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Frequently Asked Questions
ABOUT SCIPHD
Who is SciPhD for?
What are business competencies and why are they
important?
What is the purpose of writing Value
Statements?
What if I can't come up with a Value
Statement?
How do I use my final report?
How do I print my Final
Report in color?
ABOUT CAREERS IN
INDUSTRY
Would you please mention some important hints
(in addition to learn the culture of the company) to be successful in a
job interview in the industry area?
How do you deal with gaps in your
scientific work history? (for example, I did 1 year as a post doc, then
2 years as a project coordinator. But now I would like to get back into
research)?
Please comment about answering
an interview question about "one's weaknesses".
Do you
have any suggestions
for demonstrating business skills on the resume?
Would
you advise students with MS science degrees who are interested in
transitioning into industry to go on to pursue their PhD or not?
How should I go about networking as a graduate student without much
experience?
What
are some examples of entry level industry positions for Life sciences
phd graduates specifically those not in R&D?
I
was wondering how we can present our business skills after 5 years of
Ph.D identity?
Who is SciPhD for?
This site is aimed at helping science professionals such as graduate
students, postdocs and research associates make the transition from
academic research to the commercial world. This can be one of the
most daunting career moves facing science professionals and you need to
be able to express your current skills in a language and manner that
prospective employers will immediately understand. The SciPhD
training course will also help you to identify skills that may need
refining so that you can achieve the position you really desire.
What are
business competencies and why are they important?
The business competencies described in the SciPhD training course are
some of the most important basic capabilities that industry hiring
personnel look for in prospective employees. Throughout the
course we map your own science experiences to these competencies so
that you can relate your science education to talents that are
considered valuable and important in industry.
What is the
purpose of writing Value Statements?
Developing value statements during this course serves multiple
purposes. First, by developing a brief concise statement, this
forces you to think carefully about your research experience, how it
relates to the competency you are studying, and how adept you are at
this competency. The second purpose for developing these value
statements is to provide you with both oral and written “talking
points” that you can use in your interviews and resumes when pursuing
job opportunities. Although you are instructed to write a one
sentence statement, if you require an
additional sentence or two to get the critical points
across,
that
is
fine.
The
danger in being too long with your
value statements is that they become unusable in preparing for oral or
written statements. Remember, dominating conversation is
generally not an effective communications techniques.
What if I
can't come up with a Value Statement?
There will likely be some competencies for which you have little to no
personal experience. In these cases try to craft a value
statement based on your understanding of the competency after it is
explained by the instructor. If you still cannot develop a value
statement, simply enter something like “I can't develop a value
statement for this competency” in order to advance to the next slide.
How do I use my final report?
There are three primary uses
for your report:
- Career Preparation and Insight:
We help you look out over the next 15 years and use your next job as a
stepping stone to your ultimate career goal. You have a new language of
business competencies, and a match of those competencies to job
functions, organization types and organization size. You have
short-term and long-term training requirements to achieve competencies
required for your long term career choices. The goal is to give
you a lot of the elements to a career plan and to help make your next
job PART OF your career evolution.
- A Competency Profile for your career or
job search coach: The data you gather from our program
will greatly assist any coach you may be using. Be sure to
validate the data before you work with a coach. If you are taking
this program and have 2 or more years before you job-seek, then make
certain you work with a coach to maximize your training opportunities
to upgrade your competencies in critical skill areas.
- Education and Training:
You can take your final report and career goals to work with an
education or training advisor in any of the local education facilities
in your area. Be sure to include Community Colleges as well as on-line
institutions to help in planning what courses will add the most value
to your competencies for the job you seek. There are also many
resources available in books, guides, webinars, DVDs and more… so
use them all to your advantage.
Why doesn't my final report print the
tables in color?
Make sure your browser's printing options are set
to print background images and colors. The table below indicates
where you can find these settings in different browsers running Windows
or Mac OS X.
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Browser
|
Windows
|
Mac OS X
|
|
Internet Explorer
|
Tools -->
Internet Options --> Printing
|
Not supported
|
|
Firefox
|
Page Setup dialog
box
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Print dialog box
|
|
Safari
|
Not supported
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Print dialog box
|
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Google Chrome
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Not supported
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Not supported
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Can I save my report as a PDF?
Most browsers support printing documents to PDFs, and this option is
typically found in the print dialog box.
How do you deal
with gaps in your scientific work history (for example, I did 1 year as
a post doc, then 2 years as a project coordinator. But now I would like
to get back into research)?
Use this
additional
experience as an asset. Remember, you have to get out of the
thinking
that your scientific research experience is the only thing potential
employers care about. The fact that you got project
coordinator
experience should be highlighted, particularly if you can reference it
to specific requirements in a job description. This is exactly
the
kind of experience that can separate you from others. You need to
have
a good understanding of your own skills and abilities in these
areas.
The self-assessment is a good place to start.
Would you please mention some important
hints (in addition to learn the culture of the company) to be
successful in a job interview in the industry area?
You've got to be
engaging. Learn everything you can about the company, and the
people who you will be meeting (you can ask who you'll be meeting when
setting up your interview schedule). Show genuine interest in the
conversation with the interviewer by looking at them when you speak to
them and they speak to you. DO NOT INTERRUPT. This is an
extremely common mistake we as scientists make. When in a
conversation, as soon as someone mentions something, there is an urge
to demonstrate your knowledge of that topic. Typically we
interrupt, and then go on a monologue. Remember IT"S NOT ABOUT
ME!!!! Let the interviewer finish, pause and legitimately think
about what they're saying/asking, and then give a thoughtful succinct
response, framing your answer in the context of what is likely most
important to the interviewer, not to you (social intelligence).
Be prepared for the two deadly questions: "What are your
weaknesses?", and "Do you have any questions for me?". You need
to think about these ahead of time and be prepared to answer.
With regard to weaknesses, look carefully at the job description, and
identify areas we discussed in the seminar that are clearly important
based on the job ad, and that you can improve on. Mention those
skills as areas you can improve on and HOW YOU PLAN TO DO THAT.
This shows a deep understanding that these skills are important, and a
bit of humility in that you recognize your weaknesses. We as
scientists tend to be very ego driven which does not play well when
trying to get a job.
Please comment about answering an interview
question about "one's weaknesses".
This can be one of the best questions you get asked. If
you've got a good understanding of the 24 competencies we discussed in
the webinar, how they relate to requirements that the company has
expressed in their job ad, and now understand enough so that you can
express how you will develop those important skills, you can use this
question to demonstrate your understanding of the value of soft skills,
emphasize the ones that are relevant that you do excel at, and talk
about how you intend to improve your competency in the skills that you
are weak in, and how by doing so it will have a direct impact on the
company. Use social intelligence to mention how your current
skill set and plans for improving those skills will benefit the person
you're speaking with, or the part of the company operations that he/she
is involved with. I know this sounds like a shameless plug, but
taking our self assessment is a great way to get you prepared down this
path.
Do you have any suggestions
for demonstrating business skills on the resume?
First
identify the skills that are relevant for the job your applying for,
and develop a short (1-2 sentences) experience statement that
demonstrates your skill. For example, in your Experience section
of your Resume, if the job ad talked about working in cross-matrixed
teams, you might have a section titled: Effective Performance in
Cross-matrixed environments: “Three years managing and leading
diverse groups of scientists, technicians and students in order to
ensure laboratory projects stayed on track. This often required
conflict resolution, innovative planning and developing rapport with
all team members.”
Would
you
advise
students with MS science degrees who are interested in
transitioning into industry to go on to pursue their PhD or not?
Much
has been written recently on this subject-- three articles in Nature
the week of April 20th. There is a growing
trend for students
with Bachelors degrees to pursue new Professional Science Masters
programs rather than a PhD/postdoc. These programs which now
number over 230, in more than 100 universities are typically two year
degree programs that focus roughly 70% of the training on scientific
technical skills and the other 30% on the soft skills such as those
taught in our SciPhD program. They are becoming more and more
popular and are definitely worth a look.
How should I go
about netoworking as a graduate student without much experience?
Go to meetings and talk with presenters. Get involved in local
business groups involved in biotechnology. That could be your
local department of economic development, the technology transfer
office at your university, groups who host postdoc career fairs, and
local biotech incubators. These are all good opportunities to
meet executives in local companies, or people who know those
executives. Volunteering to help with projects like postdoc
career fairs can get you good visibility.
What are some
examples of entry level industry positions for life sciences PhD
graduates specifically those not in R&D?
Scientific Applications Specialist is a good one. This leverages
your science knowledge in support of business development and sales
activities in companies You don't do research per se, but you
translate the value of the science that your company's products
supports in the context of what the customer wants. That's how I
started out when I left NIH. It was fun, comfortable in the sense
that I was still using my science expertise, and got me on the job
training in important business skills.
I was wondering how
we can present our business skills after 5 years of Ph.D. identity?
Use your PhD to its advantage. We talked in the SciPhD workshop
about the kinds of skills that industry assumes you do have- critical
thinking, data analysis, strategic vision, etc. Identify the
additional skills you have, and develop a narrative of your experiences
that support those soft skills, and use those SHORT stories to
demonstrate your competence in response to specific operational
competencies outlined in job ads you are responding to. Spend
less time impressing with your science knowledge (they generally grant
you that) and tell them how you helped develop a highly functioning
team, how you were a good communicator, custodian of a strict budget,
and developed a program that delivered results on time and on budget.
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