Transition to Industry: SciPhD Bootcamp

Presented by Randall Ribaudo, PhD and Larry Petcovic

Adapting to industry jobs can be a significant challenge for scientists coming from academia. Industry values and even requires skills that go beyond the traditional scientific/technical competencies. "The ability to work in cross-matrixed environments, demonstrate solid tactical and strategic thinking, ability to delegate, communicate and understand basic concepts of project management" are common prerequisites for jobs in industry. Although these skills are not typically emphasized during academic training, many research activities do in fact map to these competencies. Having an awareness of your skills and an ability to express those skills in business terms provides a significant competitive advantage in landing an industry job and being successful in that job.

Session 1: The Business of Science

The career challenges that PhDs face have evolved significantly over the past 10-15 years. Academic tenure-track positions have become more and more competitive, and there is generally little to no training or guidance with respect the opportunities available outside academia, the critical skills required and how to successfully compete for those jobs.

In this two hour interactive session we will discuss the technical, business and social skills that are valued both within and outside academia and how to relate your own scientific experiences and accomplishments to those skills in a way that demonstrates your hiring value. Participants will learn how to dissect a job ad to identify the required skills, and how to develop a 2 page targeted resume that reflects their qualifications and experiences in the context of those skills, and how to develop talking points to effectively handle the behavioral-based interview process.

Session 2: Practical Project Management for Scientists

Project Management experience is highly valued for many professional positions available to scientists, due to its focus on efficiency, and reliably completing projects on time and on budget. Being able to demonstrate practical experience with this important skill provides a real advantage when competing for jobs. The scientific method, which is the basis of biomedical research, very closely parallels the project management process. So in essence, scientists are putting project management into practice every day (even if they don’t realize it!). In this session students will learn to translate their scientific experience into the language of project management by clearly defining the project’s goals, success criteria, assumptions and action plan. Their project management experiences are then iterated in their resume and interview preparation. Students will then use that same project management approach to develop a plan to looking for, and land their first job.

Session 3: Financial Literacy

In this session, we will review what you need to know about finance to negotiate a salary offer and to evaluate the financial health of an organization. Using a Case Study learning method for a local biotech, we will step through 12 basic financial terms for doing business. Participants will then utilize these terms in evaluating the health of a company. Finally, we will look at the financial considerations of negotiating your total compensation package with your hiring manager at your new job.

Session 4: Applied Communications and Networking

In this session we will demonstrate how to build an effective career network by leveraging your professional and social contacts, targeting individuals in selected companies, leveraging consulting interviews and finding opportunities to continuously build more contacts. We will practice essential communications skills that enable you to communicate most effectively with a wide variety of audiences regardless of their technical knowledge, professional discipline, and executive position. We rehearse how to manage emotionally charged conversations. We apply these skills in the context of meeting new people, expanding your network, quickly developing relationships and trust, acing your job interviews, and negotiating your career plans to include your departure with your advisor.

Behavioral Outcomes

By attending and participating in this whole-day SciPhD workshop, participants should be able to perform the following:

Identify and find the type of jobs they are seeking
Analyze a job ad, identify the critical technical, business and social skills required to qualify for an interview
Develop a competitive targeted resume that relates their research and life experiences that match the required and unique competitive advantage skills
Apply industry Project Management best practices to their own scientific research project, and their job search project
Evaluate companies of interest with respect to their financial health
Leverage communications techniques to build their network, get company intelligence, and perform well in behavioral-based job interviews.

In one day you will transition from the often quoted “over-qualified and under experienced” kiss of death to the “Best Qualified with relevant experience.”

Testimonials about the course: http://sciphd.com/testimonials/

Organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium (TPTC)

Fee and Registration

$75 TPTC Members + Eventbrite processing
$100 Non-TPTC Members + Eventbrite processing
Institutional email is required for TPTC registration.
Registration fee includes a light breakfast and lunch.
Registration and light breakfast: 7:30am-8am. Program: 8am-5pm

TPTC members include postdocs from Salk, SBP, TSRI and UC San Diego.

FREE PARKING is available at Lot 2, 10620 John J. Hopkins Drive.

Speakers Bios

Randall Ribaudo

Human Workflows LLC co-founder Dr. Randall Ribaudo has over twenty years of experience in the Scientific Research and biotechnology field. Dr. Ribaudo co-founded Human Workflows after more than five years at Celera Genomics. During his time at Celera, Dr. Ribaudo has acted as a liaison between Celera and the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic communities, served as product manager responsible for developing support products for the Proteomics Groups mass spectrometry software, led the iScience Task Force to define strategic directions for sister company Applied Biosystems, advised on product development for the Celera Discovery System and enterprise solutions for information integration, and worked as a Manager of Strategic Solutions in the Informatics business.

Prior to Celera, Dr. Ribaudo worked at the biotechnology and bioinformatics company Molecular Applications Group. MAG developed pioneering bioinformatics solutions for molecular modeling, information integration, gene expression analysis, and protein function prediction. While at MAG, Dr. Ribaudo was responsible for presenting the revolutionary capabilities of MAG's products to representatives in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic communities.

In 1999, when Celera Genomics acquired the Protein Function Prediction assets of Molecular Applications Group, Dr. Ribaudo joined their staff.

Dr. Ribaudo also has extensive experience in the academic biological life sciences arena as well. After receiving a Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Ribaudo joined the Laboratory of Immunology, NIAID at the National Institutes of Health where he studied the molecular basis of antigen presentation. Dr. Ribaudo then accepted a position in the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Immune Cell Biology as a Principal Investigator where he developed his own research program studying the immune response to viruses and tumors, leading a team of postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and University and High School students. His work at the National Cancer Institute led to the development of a novel technology to develop vaccines against tumors and viruses. Dr. Ribaudo holds patents for this technology which are now being further developed by private companies.

All of this experience has provided Dr. Ribaudo with tremendous insight into the rapidly exploding technological capabilities in areas of discovery research, information and data management, as well as a detailed understanding of the human workflows that are required to successfully implement those technological solutions.

Larry Petcovic

While Larry Petcovic started his professional career in chemistry and environmental radiation sciences, he recognized the importance of mastering communication techniques and added an additional degree in behavioral sciences with continued studies in social neurosciences. Currently, he continues to consult as an Executive Communications Coach with Fortune 100 clients as well as startups. His extensive experience in 360° performance coaching, behavioral based training, process improvement techniques, selling skills and leadership development provides an in-depth corporate understanding. He is currently researching and piloting a social neuroscience assessment of what makes communications effective social messaging. Larry has served in Training and Human Resources VP positions in a variety of industries as well as initiating several startups.

He has also produced a wide variety of video, computer based, classroom and field blended training programs. The “Story of Radiation” was a pioneer program assisting in stochastic decision making about radiation exposure. Larry has initiated several entrepreneurial companies including Training Resources, Advanced Communication Techniques, 3rd Order Communications and has been a Co-Founder in MuseumsUSA and SciPhD. “My specialty is helping professionals operationalize their full talent, especially in the scientific and technical fields. My experience enables a coaching style recognizing that scientists are leaders – they just don’t know it yet!” The SciPhD program, Co-founded with Randy Ribaudo, Immunologist, serves to facilitate new PhDs and Postdocs in discovering their business and people skills cultivated while performing science research; after all, from a behavioral perspective science is a business and scientists just have to learn business language to realize they can be full partners in any business enterprise.

Larry holds a BS in Chemistry, an MS from Rutgers University in Environmental Radiation Sciences, an MS from Johns Hopkins University in Behavioral Sciences and additional graduate studies in Executive Development at George Washington University. He lives outside Baltimore Maryland, USA.