by Brian Shott
Why did you leave academia?
Our interviewees describe their frustrations.
“I was on about my fourth temporary contract in academia, getting a bit frustrated. I would just get started with projects and then have to move on to the next job.”
—Dan Metcalf, microscopy sales manager
“After becoming a mother, I was thinking, ‘Do I really want to go back to research?’ And with two scientists at home—my husband is a researcher—I thought, it’s not possible.
—Gloria Fuentes, medical illustrator
“I realized that academic research wasn’t for me while trudging through days of failed experiments…I wanted to work on something that impacted society in my lifetime.
—Bani K. Suri, entrepreneur
“I realized I became a postdoc because it was the ‘default’ choice, rather than something I really wanted to do.”
—Anjana Narayanan, consultant and product manager
“We were doing non-applied science, basic research, and I had reached the point where I was like, ‘Why am I doing all of this?’ I decided to go to a company because I needed to have meaning in the work I’m doing.”
—Carla Pratt, organic farmer
On taking the leap…
Preparing, and then no turning back.
“When a recruiter approached me about selling Nikon products and training Nikon customers in superresolution microscopy, it seemed like a natural step.”
“I stumbled onto an opportunity to be part of a talent incubator. I learned a great deal about startups, thought processes, customer relations, doing market analysis and other ‘real-world’ skills.”
“I tried to learn as much as possible about management consulting. I read articles about top consulting firms, connected to consultants on LinkedIn, did informational chats, and signed up to a consulting newsletter.”
…and landing on your feet.
What skills did you need in your new position?
“Presentation skills are important in the medical liaison industry. Communication really underpins everything we do.”
—Sheri Hussain, medical liaison
“You need to know and communicate the science in order to put all these things into a visual that makes sense for the project. I find illustrating trickier than writing sometimes.”
“Being my own boss, I have to be strict enough to keep my own schedule and make sure I do all the work. ”
In a startup, you work long, intense hours on your own work while putting other processes in place at the same time—you roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done! You learn a lot and wear many hats.”
The best part of your new career…
It’s still about science, many told us.
“Meeting with clinicians and talking to them is probably my favorite bit.”
“I really enjoy keeping up with the latest research. Even when I was on maternity leave, instead of watching Netflix I was reading scientific papers. Today, I’ve been burying myself in papers related to Covid-19 just like any other researcher.”
“When I was a consultant, I loved working on different cases, understanding business scenarios and problem solving.”
…and the worst.
Paperwork, managing people, and oh, the emails!
“Meeting tender deadlines is the most stressful. Filling out tender documents can be several days of work…You can miss a £300,000 sale by missing a tender deadline by just an hour.”
“The least favorite is probably admin. That’s something I work on; I try to make sure I make time for my admin first up.”
“Continuous human interaction, which is often lacking in a lab setup, is a major part of startup life that can sometimes overwhelm people from academia.”
“After two years as a consultant I realized that consulting is more than a job, it is a lifestyle. Constant travel and living out of a suitcase was hard.”
Advice for those who want to leave academia?
Words of warning and encouragement.
“As a scientist, you have many transferable skills that are highly valuable. The key is to make sure you showcase them in the right light.”
“For creative people, I think the field of medical illustration is here to stay—especially animation. Five years ago, you wouldn’t think someone working from home could do it. Now, you invest in a GPS card and you can make it.”
“My advice for biologists venturing into entrepreneurship is to carefully consider the type of incubator you wish to join and thoroughly assess their capability to support your specific ideas and startup style.”
“Employers are less interested in knowing which labs you worked in and for how long. Focus on things you have done and skills you have picked up at each stage of your professional journey.”
—Tony Cabrejos, recruiter
“It’s only as difficult as you make it in your head.”
]]>
Sheri Hussain says it was a moment when her life hung in the balance: after being offered a “dream postdoc” at a prestigious lab in New York City, Hussain, then a newly minted PhD specializing in prostate cancer, got cold feet. Instead, she would seek a profession where her love of science and her extrovert personality could shine through.
“My pathway would be different,” she told us.
We sat down with Sheri, now a senior medical science liaison (MSL) in lung oncology at the biopharmaceutical AstraZeneca, to discuss the challenges of bringing researchers, clinicians, and drug companies together in the fight against cancer.
Can you describe a typical day at your job?
A typical day is not typical! It’s always changing. This week, I prepared to host a conference symposium: event planning, making sure that my speakers arrived on time and that they were happy. On Wednesday, I started bright and early, meeting with a surgeon; it was the only time he could meet because he was operating all day. We talked for about an hour. I had teleconferences after that until about 11 a.m. Then, another meeting with a radiation oncologist at another site. Then I worked from home preparing slides for an internal training session that I’m running at an international conference in a couple of weeks. It’s a session on building rapport with clinicians that you’ve just met, about personality types, all these really abstract ideas. A complete about-face from my day-to-day, which is talking about science.
Which sort of insights from clinicians are you looking for?
When we’re first starting to look at tumor types, for example, a lot of our conversations with clinicians might revolve around questions like, ‘What is the prevalence of that tumor type? How do they present to you? What do you normally treat them with?’ Once the actual clinical trial results are out for your drug, then the conversation may swing toward understanding how the data is being received. The best insights are uncovered when you understand what drives clinicians and what their thoughts are around clinical data, patient management, competitors—all of that.
You trained in prostate cancer. What was most difficult about your shift from prostate to lung?
Learning the different types of clinical management. Pathways are similar across the board; p53 seems to be everywhere you look. What’s different is how patients are managed, and how we stage them. You also have to learn who is who in your new field. In prostate cancer I knew all the clinicians, who did what, who was important and where the big centers were. When you move into a new stream you need to learn all that again. I’ve worked in lung for three years. It was a steep learning curve for my first six months. It takes time to be able to go into a meeting and say, ‘You know what? I’ve got this.’ It’s really important for people to realize that this takes time, and not feel disheartened.
What are some key skills someone interested in being an MSL should bring to the table?
Presentation skills are a major one.
Communication really underpins everything we do in this industry.
When you’re speaking to a new clinician or nurses or patient groups, you need to be able to communicate your ideas without getting bogged down into, ‘Well, this molecule does this, and here’s an antibody that does this,’ because half the people are probably going, ‘So what? Who cares?’—you need to relate it back to their patient. Another is being really good at planning your time. To say to yourself, ‘Ok, I’m going to block out an hour just to answer emails, and then I’m going to create some slides, and then this…’—it’s something we do all the time.
How do you stay ahead in a competitive market?
What differentiates an MSL is the relationships you’ve made, and these relationships need to be based on trust. A lot of my clinicians trust me with really important information, they open up about things they wouldn’t with other people. They know I will keep that information sacred and I won’t abuse the relationship.
Keeping up with research, building relationships, honing your business skills—which parts of your job do you love, and which are the most challenging?
Oh, can I just pick it all? Everything’s a challenge that I enjoy! Meeting with clinicians and talking to them is probably my favorite bit. The least favorite is probably admin. That’s something I work on; I try to make sure I make time for my admin first up.
Let’s look toward the future: With expanding treatment options and digitalization in the field, will the work of an MSL get easier, or harder?
Harder. In fact, lung cancer is getting harder right now. The sheer volume of data that has come out in the last year—it’s overwhelming! Not only are we going to have to be subject matter experts, but we’re going to be talking to a bunch of different clinicians. I’ll need to expand beyond medical oncologists and look at every HCP potentially involved in a patient’s care. You really need to have a holistic picture of who’s involved in management of the patient. It’s going to be harder. Way harder.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author’s and not that of Imagenscience.
You can reach out to Sheri here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheri-hussain-57824825/
]]>