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Career Neuron by Dr. Immy Smith,
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“Your PhD can help you get a
job anywhere!” Students and postdocs hear this often but their main focus in
the lab is on day-to-day experiments. In that setting, it’s difficult to see how
the skills developed during their academic career will help them in a
completely different job setting. Dr. Pier Giorgio Pacifici is a Senior Account
Manager and Senior Business Development Manager at Enzo Life Sciences, Inc.. He
spoke about how to promote yourself in different job sectors and underscored
the value of a PhD in the business world.
In academia, the CV (curriculum vitae) is how we portray
our skills and work experience. CVs, even at the PhD or postdoc stage, can be
several pages long. In the business world, the résumé is standard and is much shorter in length (2-3 pages).
A cover letter is also crucial. Dr. Pacifici recommends finding a résumé mentor in the field in
which you’re interested to help you understand what they’re are looking for.
The résumé and cover letter should
be tailored for each job, emphasizing your particular skills related to the
position. When starting out, you may not meet all of the minimum experience requirements.
Don’t be discouraged! Dr. Pacifici says to “present yourself as someone who is
too good to pass up even though you don’t have the relevant experience yet.”
“Going into industry” always
seems vague, and Dr. Pacifici mentioned several non-research career paths that
PhD holders can take, such as technical writing, regulatory affairs, sales,
marketing, and business development. Similar to the advice Dr. Nishi gave, Dr.
Pacifici also emphasized the importance of knowing what you want before you
start applying for positions. Informational interviews are a great way to get
more information about a particular career. They can be done at any stage, even
when not actively seeking a job. As long as one is respectful and does not
present oneself as looking for a job or asking for one, an informational
interview gives the interviewee an opportunity to disclose both the good and
bad about the position. In a job interview context, on the other hand, they
would highlight only the positive aspects to entice you to work there. And once
the interview is over, don’t forget to follow-up with an email and connect with
the person on LinkedIn. Business and industry use LinkedIn a lot. Also
important: business cards!
Overall, Dr. Pacifici said to be persistent and not to feel
discouraged during the job search, especially the very first time. Most of the
résumés you send out will not be
answered but you will be building contacts in a new field as you go, and in the
end, you only need one positive reply to start a successful career in the
industry.
Other posts in this series:
Careers Beyond the Bench: The data with Sally Rockey (guest post by Bruce Felts)
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