Transition from Academia to Biotech: Part 3: Academia vs Industry Research and Career Planning for PhDs and Postdoctoral Scientists

Before starting this topic, I am sharing a story of postdoctoral scientists. A postdoctoral scientist from Spain who is working at Johns Hopkins University and has 15 years of postdoctoral experience recently contacted me regarding he is not getting an industry job because he is overqualified. I am very surprised to know how it took 15 years for him to figure out whether he will stay in academia or will transition to biotech industry. I know many Bangladeshi senior brothers in the USA from my alma mater Dhaka University has a similar experience. They have many years of postdoctoral experience, but still don’t know how to apply for the industry job and face each state of the interview. When I worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific, I got many resumes from senior brothers for Scientist I/II level positions. I forwarded resumes to the hiring team and in most cases the feedback was this person is overqualified for this position. Management knows if you are overqualified, you will leave the position after a short period if you get a better opportunity. Also, some managers don’t want to hire a candidate who has a higher education level, experience, and knowledge than him/herself. If you know the right strategy, you can transition to industry right after graduation. If you can’t transition right after PhD, is it okay to a strategic postdoc for 1 or 2 years but doing a postdoc for 5/6/15 years is foolish unless you are really in love with research. If you follow my posts, it will cover everything you need to know for transitioning from academia to biotech. All of my materials will be free. If you become a member of any forum/hire career coach, it will cost a lot of money. I am doing it as a part of social responsibility. Since I struggled a lot, I want to help people as much as possible. So, if you are in my network, please don’t say I don’t know how to transition to industry. Let’s dive deep into the topic.

Academic Research: In academia you have a particular project, and you focus exclusively on that project. You know all the nuts and bolts of your project. You have the opportunity to show your innovation and present research in scientific conferences and publish the results in peer-reviewed scientific journals. If you really enjoy research and love science, you should stay in academia and do postdoc and apply for faculty positions in the future.

Industrial research: In industry your scientific skills will be useful for drug development and will benefit humanity, but you will not enjoy the beauty of basic science. You have to work for the interest of the company. You have to work within a designed space with almost no room for scientific innovation. In most cases, you won’t have the opportunity to publish research articles. In rare cases, you may have opportunities to present at an industry conference. Companies will change projects frequently based on their business needs.

Here are my suggestions for you. Think deeply from the third/fourth of year of PhD what your goal is. The hiring process in the industry takes time. So, please plan 1 year in advance. But you can build a LinkedIn profile from the start of your PhD and participate in professional development workshops whenever you attend a conference. You should know all nuts and bolts of job search before you start your searching.

If you enjoy basic research, doing PhD in a top graduate program, and have a good publication record in job top journals such as Nature, Science, JACS, so on, I encourage you to stay in academia and go for a postdoctoral position in top universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc. for 3 years or more. If you can maintain a good publication record there, you will have better chances for getting a faculty position in the USA in PhD granting institutions (R01 universities).

If you like teaching and are tired after 5 years of PhD and don’t want to do research anymore, you can apply for faculty positions (lecturer) in undergraduate universities that focus more on teaching. This type of job is usually relaxed but way underpaid.

If you feel in the third/fourth year of PhD, enough is enough I don’t want to do basic research anymore and I don’t like teaching either, you should search for a highly-paid industry job from the fourth year of PhD so that you can land to a prestigious biotech company right after PhD graduation. If you can’t land to a job immediately after graduation, it is okay to do a strategic postdoc until you land to a biotech company. But a postdoc should not be your default choice. If you do a postdoc for 3 years you could earn ($50,000X3 = $150,000). For a PhD level position in the industry, you could earn something like ($120,000X3 = 360,000). So, if you transition to industry after doing 3 years of postdoc, your financial loss will be $210,000. In addition, with a 3 years of industry experience, you could reach to the top industry positions. So, please think carefully before doing a? postdoc without any goals.

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