I love Science just like all of you. Why? It gives us a different sort of challenge every day to ask a pertinent question that needs to be answered. Whether it is in science teaching, scientific basic research, applied research you name it. After graduating from one of the premier institutes in India (IISc, Bangalore) I was fortunate enough to land up at a highly respected institution at the United States (NCI,NIH, Maryland) for postdoctoral research. My 5 years went like a breeze, adjusting to the new lifestyle, new area of cancer research and peer pressure of publishing along with raising 2 kids. Amidst all these challenges was a major challenge of being in J1 visa, an immigration stopgap in going ahead. My postdoctoral mentor came to my rescue and suggested me to join as a research associate at one of our Biophysics collaborator’s laboratory at UMD, Maryland since she did not had any H1B spot at that time. Without a second thought I gladly agreed because of two reasons: One, I do not have to leave the area as my family is here and we were quite settled and nestled in our new house. Second, I am having a H1B sponsor, what more to ask? My journey from NIH to UMD was easy and smooth as I had known people in both the labs, I know the PI very well so I was happy for a while. I got my permanent residency in the first year of H1B so again, I thought I was safe now. Gradually, funding became a key issue for me to survive for long in this position. In past 3 years, I had to write numerous grant proposals to different federal funding agencies, foster cross-disciplinary collaborations, and present work at several conferences and at the same time teach at the University. I realized, I did less of bench work and more of all the other sorts of work being in the University. However, I was contended that I could co-lead a MURI-DOD 5 year grant proposal that was funded to our group, I could stay for another 5 years, I was able to publish few papers. But, gradually the daunting question I had to ask to myself: next what? I started jotting down several pointers from my 8 years of post-graduation experiences and believe me this took a good amount of time to know my own strengths and weaknesses. I learnt the following from my history

• I do have consistent publishing record, citations but not enough to apply for a tenure track position in a leading academic institution in the US
• I am geographically limited but being in DC area is always an added advantage, key federal agencies, quite a few biopharma companies are located
• I learnt a myriad of research areas from Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Biophysics, Physics
• I realized I used to enjoy bench work but I do not want to continue it anymore
• I worked on my scientific writing skills (other than writing manuscripts and book chapters) while being at UMD
• I started being more organized and a good manager overseeing collaborations

After identifying my positive and negative areas, I was sure that academia is not the place I can survive for long until and unless I decide to go in the tenure track route. But on the other hand, I do not want to leave the active area of Science which I like the most. I started reaching out to people in my network. I was fortunate enough to be a part of CSG team with whom I can share and exchange ideas. After few months reading the various career related posts, I was interested in knowing more on scientific editing, Technology Transfer, Patenting as alternate routes of career. I must admit I didn’t understand any of those fields much as there were too much of information which made me lost. I attended career fairs in the area and that helped me to find out which are the leading/emerging biopharma companies in the DC area, attended resume writing seminars. This allowed me to write a crisp resume that can be easily picked up by the recruiters. I started narrowing down on their open job posts of my interest to see where and how I can fit in. I also spread the word to my network members including my previous mentor that I am looking for a challenging role in Biopharma Company or a federal agency such as NIH, FDA. Slowly, things were looking brighter and I was getting responses from one or the other. My experience from academia was on the greener side, my mentors were super supportive for me to get my next dream job, and my colleagues started sharing me numerous job posts. In the last 4-6 months, I was interviewed by one federal agency for a Staff Scientist position which will only open in 2017, one scientific journal for a Managing editor position, and three biopharma companies for Scientist position.

During my several phone interviews, I politely waited from the hiring manager’s end and waited for them to ask me questions. I answered promptly and when they asked me at the end if I had any questions I said “No, I think you covered anything.” The call ends. That went pretty well, I thought. I went to bed every night assuring myself that I might get an email soon

I waited a couple of weeks to get a follow-up email but no one ever contacted me. I remember being very confused. It wasn’t until much later that I realized I completely messed up the interview. I learned my lesson, however, and joined a CSG network that helped me create an intelligent interviewing strategy. This changed everything

Recently, I was invited to 3 round of onsite interviews by Novavax, Inc. I received and accepted their job offer. Unlike my earlier interviews, I nailed this interview. What did I do differently?

I sought help from the key CSG members who acted as my mentors during this job interview process namely: Avnish, Saurav, Roshni, Semanti, Ushati. They helped me in each and every step to assure that I do the right thing now for me to move ahead for the next round. While I was taking suggestion from each of their expertise, I began doing my ground homework.

Rule no 1: Know the company where you are applying and the role to the greatest possible depth. Apart from wiki, I went more to know how the company did in the past 5 years, their stock market, the reorganization, product pipelines, their potential market, following them in the biopharma newsletter. I saw the job description over and over again before each interview to see how my previous experiences aligns and I can bring that during the interview

Rule no 2: Limit you answer short and precise to only what being asked. This is something anybody coming from academia tend to go over the board just because of our sheer science enthusiasm. Again practice makes one perfect. I was asked by all the 14 interviewers “Tell me about yourself”. And so I had to narrate my 8 years’ experience in few sentences that aligns specifically with the job role.

Rule no 3: Know your interviewers history well. I did this via LinkedIn after I got to know the names. This helped me to know what their academic background is and so how the discussion should be led and what kind of questions I can ask them. Yes, you read right it is a discussion instead of question and answer session and again thanks to CSG members who made me differentiate between these two fine aspects.

Once, I followed these 3 main rules, I did exceedingly well in all the 3 round interviews. Now came the final challenge which again somebody coming from academia has never encountered: Negotiation challenge. I was in a dilemma, what should I call myself: A person who is transitioning from academia to industry (a first timer?) or an experienced person transitioning from academia to an industry (a qualified individual?) Again, my CSG mentors helped me to label myself as the second one. During the negotiation rounds, I was again fortunate enough to get promoted to the next level at UMD which gave me an upper hand to negotiate further. One thing was key: your interviews should go exceedingly good to make you confident and fit to negotiate with the company. I did accordingly with no fear of losing my current job and that I had good interviews. At this point, I was more competent and efficient to make the HR believe to be at my side. It was a long process but all ended well when I got an offer with my raised level, package and a challenging role as a QC/QA scientist.

What I learnt from my job hunting process is as follows: If you prepare correctly, interviewing for jobs in any sector can be a lot of fun. After all, it’s your chance to shine and there could be a life changing deal on the other end of the interview like there was for me. The key is to NOT be hesitant. Don’t listen to people who tell you that leaving academia for industry is like giving away your freedom. This is simply not true. In my experience, if you enjoy science, it can be done anywhere if you are competent. I enjoyed to the utmost my academic career and I look forward the challenge at the Biotechnology industry as well. When you do get called, remember to do your research, ask questions before the interview starts, and be confident in yourself and results-oriented in your approach.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/teachers-meeting-books-reading-23820/

About the author: Satarupa Das is a Scientist at the Institute of Physical Sciences & Technology (Maryland, USA). In this blog she writes about her recent transition to Novavax and how she made use of her networking in PhD Career Support Group on Facebook to prepare herself  to make it through the interviews.

This work by ClubSciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.