Tag: Non-academic options

Career profile: Dr. Gary Kusdian, Account Manager

Have you interacted with sales representatives during your PhD? If yes, most likely you told yourself that you would never be working in such a career area. Job opportunities in sales are usually underestimated by PhD holders, but this career path offers a variety of opportunities for scientists to use their technical knowledge and connect to the scientific community. In today’s interview, Dr. Gary Kusdian, a molecular biologist based in Germany talks to us about his career path in sales while giving more insights to the key skills and factors to take into consideration.

You can find the full interview below and if you are interested in this career area, you can find additional information on:

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Career profile: Laura Cortesi, Senior Operational Study Manager

We recently met with Laura Cortesi, who is a Senior Operational Study Manager working in the area of clinical trials management. In addition to talking about her career path, passion and motivation for this career area, Laura explains how parenthood prepared her to work in a role that requires coordination of tight timelines, different needs and unexpected events. She also shares advice for those applying to such roles. Continue reading “Career profile: Laura Cortesi, Senior Operational Study Manager”

Career profile: Radhika Patnala, Founder and Director of Sci-Illustrate

Scientific illustration is a well-established career path in the USA but lesser-known in Europe. Radhika Patnala, a neuroscientist by training now based in Germany and founder of Sci-Illustrate, decided to start her own scientific illustration company two years ago to help researchers and institutions to communicate science in a more visual and comprehensible way. In today’s interview she shares her experience as an entrepreneur in scientific illustration. Continue reading “Career profile: Radhika Patnala, Founder and Director of Sci-Illustrate”

Career profile: Vicente Tur, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Asphalion, Spain

Our latest career profile is Vicente Tur, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Asphalion, a scientific and regulatory consultancy with offices in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Regulatory affairs is one of many non-research professions tightly linked with pharma and biotech industries. Roles in this area may be in-house, in the pharma industry or at consulting firms; their focus is on keeping up-to-date with industry regulations (at the national and international level), working with scientists to ensure that R&D is completed and documented in a way that will enable a product to be authorised at the end of the development process – including that the active substance and finished product are manufactured with the controls required by the Regulatory Authorities. It also involves preparing and submitting administrative documentation for the regulatory authorities.

In the interview, which can be found below, Vicente tells us more about this profession, how he moved into this area, and what he is looking for when hiring for his team.

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Career profile: Sandra Caldeira – Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre

Sandra Caldeira is “Deputy Head of Unit, Health in Society” at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. In her current role, Sandra provides high-level support to a range of projects that use science to inform European policy and thus potentially impacting millions of lives. She talked to us about the JRC, her role, and how she ended up supporting European policy making – after completing a PhD and postdoc in molecular biology and working for several years as a journal editor.

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Using LinkedIn for careers research

LinkedIn isn’t just an online C.V., an electronic contact address book and job market – it can also be a great tool for researching potential careers. For example, it can help to:

  • research the backgrounds of people doing a specific type of role
  • get career inspiration by finding people with a similar background or skills set
  • find people in your wider network working in your target company or role who you could contact for an informational interview
  • find  groups discussing career-related topics that interest you

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EMBL Career Day 2018 – How to transition to a rewarding non-academic career

In addition to the classical academic career, PhD and postdoc training can lead to a diverse range of career paths. However, while working within academia, it can be hard to gain an oversight of the other career options and how to transition into these roles. EMBL organizes an annual career day, to help fellows explore these questions by listening to and, more importantly, interacting with scientists who have already made this transition.

“Job fairs and career talks are a great platform not just to learn about the jobs, but also to network with people and create contacts. This is how I actually understood the jobs I later went on to apply to”.  Jelena Tica – EMBL alumna & career day speaker

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