Career strategy

by rc

Before I left for Nepal, I had a career development meeting with an experienced biotech businesswoman, who was quite generous with her time and advice.

As many of these meetings go, she asked me what I wanted to do and what I pictured myself doing in 10 years. I responded that I envisioned myself in translational genomic research, as I’ve enjoyed this work and believe in its utility toward patient care, and I wanted to work beyond the bench, hopefully in a management capacity after a few years.

“Sorry, but your response is immature.” Perhaps I wasn’t concrete enough? It’s always refreshing to speak to the blunt.

This was her advice:
1. Get a postdoc position at Princeton because you will get connections, and you will further enhance your pedigree. You will unlikely gain much more scientifically, but you will learn how business is conducted in the East coast. If in a pinch, go to places like Harvard and MIT. But ideally Princeton because their science faculty are the best respected in the private sector.
2. Make this a short postdoc – a 2 year investment. In fact, treat the next 5 years as an investment. You’re not going to earn money. Use this time to expand your options, to try many different things, to position yourself for your career. If you don’t do a postdoc, you limit your options, and worse yet, your earning potential. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.
3. If you do as I advise, you’ll have the pedigree, you will have connected to the Bay Area, which is its own isolated community, you will have linked up with the East coast scientific community, which has ties to the European pharmaceutical markets, and overall, you will have expanded your opportunities and can start at a higher level once you really enter the private sector.
Fair enough. It’s a game plan that optimizes for compensation and status.

What people want you to do is usually a reflection of what they would have done in hindsight. And if they’ve done pretty well for themselves, their advice will mirror what they’ve done right.

I’ll admit, my mindset used to be a lot more in line with this strategic framework, although I never thought about it in so much detail. Once I knew I wasn’t going down the academic professor path, I started exploring industry options. Management consulting? Industry postdoc? Startups?

I’m lucky to have this time away to re-evaluate. Had I already selected a vertical, perhaps the pharmaceutical vertical that she’s suggesting, I would be grinding my teeth trying to push up it. I’m lingering on a horizontal instead, getting down and dirty with social entrepreneurship and the non-profit sector.

I’d criticize that her vertical does not address motivations, or she assumes that I would be motivated by money and reputation. But to me, motivation is everything. It’s what will drive me to make my unique contribution to this world.

Whatever I’ll be doing in the future professionally, I’ll believe wholeheartedly in it. I’ll bring it everyday, devour it, and put in the focus and effort. But the first part is that uncompromising belief.

And heck, I’ll have to climb some ladders along the way, and it won’t always be as ideal as I put it, but I want to always have the “why am I really doing this?” in sight.

All two of you in the audience, please remember to hold me accountable!