs. Both the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program and the National Institutes of Health’s Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) program are pilot grants with a goal of creating new models for trainee career development. In 2014, the NIH awarded BEST grants to 10 educational institutions. AAAS Fellow Kathleen Gould is a director of one of these—Vanderbilt University’s Augmenting Scholar Preparation and Integration with Research-Related Endeavors (ASPIRE) program. To prepare doctoral students and postdocs for industry careers, Gould says ASPIRE “plans to organize externships— job shadowing—and internships in collaboration with a variety of industry partners that have pledged their cooperation.” The program already has a series of non-credit-bearing professional development modules such as Business
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Fundamentals for Scientists, Technology Commercialization, and Managing Projects. Additionally, Vanderbilt ASPIRE staff developed “Beyond the Lab” videos, which discuss different career paths (and are available to anyone).
Go the Management-Business Route Some science students and postdocs may be interested in working in the managerial or business side of industry. Business roles in industry can include licensing, sourcing or hunting new products, financial analysis, deal negotiation, public relations, marketing, and a host of other important functions. To get business skills, consider taking business classes or even pursuing an additional degree like an MBA or a more specialized degree such as a Postdoctoral Professional Master’s in Bioscience Management. These programs provide both practical knowledge about how to succeed in business as well as credentials that are wellrespected in the business world. They also provide excellent networking opportunities that could be especially useful for those entrepreneurial scientists starting their own companies. That said, in some industries—like biotech—Ph.D.s can easily progress to management positions without an MBA, and additional schooling can have significant costs both in terms of tuition and lost income. At a more basic level, students and postdocs interested in industry careers can ask to be involved in managing undergraduate students and learning about lab budgets—skills that should translate well to most industry jobs.
Take Things Into Your Own Hands You don’t have to wait for your institution to develop training options. With initiative and coordination, STEM students and postdocs are creating their own career development opportunities. Some have designed customized internships with university tech-transfer offices or local companies. Others have banded together to start consulting groups that provide research and analysis for local industry and startups. For example, a group of biotechnology and life-science graduate students and postdocs formed the Biotechnology and Life Science Advising (BALSA) Group at the Washington University School of Medicine in 2010. This group provides launch plans, market research, and other services for St. Louis-based companies as well as for Washington University’s tech transfer office. The BALSA Group is part of a growing tide of traineeinitiated consulting groups. Student and postdocs have formed similar consulting groups at Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the University of California, San Diego. What about students who lack basic knowledge about their industry career options? “We would encourage trainees to initiate a seminar series at their institution in which alumni come back and discuss various career paths,” says AAAS Fellow Kathleen Gould. This way, students can network with alumni and learn about careers. As an added bonus, Gould says, “leading the development of such a series would provide the type of leadership experience that employers value.” §
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Introducing Science Advances – the new, online-only, open-access journal from Science and AAAS. Find out how you can be among the first authors published at scienceadvances.org. ORIENTEERING FOR INDUSTRY: HOW TO STUDY UP, STAND OUT AND GET A JOB MEMBERCENTRAL.AAAS.ORG / 31
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