PhD Transition Report On-Demand

Skip ahead to:
7:50 Show Me The Data
23:04 Chris Voss
44:00 Mansi Khanna, Ph.D..

Does the thought of negotiating your salary fill you with fear? 

Learn how you can increase your starting salary and negotiate confidently.  

In this episode, we are joined by Chris Voss, top FBI negotiator, CEO and Author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Using his many years of experience in high-stakes negotiations, Chris will share proven negotiation strategies that you can apply in your job search.  We are also joined by Mansi Khanna, PhD, Regulatory Writer at Synchrogenix, who will discuss the regulatory writer career track and how other PhDs can pursue this career.

About Our Guests

Chris Voss has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world. Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. Chris has taught business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.  He has taught business negotiation at Harvard University, guest lectured at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, The IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and The Goethe School of Business in Frankfurt, Germany.

Mansi Khanna, Ph.D. is a regulatory writer at Synchrogenix, a Certara company, where she prepares clinical documentation for national regulatory agencies for assessment of the safety and efficacy of drugs. Her inspiration stemmed during her postdoctoral studies in the Drug Discovery Group at the University of Pennsylvania. She became interested in the final stages of drug development that involves late-stage clinical trials and marketing. During her postdoc, she was also an Editor with the Postdoctoral Editor’s Association and a peer reviewer for multiple journals. In addition to her career, she loves traveling and is never found without a book. She is a big fan of Harry Potter and Cat in the Hat!

Key Takeaways

1. Use questions to shape thinking not to gather information. 

2. Get a “that’s right” out of your potential employer. 

3. Regulatory writing is different from general medical writing and is a good option for those who want to be connected to drug development.

Salary Negotiation Tips From Top FBI Negotiator: A Conversation With Chris Voss

Isaiah: What are some of the phrases that you use that really get people talking about what might be possible in terms of increasing a salary?

Chris: Well, what we do is we use questions to shape thinking. We don’t really use questions to gather information.

So how am I supposed to do that? I’m trying to shape your thinking into looking at my position. You could ask, what does it take to be successful here? A lot of people don’t ask that question. Instead they ask, what are you looking for in a candidate? Which is a stock question and has a stock answer.

When you say, what does it take to be successful here? an employer hears oh, you’re trying to make sure you’re successful with us as part of our team. You want to say something that’s gonna make them hear a bunch of other things.

And we’ve had a lot of people in job negotiations, you know, there’s always an interview panel on the other side and there’s always a guy in the interview panel doesn’t say a word. What does it take to be successful here? One of my students from Georgetown asked at a job interview, and the guy on the other side that never said a word, leaned forward and said, no one ever asked us that before. And then he laid it out.

Now the, the magic trick that just happened at that point in time, you get somebody who’s telling you, what does it take to be successful in that with that employer. You’ve actually just recruited your first mentor because if they lay that out for you and they’re wrong, they got something at stake. So what they’re going to have a tendency to do from that point on, without telling you is they’re going to look out for ya. You know, they’re going to, they’re going to keep you from getting blindsided. Unofficial mentors are far more important than official mentors. And that’s how you recruited on official mentor.

Isaiah: Another problem that I think the people that are watching here have is just the uncomfortableness of negotiating, They think  I don’t want them to take away the job offer. I don’t want to lose. You’ve done some very high stakes negotiation. So how do you approach that? How do you handle that fear, that uncertainty?

Chris: Be in the moment instead of thinking about where you’re going. One of the sayings we have is “Never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn’t take something better.” I mean the whole idea is to get your focus off of the objective a little bit because the more focused you on our objective, the more tunnel vision you get, the less you see other options and opportunities and the more out of the moment you are and the more you miss stuff.

I mean, I was coaching somebody last night and she was saying, you know what if this happens, you know this didn’t work out last time. I said, look this to some degree, this is like walking a tight rope. The guy walking on the tight rope, doesn’t look at the other side of the Grand Canyon where he wants to go because you’re going to fall off the rope. He looks down at his feet, he focuses on each step. He makes sure each step is right and low and behold he’s on the other side.

So you get a lot better if you just get into the moment, get your head out of where this is going. What if this happens as a disaster? I mean those are all distractions. As soon as you get into the moment and realize there’s a lot of space between yes and no. I don’t have to say yes, I don’t have to say no. I can just respectfully explore and clarify with that. Accepting or rejecting anything the possibilities really opened up.

Isaiah: What, what can you do to have that kind of bonding moment with, with an employer?

Chris: Yeah, it’s actually really simple. You know, it’s the stuff that we’re afraid to say.

You could look at an employer and go like, look, you guys are restricted here. I mean you guys are under a lot of pressure. You know, you got a lot of people inside your company that you really like them, the good people, but you know, you’re a little worried that you’re going to bring somebody else in and be disappointed.

I mean, you guys want to take your company to the next level and you want people that are committed to taking you to the next level. Employees that are not selfish and a not just looking out for themselves at all. You want people that are saying to themselves, what’s in it for us? How do we get to the next level? How do we do a better job feeding our families, putting our families in better houses, putting our kids in better schools? How do we succeed as a group?

Employers going to be blown away by that. That’s when what you say and what they hear  is this person wants to make us successful. This person wants to help me have a better life for my family and my children, better future for my children. And that makes you immeasurably valuable and also gives you the opportunity. 

Regulatory Writer Career Track: A Conversation With Mansi Khanna, Ph.D.

Isaiah: How did you find out about this career path? How did you get interested in regulatory affairs or regulatory writing?

Mansi: I started getting interested in medical writing specifically during my postdoctoral years at the University of Pennsylvania. I started to look at careers away from the bench because I realized pretty early on during my postdoc that more than actually doing the experiment I enjoyed actually analyzing them. And it didn’t matter to me whether the data was mine or someone else’s in a paper. But that seemed more exciting to me than actually doing the experiment myself. So I started to look at ways in which I could leave the bench but still be associated with the science part of it, where I could still see the data, like data driven careers but not necessarily generating the data myself.

And so medical writing came up. Now medical writing can be of two kinds. One is the regulatory path which I took. And the other one is just regular medical writing. But since I was in the drug discovery group realized that not only do I like analysis of data, but I like to keep up to date with what’s happening in the world of drug development. And so that’s how I chose the regulatory writing and started looking specifically at how I could stay within the realm of regulatory writing as opposed to just medical writing in general.

** for the full interviews check out the video above

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.

The post Salary Negotiation Tips From Top FBI Negotiator (For PhDs) appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Skip ahead to:
06:00 Show Me The Data
26:09 Dr. Patti Fletcher
53:40 Matthew Jefferson, Ph.D.

Are you struggling to feel ‘ready’ to transition into your next role? Especially as a woman in STEM?

Learn how you can cultivate a success mindset to develop confidence and use disruption to drive equity. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Patti Fletcher who is an Award-Winning Business Influencer, Bestselling Author, Innovation Catalyst, and Speaker. She is the author of Disrupters – Success Strategies From Women Who Break The Mold. Dr. Patti discusses how you can cultivate a success mindset and make the transition into a position that is outside of your comfort zone. We are also joined by Matthew Jefferson, PhD, Medical Science Liaison at Viela Bio, who will discuss the MSL career track and how other PhDs can pursue this career. If you’ve been struggling with taking the next steps in your job search you will want to watch this episode.

About Our Guests

Dr. Patti Fletcher is included in the coveted list “18 Women to Watch in 2018” by Brown, Brothers, Harriman, Dr. Patti Fletcher, is an internationally sought-after speaker, seasoned tech executive, award-winning marketing and business influencer, board member, angel and investor. Dr. Patti has appeared on NASDAQ, Cheddar, Bloomberg, and Greater Boston among others. Patti writes for Entrepreneur.com, Inc., The Guardian, Forbes and The Digitalist, and has contributed to/been featured in Time Magazine, RealSimple, Al Jazeera, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, The Muse and The Huffington Post and many more. She is the author of best-selling Disrupters: Success Strategies From Women Who Break The Mold.

Matthew Jefferson, Ph.D. is a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) for Viela Bio, supporting the launch of a first-in-class therapy for Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO). Having earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Iowa State, Matt has a background in basic neuroimmunology research and an immediate expertise in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. As a researcher, experienced educator, and patient advocate, Matt’s passion is to communicate science for clinical communities and ultimately support the patient journey for those suffering from debilitating neurological diseases. Matt currently lives in Ames, Iowa with his wife Amanda and their now three corgis (Emma, Ellie, & Edgar). He enjoys collecting and listening to records, disc golfing, and being active outside as often as possible.

Key Takeaways

1. You will never be ‘ready’ to take on a position that is outside your comfort zone but this is no reason not to move forward and reach for higher level positions. 

2. Look at the systems to identify and disassemble inequity. 

3. You can transition into a MSL role right out of graduate school and it is a position where you will interact with a variety of people and build your communication skills.

Disruptive Career Success Strategies For PhDs: A Conversation With Dr. Patti Fletcher

Isaiah: What can someone do to overcome imposter syndrome and system-wide bias? What can they do to seize the opportunities when they present themselves?

Dr. Patti: Yeah, it’s a really good question and an important one. And, and going back to what you and Jeanette were talking about before I joined, everybody has imposter syndrome. So imposter syndrome is really important in me. I’m a disruptor and scientists tend to be disruptors too. As you see a status quo that’s no longer working, it’s inefficient, it’s ineffective, it doesn’t provide value in a meaningful way. And you have to create a new status quo, right? So you’re disrupted. That’s what you do as a disruptor. You assemble people to do that and that’s great. So as a disruptor, taking the job you’ve never taken before, doing something unprecedented, you can’t help but feel imposter syndrome.

And guess what? That’s a good thing. As a disruptor, you have to, because ultimately what you’re thinking is, “Oh crap, I haven’t done this before. Who am I to think that I can do this? They’re going to find out.” Well, guess what? When someone hires you, they already know what they’re getting and, and if you are a woman in that position, you should feel good about yourself because you’re bucking the system. We are conditioned as humans to believe that if a man doesn’t know something, he takes a job. If a woman doesn’t know something, she takes the class. So that’s enough for me. I’ve always taken the job, like we said in the beginning, so I suffer from imposter syndrome. That’s number one.

Number two, I focus in on competence instead of confidence. So confidence means that I’ve done this before. You’re doing something unprecedented, whether it’s for you or someone else instead, so you can’t have confidence. Instead, think about competence. You are already a scientist. Your job is to break stuff down, write the scientific method, ask a bunch of questions, and then you ask more questions and more questions and more questions. That’s the competence you have. Breaking down something that’s extremely complicated, complex, something that you’re probably going to bring your unique perspective. Build onto the wall of knowledge there you have what it takes, and I have to tell you, I coach a lot with women who are new CEO’s or new board members. They have careers that are 30 or 40 years long. They’ve done incredible things and yet they suffer from imposter syndrome because they forget that when they were brought onto that board or brought on a CEO, those board members knew what they were getting. They don’t feel you need to have the confidence. They just want you to have the competence to figure it out.

Everybody needs to understand you have the competence to figure it out. Start from where you are that will get you to where you need to be. And that’s really the topic around equity. Equity means I’m gonna meet you where you are, understand your journey’s different and give you tools in order to overcome whatever you need, barriers you have and all that fun stuff. Do that for yourself as well. Start from where you are. Take inventory of what you must know and what other people can help you with.

Medical Science Liaison Career Track: A Conversation With Matthew Jefferson, Ph.D.

Isaiah: What I see happen to a lot of PhDs is they think they have an unlimited amount of time or it’s too far away, so they just wait and they procrastinate and they wait till like their day before they defend and they’re going to be unemployed to really start job searching. So what did you do to stay on track?

Matthew: The informational interviews for me were overwhelmingly motivating. Like too many of us, I had a tumultuous PhD experience. I had the clinical depression, all that, you know, all that fun stuff. And you know, connecting with others and hearing that the grass truly was greener on the other side, kept me hungry. It kept me motivated. You know, it was like a free dose of Prozac talking to an MSL who said, yeah, just, make it through the PhD and once you get here, it’s the best job in the world. I believe that I had the confidence in myself and I was like I can add to an organization, I can add that value. 

** for the full interviews check out the video above

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.

The post Disruptive Career Success Strategies For PhDs appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Skip ahead to:
07:35 Show Me The Data
21:19 Dr. Alise Cortez
52:02 Brian Getson
1:07:20 Brent Ware, Ph.D.

Meaningful work is not exclusive to academia, as a PhD you can find meaningful and purposeful work in industry. 

Learn how you can secure a high-paying and meaningful industry career. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Alise Cortez, who helps you to more meaningfully and purposely connect with your work to achieve greater fulfillment, more impactful results, and harmonic work-life integration. We are also joined by Brent Ware, Ph.D., Medical Device Analyst at Medtronic. He will discuss how he made the transition out of academia and what it’s like working as a Medical Device Analyst. And on this episode we have a special appearance by immigration lawyer, Brian Getson. He will discuss the biggest immigration changes that international PhDs need to be aware of, don’t miss it. 

About Our Guests

Dr. Alise Cortez is a Speaker, Consultant, Published Author, Radio Show /Podcast Host, and Purpose/Engagement Catalyst based in Dallas, Texas. Having developed her expertise within the Human Capital / Organizational Excellence industry over the last 20 years, today she is focused on helping companies, leaders, and individuals across the globe to more meaningfully and purposely connect with their work to achieve greater fulfillment, more impactful results, and harmonic work-life integration. She is a sought-after speaker and management consultant to organizations, conducts leadership development and employee engagement programs, and facilitates retreats to discover and grow your purpose.

Brian Getson Esq. has extensive experience preparing EB-1A, EB-1B and NIW petitions for scientific researchers throughout the United States. After graduating cum laude from Duke University, Mr. Getson attended The University of Pennsylvania Law School. Upon receiving his law degree in 1995, he joined the Firm and concentrated his practice on immigration law. Mr. Getson is a frequent speaker on the green card process for scientific researchers at annual meetings of the world’s most prestigious scientific organizations including The American Society for Cell Biology, Materials Research Society, American Chemical Society, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, American Physical Society, and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. Getson has lectured to other immigration lawyers at continuing legal education courses, and has been selected multiple times as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association.

Brent Ware Ph.D. is from Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and earned a B.S./M.S. in biological systems engineering from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Colorado State University.  Driven by a passion to advance healthcare with engineering, he recently transitioned into industry as a medical device analyst with Medtronic’s Heart Valves Division. There, he sees how PhDs can apply their talents and skills towards improving the world around us if they persevere through their job search.  When he’s not at work, Brent teaches Sunday school and gets as many laps in the pool as possible.

Key Takeaways

1. Meaning and connection to your work is essential for fulfillment and will allow you to perform better and achieve greater results. 

2. If you’re an international PhD looking to get hired in the US, it is possible, you just need to know your options and be prepared to explain them clearly to any potential employers. 

3. Working in industry offers the opportunity to be close to science, close to patients and for your work to have a tangible, positive impact on society.

How PhDs Find Meaningful Work: A Conversation With Dr. Alise Cortez

Isaiah: Why is meaning finding meaning in your work so important for everybody, including PhDs?

Alise: From my vantage point, the work that I do as a logotherapist in the purpose of engagement space, what we’ve learned, if you really pay attention, many people are in a meaning vacuum an existential vacuum. Bu you can fill that with meaning. The higher wellbeing you have, the more effective you are and the happier you are. So of course that’s what I’m up to with some people, helping people be present and find more meaning in their lives and their work. And the good news is we can do that as human beings, we’re extremely creative in that way. And so the meaning piece is really what drives you. You used the word engagement before and actually, in the purpose of meaning space, that’s what I claim as being a subject matter expert, what we’re vying for really first and foremost is fulfillment, not necessarily engagement. So kind of fulfillment replaces the word engagement if you will. It’s the next level up, right? So what happens is when we cultivate meaning in our lives and our work, we then become fulfilled. The byproduct is that we’re happy and that we’re engaged in why engagement is important is because it drives our performance, our persistence and our willingness to stay in an organization.

Isaiah: So what are some things you can do or questions you can ask yourself to figure out what might be most important to you in the realm of meaning? What might be meaningful to you in life? What might be fulfilling to you in life?

Alise: Ah! I say ah, because I researched how people experience meaning in their work in relation to the identities and I found these 15 modes of engagement and that would be one place to look. If you go to my website, alisecortezs.com the research tab shows that. And what I found is when people read that Isaiah, they start to recognize, oh you mean people experienced work differently than me? I thought there was just one way. Yes and no. There isn’t. In fact, what we find is that we as PhDs, we do have a need to use our brains. And so that inquiry into the cognitive space is usually pretty important. Or to solve really wicked nasty problems is important to us sometimes. But other people really need to be able to meaningfully connect with other human beings or to know that their values are being utilized at work and through their work.

And so back to what you said about know thyself, it’s really important to get clear about the times you do feel fulfilled. When you do find yourself feeling fulfilled, what are you doing? Cause it’s that feeling Isaiah, right? That we need to be able to propel ourselves through the hard stuff that happens in life. Whether it’s at work, whether it’s something atrocious happens in the rest of our life that throws us off board. We need to hang on to that feeling of meaning because that’s what fills our tank. 

Medical Device Analyst Career Track: A Conversation With Brent Ware, Ph.D.

Isaiah: When it comes to your career path, can you tell us a little bit about it? What do you do specifically? What does it look like day to day?

Brent: So I wouldn’t say that there is a standard day, but my role is to look at why heart valves fail in the clinic after they’d been implanted in a patient. And that could be anything from getting on the phone and calling a doctor’s office to talking with the salesperson to even reading about it in literature articles and then being able to take all the individual pieces and put them together to tell a complete story to the FDA or just some of the regulatory body throughout the world.

Isaiah: How did you find out about this role? How did you even know it existed?

Brent: This was actually something I didn’t about know beforehand. But I was talking with the recruiter, a recruiter back towards the end of last year, who thought that my background in biomedical engineering would be a good fit for this role. He and was able to make that match and land me an interview. And when I got to the interview they realized that, you know, they can’t train you in school to do a job like this, but can you be organized, can you ask the right questions and can you learn quickly on the job and that’s what what they were really trying to tease out during the interview.

Green Card Q&A For PhDs: A Conversation With Brian Getson

Isaiah: The first question that we have teed up here is does someone need a job offer to self file for a green card based on their research accomplishments?

Brian: So the answer Isaiah is yes and no. Okay. So there’s two classifications where a foreign national can file for a green card, they’re the EB1, an extraordinary ability aliens classification. And that’s really only going to be used by people from China or India because there’s a backlog right now for the rest of the world. And then there’s the national interest waiver petition. And again, that is a long wait for people from China and India while there’s no wait for people from the rest of the world. So for those categories, you do not need an employer to sponsor you. You can file the green card petition by yourself and you should be okay. However, immigration wants to know what you’re going to be doing. They’re not giving you a green card to flip hamburgers at McDonald’s or work at Walmart.

They’re giving you a green card so that you can continue your research in your field. So while you are self filing you have to have plans for work. The EB1, a legal standard is plans for work in the United States. The NIW legal standard is that you’re well positioned to continue your proposed endeavor. I really don’t like to file it way before somebody graduated their PhD because after you graduate your PhD and you have your OPT in, you’re working. Now it’s easy to say to immigration, here’s my plans for work. I’m in the OPT job. I’m going to keep working in this job if you give me a green card or if I change jobs, it’ll still be in my field.

** to hear the full interviews watch the full episode in the video above.

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.

The post How PhDs Find Meaningful Work appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Skip ahead to:

07:00 Show Me The Data
28:20 David Burkus
1:02:00 Disharee Nath, Ph.D.

Struggling to make networking a part of your job search? Feel like networking is awkward and doesn’t work?

Learn the science behind networking and how you can apply these teachings in your networking efforts. 

In this episode, we are joined by networking expert David Burkus. David is the best selling author of the book Friend of a Friend, he uses the science of human behavior to teach how you can grow your network and build key connections. We are also joined by, Science Writer, Disharee Nath who will share insight into this career track and how other PhDs can pursue a similar career. If you’ve been struggling with networking or you want to take your networking to the next level this is a must watch episode. 

About Our Guests

David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. His newest book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections—one based on the science of human behavior, not rote networking advice. He’s delivered keynotes to the leaders of Fortune 500 companies and the future leaders of the United States Naval Academy. His TED talk has been viewed over 1.9 million times and he is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.

Disharee Nath did her bachelors in Bio-technology from India, and then a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse NY, graduating Dec 2018. Towards the end of her PhD she realized that she wanted to go into communication-based roles. She joined Cheeky Scientist and made her job search a priority. Her current job offer came the day after her last day at graduate school. In February 2019, she joined as a Science Writer at the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). Her job lets her explore her inner creativity to explain science, and she says “I love every moment of it!”

Key Takeaways

1. Ditch your traditional definition of networking that makes you feel awkward and instead focus on investing in the network that you are already a part of. 

2. Start by reengaging with your dormant connections. Reach out to people from your undergraduate days etc, just send them a short note saying that you were thinking about them. Don’t ask for anything. 

3. There is someone in your network right now who can give you a job referral. You just have to do the work to warm up and re-ignite the connections you have with the people you already know.

How PhDs Get Hired Though Loose Connections: A Conversation With David Burkus

Isaiah: So can you help us understand why networking might be important and why it actually does work and matter even to PhDs?

David: Yeah, and here’s what I’ll say is the bad news is that you’re already in a network, but that’s also good news, right?  So let’s say networking feels awkward, and that is true and there is solid research that even says that people who were asked to think about a time when they have to make a professional connection are more likely to have subconscious thoughts of wanting to get clean. So networking literally does make people feel dirty. I get it. The challenge I think for a lot of us is that we’re, we’re narrowing down our definition of networking. We think it means just making new contacts, meeting total strangers. Go into that cocktail party, doing the hand shake, pressing flesh, trading business cards, that kind of stuff. And I mean that feels awkward, but the good news is, is actually pretty ineffective to. I think a better perspective is that networking is anything that we do to understand and navigate the network that we’re already a part of.

So you are already embedded inside a network. And the way that I say and a lot of times is that the best frame of mind is you can’t grow your  network, can’t improve your network, can’t build your network, all of those trite phrases because you don’t have a network. It’s not yours. You don’t own it. You exist inside of a network already. Your job is to figure out where you are in network and then how to go and be connected to the people that you want to be connected to. The best way forward to most of that is the people that you already know, or people that are one introduction way. So if those things make you feel sleazy, you have my permission to skip those events entirely from here on out. You just have to replace them with things that we know actually help people navigate the network.

Isaiah: I think warming up those dormant connections is a crucial first step. The second step you just alluded to was you said either gift giving or looking at the fringes. So where, where do we go next?

David: I would put the gift giving thing as part of that first step of rewarming. Right. And there’s other things that you can do to like it. So alumni, which is a great source. I actually tell a lot of people like if you already had great active on things like LinkedIn and Facebook, that’s awesome. We’ll have your list of connections and then scroll all the way down because most of those are sorted by frequently contacted to infrequent contact. Or if you use Gmail, if you’re like me, you never clear out your sent messages. Which means that there are sent messages from five or six years ago in there. So if you bothered to scroll all the way down, you’re going to see names and think , I haven’t thought of that person in forever.  So once you have that sort of target list, it becomes a gift giving as a way rewarm them.

So what I like to do is actually you make out that list of what your targets are and then you just get in the habit of keeping an open mind, trying to keep them at the forefront of your mind. Can read an article that mentioned the company that they might work at where you read an article that reminds you of something that you talked to them three or four years ago. If you have nothing else, I will tell you this is the easiest way to jump start a conversation. If you have nothing else to do and you’re not a lot of money to give random gifts and lots of people send them an email that just says this, hey, I was thinking about you today and I hope you’re well, no reply needed and then just sign it now why does that work?

That works because only the most like awkward toxic people would be mad at you because you were thinking about them and wanted to send good vibes. The no reply needed sends a little signal that you don’t have an agenda. You’re not trying to recruit them into your network marketing thing. Like there’s no agenda here. You’re just, you’re just wanting to catch up it, etc. They will almost always reply like, and when I tell people to do this, eight out of 10 times, they come back to them and say, yeah, they totally, they replied and we had this great conversation, but people love to just hear that you were, you were thinking about them. If you act, if you’ve literally, we’re thinking about them instead of just thinking about them because you saw them on your LinkedIn list, right? Then it’s even better because you can tell them why and you can jumpstart that conversation.

Science Writer Career Track: A Conversation With Disharee Nath, Ph.D.

Isaiah: Why did you want to get into a scientific communications role? Why did you decide to leave academia?

Disharee: Yeah. So a year ago I was wondering the same thing, like what would I do, where would I go? And I’m a good point for me to start was to really understand what I wanted to do and what was I good at. So looking back, I did a lot  of inner reflection and trying to understand what I liked. And I realize that the part of my PhD that I liked the most was when I was presenting at the conferences, at seminars or just having people over explaining my work to them. And I talked to my committee members about going to a communication space career and they really encouraged me to it. And, doing those reflections, I realized that was probably the place for me to go. And then I started talking to people who were in those positions to kind of consolidate my understanding of them and my eagerness and wanting to go into those roles. So it was, it was a learning curve for me also. And also getting over the mental block of not being a scientist at the bench, but I kind of knew like towards the latter half of my PhD that I didn’t want to be at the bench anymore. I just had it in my head. It took me awhile to kind of accept that and go there.

Isaiah: So I want to dig into the networking piece again. I know networking helped you in terms of your career. What did you do networking wise? What, what actually led to you finding the position? 

Disharee: It’s funny me coming after the David Burkus today to talk about this because I did get my job through a friend of a friend. So that was, that was like when I saw it coming it was like wow. It was perfect. All right. So I actually focused a lot on networking and by networking I actually did what David was saying, to reach out to my loose connection. So I reached out to a lot of my alumni from my undergraduate as well as my graduate school. And I remember I reconnected with a lot of my friends from back in undergrad who are right now in the US in different industries. I remember one of the alumni from my current graduate school who helped me a lot with my resume, he is one of the reasons I got an understanding of how much I need to change my original before the job.

So I’m really grateful for it to those people. And the person that I got my job through, I have met her at my friend’s place once and my friend’s wedding a second time. I only ever met them twice in my entire life. And when I heard that she used to work at JoVe I reached out to her asking about the company and how she liked. She was an ex employee. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a referral. It just wanted to know about her and her work and the company. It turns out she knew the director of my department and she connected me with him. So I got a director referral to get into the job that I am right now. Going in I didn’t think I was going to get a referral. That wasn’t even my intention. I just wanted to know more about the people in my network as well as the work they do and and led to where I am today.

** to hear the full interviews watch the full episode in the video above.

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.

The post How PhDs Get Hired Through Loose Connections appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Skip ahead to:

03:40 Show Me The Data
13:20 James Robbins
27:30 Ewa Czekanska, Ph.D.
43:15 Evguenia Alechine, Ph.D.

Want to learn how you can not only get hired into a management position, but how to truly succeed in the role?

Learn how PhDs can become better leaders and managers to find success in industry. 

In this episode, we are joined by James Robbins, Author, Speaker, & Motivation Specialist, who will discuss how you can learn to not only find your own motivation but how to motivate and inspire others. He is an expert at helping people become great leaders – exactly what you need to be to get hired into those management level positions you deserve as a PhD. We are also joined by, Ewa Czekanska, Ph.D., Life Science Sales Specialist at VWR. She will share inside tips about what it’s like to work in sales as a PhD and how you can pursue a similar career path. And finally we have Evguenia Alechine, Ph.D., Medical Writer, joining us. She will discuss how she made her transition into Medical Writing and what you need to know about successfully transitioning into a Medical Writing career.

About Our Guests

James Robbins is a rare mix of management consultant, change specialist, adventurer and motivational speaker. He speaks to audiences worldwide, helping them raise their performance to match their potential. He has been helping equip and transform leaders for over 20 years. In 2012 James wrote Nine Minutes on Monday; The Quick and Easy Way to Go From Manager to Leader. The book went on to be named the 2012 Business Book of the Year by Canada’s Globe and Mail. James’ style of teaching has set him apart as a master communicator, combining stories from his adventures with practical truths that help audiences make simple changes that stick. Audiences are both inspired and equipped during his time on the stage. While James loves planning new adventures, his greatest expedition is raising his three teenagers.

Ewa Czekanska, Ph.D.  has a master in biology in Poland and then pursued her post-doctoral studies in cell biology and regenerative medicine at the AO Research Institute in Switzerland. After successful time as a PhD student, she moved to the UK to work as a post-doctoral research scientist at the Southampton University. During this time she worked on an interdisciplinary and collaborative research project while also experiencing teaching to medical students. Through this teaching experience she realised that her personal development was to be focused on working with people and being up to date with recent developments in various subjects of science, rather than specialising in one very specific subject. Then, she moved away from the bench and started working in a commercial role as a technical sales specialist in a company providing services for biotech and pharma (Oxford Genetics). Currently, Ewa is a Life Science Specialist at VWR International (part of Avantor).

Evguenia Alechine, Ph.D. earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been working in the medical writing industry since 2015 as a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant. She is an active member of EMWA and co-editor of the Medical Writing journal. Evguenia is also the program leader of the Cheeky Scientist advance program Medical Writers Organization.

Key Takeaways

1. Leadership about more than being a manager, it’s about having a vision and getting people excited about what they are working on. 

2. To grow your leadership skills, focus on people not on tasks. 

3. Working in sales is not like the stereotype, there is lots of problem solving, relationship building and collaborative work that makes it a great position for PhDs.

4. The Medical Writing field is very diverse, covering everything from regulatory and technical writing to journalism and illustrations. 

PhDs Are Leaders & Managers: A Conversation With James Robbins

Isaiah: What is the difference  between a leader and a manager and how do you combine the two? How do you separate the two?

James: Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of talk about those two terms. But, the reality is when people think of management, they think of the day to day execution. But, leadership’s more than that. It’s not just about getting things done and reaching goals and stuff. Leadership goes beyond that. There’s an inspirational component. There’s an investment in your people. There’s belief in people. There’s casting vision. Not just yourself, but pulling people along with you for the ride.

In other words, it’s like… Management, you’ve gotta be good at getting people to do tasks. But, the leadership component is getting people excited to do them with you. Yeah, like I said, it’s a challenge for a lot of people because it’s easy to get sucked into the day to day.

Isaiah: How do you become a good leader? Especially for the people that are watching this, we tend to kind of live in the weeds as PhDs.

James: Yeah. That’s a great question. You hit the nail on the head, in terms of the number one problem, to be honest, that it is hurting engagement. So, that’s my field, right? I go into companies and I help their managers take a shift into be more inspirational leaders and engage their staff.

Again, the problem is, it’s not that people don’t want to be great leaders, it’s just that they’re so busy. They’re overwhelmed with how much they’ve got to get done because they’re working managers. They have their job to do, but then they also have to lead these people.

We still are in the culture of somebody who does great gets promoted, and now they’ve got to lead staff. But, an incredible shift has to take place once you start leading people because it’s no longer about tasks anymore. Now, it’s about moving people. If you can’t learn how to move people, you’re not going to be successful as a leader and you just won’t make it. So, that’s the challenge for a lot of managers today.

Isaiah: What’s the best way to motivate others to hit task based goals?

James: So, it all starts with having a good foundation. You know, we hear about trust and leadership. But honestly even deeper than trust it comes from caring about your people. This is the main point I make to every audience I speak at is that it’s moving your leadership from transactional to relational.

So we understand transactional, right. We go to the grocery store, we give them money, they give us food. It’s a transaction, we’re fine. But, when it comes to dealing with human beings we’re all hardwired for this thing called reciprocity. So, that’s why I say if we go out for lunch and I decide, “Hey, I’m going to buy you lunch.” You’re going to feel like, “Okay, well only if I can get it next time.” It’s just wired into us.

So, the same thing happens in a workplace. When you can make sure that you’re caring about your staff, like when they really feel like, “Hey, my boss is invested in me. They know my spouses name. They know the name of my kids. From time to time they ask me about it.” Just even those little things right there it changes the dynamic of the relationship and it sets up reciprocity, increases trust. Then people want to work for you because they don’t want to let you down, and they don’t want to see you fail. So that’s an important part of it right there.

The second piece to this is helping people shift their thinking about their job, you know, if we really want to talk about motivation. I use the example sometimes of imagine that you’ve got two guys that have to mow their lawn, and on the same street. One guy doesn’t want to mow his lawn because he just doesn’t want to mow his lawn. But the HOA sends him this angry letter like, “Hey, we’re going to fine you if you don’t mow his lawn.” Well, in the end he mows his lawn. He’s motivated but it’s an external motivator.

Meanwhile, the guy living beside him he loves to mow his lawn. He loves the way it looks, he loves this feeling of being a good neighbor. He loves the smell of fresh cut grass. In other words, so he mows his lawn. So, you take a look at this, both guys get their lawn cut. In other words the job gets done, it gets executed. But who does a better job mowing their lawn? The second guy, right? Who blows grass all over the street and doesn’t care? Oh, it’s the first guy.

So, think about it, both were motivated. Both got the job done but not with the same amount of proficiency. What’s the difference? The difference comes down to one thing: how they think about the task. Because one guy had too, and one guy gets to. When a leader can go in and help his or her people shift how they think about what it is they’re doing, link it to something bigger. Link it to a goal, the mission, how it’s impacting people, how it’s impacting you. Something changes inside us as humans and we shift from an external motivator to an intrinsic one. Then everything changes after that.

Life Science Sales Specialist Career Track: A Conversation With Ewa Czekanska, Ph.D.

Isaiah: Why did you decide to transition out of academia way back in the beginning of your transition?

Ewa: Sure. So, it’s a very good question and I wish I knew that earlier on, what I know now about the insights that I’ve had. And that they happened much faster. But, everything takes time. As you said, I was really happy with pursuing the post-doctoral studies. Then I moved into the academia. From Independent Research Institute to academia. That was a big jump I would say, and big mentality switch. I realized I don’t really get this environment. I don’t really want to compete against my colleague who sits next to me, getting the grant. Being in a position whether it’s me or you. I didn’t understand why can’t we do something collaboratively.

There’s, unfortunately, too many peers, there’s not enough jobs. Not enough positions and there’s a lot of competition for the grants. So, that was something that was not suiting there. Also, I had a very great advantage that I worked with a technician who could do part of my job. I realized that actually I’m really happy not being in the lab rather than being with the people. So I think that was quite clear at the time that I should actually look for something else.

It was not easy, though, to realize this.

Isaiah: So what does your sales position look like currently? Can you talk a little bit about what you do, the relationships you build, the teaching, et cetera?

Ewa: Yes. So, in my current position it’s a little bit a mix between realized science, specialized sales position and account management position I have to say. This is because I work with customers in one account. Under the contract that the company wanted. So, we are in the phase of implementation and hence there is a lot of problem solving. A lot of meetings with customers, scientists and with suppliers as I’m still learning into the role.

It’s interacting with people in house, in company solving the problem. So helping me to close the opportunity. It’s also a lot of bio teaching as well because my role involves setting up seminars, exhibitions. Something that can help customers. This actually can be driven by them all they want. If they tell me what they want that’s great. If they tell me what they want help with, and that’s fantastic.

There’s also a lot of training for myself still. I actually went through some re-induction recently because I’ve been in the role for a bit more than six months now. It was a good time to go back and actually meet the people I’ve met in my first or second week of the company and go and talk to them with problems, or ask them the question. Like, from the real life of the job. 

Medical Writer Career Track: A Conversation With Evguenia Alechine, Ph.D.

Isaiah: Why were you drawn to medical writing?

Evguenia: Well my first job was as an editor. Then I started doing more writing. After academia, what I noticed was that I enjoy so much doing the editing part. I used to do it a lot with my colleagues, just reviewing their papers, their PowerPoint presentations, posters. I always had a very strong eye for detail so I was always nitpicking, okay, so there is like two spaces here. There is a comma missing here. I also, when I was writing my thesis, it was clear to me I enjoyed more the pure writing part and not so much writing about my own results. I didn’t see myself as a typical academic researcher but I did like the little bit of creativity and literature research of my PhD.

After that, it took me some time. It was not straight forward out of academia, but I realized that Medical Writing was exactly what I wanted to do.

Isaiah: Do you see a lot of diversity in the types of positions? Not just the titles but in the work structure? Small companies, large companies, freelancers, et cetera?

Evguenia: Yeah. Again, you have such a variety there. There are big companies that can hire you either to work office space or even remote but working for big companies. You have startup companies that hire a lot of scientists to do their writing. This can be more like scientific writing towards the technological side of things. Or maybe like medical writing or of course editors. Then there are so many people who are working as freelancers for themselves or starting their own companies. Even these people they may end up working for these big companies as well. You can be a freelancer or you can have your own company and working for Big Pharma if that’s your thing, or maybe doing regulatory writing. There are like so many ways that you can go around it. There’s no, it’s definitely not like the typical one size fits all. I think people who want to get into medical writing, they first need to get a clear picture what they want. Like what’s their typical or ideal day in their lives? Do they enjoy working in big teams, managing the teams or more like following orders and being told what to do. Having the flexibility of working on their own or they maybe need to work in an office. Because of this so many options, you can get into anything.

** to hear the full interviews watch the full episode in the video above.

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.

The post PhDs Are Leaders & Managers appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.