Julie: We’ve written about nonacademic careers many times before for Ph.D.'s, but usually we’ve focused on students in the humanities and social sciences. It can be just as challenging, however, for young scientists to find nonacademic positions that will lead to productive, interesting careers.
And young scientists too often get stuck in a series of postdocs or other temporary research positions that do not provide the opportunity to advance, in terms of either salary or status.
Jenny: This month we decided to talk to three life scientists who spent years in training and then decided that staying in bench research wasn’t right for them. They are Devrim Eren, a medical-science liaison at Aptalis Pharma; Jenni Crowley, a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting; and Julie McGurk, an associate director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
Julie: Sometimes it can be hard to know whether leaving academic research is the right choice for you. We began by asking all three Ph.D.'s when they began to think that they were in the wrong career.
For Jenni, it happened fairly early. “I realized that bench science wasn’t the right place for me during my second year of my Ph.D. program,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I had the passion, drive, or excitement for bench science, and I knew that would prevent me from true success as a scientist. I looked around at my professors and fellow grad students and realized that I didn’t have the same dreams of staying on the academic career path.”
As career counselors, we’ve met many students who feel the same way, and who start learning about their nonacademic options while still pursuing Ph.D.'s (The American Society for Cell Biology published a handy essay on the topic called “Improving Graduate Education to Support a Branching Career Pipeline: Recommendations Based on a Survey of Doctoral Students in the Basic Biomedical Sciences.”)
Jenny: Likewise, Julie McGurk, at Penn’s teaching center, began to wonder whether bench science was the right fit for her when she was still in her graduate program. She loved hearing and talking about science and even found designing experiments to be “exhilarating.” But she had another consideration during graduate school—a daughter. Being a parent “made it all the more difficult to handle the schedule that a career at the bench demands,” she said.
Julie: Devrim was in a different situation, one that is common for many postdocs. He never felt that bench science wasn’t for him; rather, he had the misfortune to be working in the laboratory of a professor who lost his grant money and decided to leave the university. “My PI decided to move to Hawaii and told us all we had one year to find a job,” Devrim said. “I knew that there wasn’t a lot of room in academe for a young Ph.D. Rather than looking for another postdoc, I looked for a job and ended up moving into medical education.”
Jenny: Devrim’s career has, nonetheless, enabled him to keep up his engagement with academic science. As a medical-science liaison at a pharmaceutical company, he finds that he is always in the field talking with investigators and clinicians who do research. “This is what I like best—learning from the people who are currently working in our therapeutic areas,” he said. “The challenge is getting ahold of these people, getting 30 minutes of their time, to engage in a really interesting conversation about science.”
Julie: We also asked Jenni and Julie what they liked best about their current work. Jenni works for a large consulting firm, where she focuses on strategy and operations for pharmaceutical clients. For those who aren’t familiar with consulting work, that means helping companies run better in lots of different ways—for example, improving the clinical-trial process, evaluating new drug-acquisition options, and starting patient-education programs. She loves the constant change and intense learning that occurs with every new project.
Jenny: Julie has been at her job for only a few months. At Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning, she works as part of a team to create teaching programs for instructors across the university. She also teaches one course a year for the “biological basis of behavior” program. So far, she said, “the thing that I love most, and yet at the same time is the most challenging part of my job, is the wide diversity of people that I work with in this position. I had spent the last decade of my life refining my knowledge on a minute topic and spending my time among others with similar interests, and now I am asked to work with people who have very different perspectives and interests.”
Jenny: We wondered how all three Ph.D.'s had handled the transition from an academic environment to a nonacademic one. After pointing out that she is still in an academic environment, Julie said she has handled her move to a nonfaculty career by “asking lots and lots of questions to everyone around me.”
Julie: Both Devrim and Jenni found a lot of things they had to get used to in the business world. Devrim’s first job was in a company that focused on medical education, and he worked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rather than the typical 24/7 schedule of a postdoc. But “it was a team environment,” he said. “That meant I had lots of meetings with my team and my supervisor and was constantly explaining what I was doing to a variety of audiences.”
Jenni found the transition difficult. Even though she was used to working long hours as a graduate student, the demands of a consulting job “require a lot of energy and stamina over the course of a day,” she said. She was “constantly running around conducting meetings, leading research teams, preparing for workshops, writing reports, answering e-mails and calls.” It’s not at all like being a graduate student, when she could “hide in the lab and quietly work on my experiments.”
Jenny: We also asked our interviewees what they missed about the academic environment. For Jenni and Julie, the answer was clear: the flexible schedule. “Gone are the days when I can stroll into lab at 10 a.m.,” Jenni said, and added, “My day now starts several hours earlier than that!” She urged graduate students to “cherish” the flexibility and freedom of that schedule.
What Devrim misses about academe is a bit more intangible. He misses “having the freedom to think only about your own research and research opportunities—that free time to think about science and not much else.”
Julie: Most important, we asked our interviewees which resources had helped them change careers, and what advice they would give to graduate students and postdocs looking to pursue nonacademic careers.
As a postdoc, Devrim spent his free time looking for a job. He was not sure in what direction he wanted to move, but he knew he wanted to be able to create something novel. He found his first job on one of those big online employment sites. “I wasn’t even sure what the job was, so I called the company and spoke to a few people there,” he said. “The job involved bringing medical-education tools to life in a video-game platform. Though my working hours were shorter there, the work in many respects was much harder and the days more intense.” If he hadn’t taken the initiative to contact the company, he might not have ever gotten that first job.
Jenny: In her job at Deloitte, Jenni said, she was assigned a counselor to help guide her career. “I sought the advice of my counselor very often and asked lots and lots of questions to understand the culture, expectations, pitfalls, challenges, and to grasp what ‘good’ work looks like. I also built a network of peers that I could use as a sounding board.” That was a smart move, because you need both a mentor and a network of contacts to build a richer and better-informed career.
Her advice to those considering consulting careers: Start preparing early. “If you choose to leave bench science for consulting,” she said, “the transition will take work. Start researching firms, making connections, writing your résumé and cover letter, and practicing for case interviews now.”
Julie: It’s important to gain some knowledge of nonacademic work before you leave bench science, because if you end up not liking the new career path you’ve chosen, as Julie pointed out, it’s “harder to get back in once you’ve left.” Finding the time to get work experience in the nonacademic realm can be difficult for graduate students and postdocs, and some advisers discourage students from doing that. But “getting a Ph.D. doesn’t automatically make you qualified for any job that requires a Ph.D.,” Julie said. It helps to have work experience.
Jenny: Devrim also had some great advice for Ph.D.'s in transition:
- “Give yourself time to find your new direction and a new position.”
- “Get experience where you can. Do a summer internship. If you’re looking to move into pharma, see if you can find a company whose R&D area is very similar to your current work. You can often meet those people at conferences in your field. Getting in is the hardest part.”
- “Get ready to have extremely intense working days, though you won’t likely be working every weekend, as you did when you were a postdoc.”
- “Working in a lab 24/7 isn’t always a good way to figure out what you’d like to do in life. It’s good to get experience outside the lab. You might even find your passion. Take the time to do the professional-development activities that will benefit you in the future.”
Julie: Bench research can be exciting work, but it can also be all-consuming. Like our interviewees, we strongly encourage doctoral students and postdocs to make time for professional development early in their careers. A good mentor should support you in that. It may seem hard to get away from the lab, but doing so will help you to build a brighter future.
