(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Dennis Lee, a researcher at a biotech company.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I'm the director of research for a small biotech company based in Houston. We're developing a new device for high-throughput screening of antibody and compound libraries for potential use as therapeutics and/or diagnostics. Essentially the goal is to develop a device that can speed up some of the early stage drug discovery steps; product development pipelines are starting to run dry and we hope our project can help pick up the slack.
2) What is your science background?
I have a bachelor's of science from the University of Chicago in what they called "biological chemistry" (why they didn't just call it biochemistry I'll never know) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University. My doctoral work was actually on Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant, doing molecular genetics.
3) What led you to this job?
Truthfully, it was a good bit of luck in being in the right place at the right time. I had decided that I did not want to do the academic route and was looking at various jobs in government labs and even consulting when this opportunity came my way. Turns out that one of my good friends is the son of one of the founders of the company, and when he heard I had defended, wanted to talk to me about the opportunity as the company was just getting up and running.
4) What's your work environment like?
I'm in the lab most of the time - it's a shared incubator space with several other small biotechs. It's very laid back, very collegial - everybody has signed mutual NDAs, so if you need to bounce ideas off of other people you can, or if you need a chemical or piece of equipment for a one-off experiment, there's a good chance that someone else has it. Occasionally I have to pop over to the corporate office on the other side of town for a meeting, which is a little more formal, but a lot of those sorts of issues are handled via email or telephone.
5) What do you do in a typical day?
It's a changing mix of bench work, data analysis, and business development stuff. I spend most of my time planning and executing experiments, but because it is a small company and I am the one with the most knowledge about the work, I get called on to participate in conference calls with potential investors, help develop materials for said investors, and keep my eye out for strategic partners (read: potential buyers) and possible competitors.
6) How does your science background help you in your job?
Well, it's still primarily a research position at a company of our size. The critical thinking skills I learned in my graduate career are probably the most important; the actual field that I studied has nothing to do whatsoever with what our company is doing.
7) If a current college student wanted to get a job like yours, how should they go about it?
Hmm, this is tough, as I sort of lucked into my job, and I don't think you could get a job like mine with just an undergraduate degree, unless you were the original person with the idea for the startup. But for graduate students, I'd suggest sucking it up and attending any entrepreneurship-type programs, classes, seminars, or workshops that your local business school might be running, and network like crazy at those events. Try to meet like-minded people, and don't be afraid of failure - that's kind of what startup companies are all about. If you find an interesting idea or company that you want to work on or at, you really need to reach out and show interest and express at least a good basic grasp of what they're doing.
8) What's the most important thing you learned from science?
The most important thing I learned from science is probably the critical thinking/reasoning skills. If you can break down a problem into smaller problems, the approach becomes much simpler. Experimental method applies not only to actual experiments, but to the business side of things as well - if an approach you took didn't work, ask yourself why? Change your approach and re-evaluate the results. You can't really run controls in your social interactions with people, but since business development at the startup level involves searching out a lot of potential partners and investors, you do have the luxury of being able to tweak your approach.
The second thing I learned is that given a good library and 2 - 3 weeks, you can become reasonably well-read on virtually anything, and combined with the critical thinking and reasoning skills, there's really nothing you can't do. Experimental techniques outside your field might take some time to learn, but don't be afraid to make lateral moves.
9) What advice would you give to young science students trying to plan their careers?
I think the important thing is to realize that if you can really learn the critical thinking part and not just memorize facts, you should have a good foundation to do whatever you want - be it staying in academia, doing research in industry, or switching gears entirely and entering the business world. Try to figure out the direction you want to go as early as possible, as it allows you to figure out what milestones you need to hit in order to get where you want to be, but realize that you can always change directions.
Also, work on your people skills. Get a good friend to tell you straight what aspects of social interaction you might need to work on. The fact of the matter is that no matter what route you take, you're going to have to deal with other people.
10) (Totally Optional Question) What's the pay like?
I make more than a post-doc in biology fresh out of grad school does. I could probably make more working for a big pharma, but I have warrants in the company (currently worthless to me, but if we succeed, I'll be doing OK for myself).
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