Postdoctoral Scientist 

How did you get your current job?
Networking at a career/interview fair.

What was the application process?
Did a preliminary interview at a career fair with a paper resume, then a phone interview, then face to face with a seminar at the company.

Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes, first a screening interview at the career fair where I mostly talked about my background and experience as well as the technical skills I had and why I wanted to get into the industry/company. A few days later, I had a phone interview with 2 managers, spoke about my skills and abilities again and answered some questions about my resume. A few days after that, I was invited for a face to face interview and to give a seminar. At my face to face, I met with about 7 different people who asked a little bit about my background and what I did my previous research on, but mostly learned about the company and the position I was being considered for. I gave a seminar to a bunch of people in the company, and was offered a position 2 days later. Very intense interview/application process, but very rewarding as well.

If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
Mostly about my background and experience with SPR, and a little bit of the typical “how would you fit in here” questions about experiences with coworkers, and teamwork abilities.

Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes and no. I am definitely able to do my job from the experience I gained, but there was no formal orientation. I had to ask a lot of questions when I first started and learn as I went along.

Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
4 years of college education and 5-6 years of graduate education, 6 months of academic postdoc experience. Lots of trial by fire once started this job. Some technical training seminars I was sent to, but mostly learn by doing and just trying to keep up with things until you start to settle in.

Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes, graduate school taught me a lot about research, critical thinking, and designing informative experiments. However, it was an adjustment to learn how to critically interpret the large volumes of data that I now generate in an industry lab versus the small scale experiments I performed in academia.

If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?

If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
While in college or graduate school, and internship in the pharmaceutical industry might be very helpful in you future job search. Develop skills in the lab that are marketable to the pharmaceutical industry, and be a team player. It is hard to understand how important teamwork is while working in academia, so do all you can to get that type of experience and highlight that in your resume.

What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Drive, organizational skills, dedication, critical thinking skills, intuitive nature, good writing/speaking skills, ability to work with a diverse team of people, flexible with changing projects on the fly.

Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
Obviously a Ph.D. for postdoc and beyond, but a BS if you are looking for general industry positions.

What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Seriously consider what/where you want to be in 10-15 years. If you want to teach at a college/university level, then by all means, go for your PhD. If you want to work in the pharmaceutical industry/biotech industry, you might consider a masters instead of your PhD. You are eligible for many of the same positions if you have a few more years experience. There are many more job opportunities available for MS degrees than for PhD’s. However, if you really want to move up in industry or not be stuck doing a lot of benchwork, then I’d say go for the PhD. Adding an MBA to your degree doesn’t hurt either if you want to go into industry. You must learn to adapt to the various different projects you will be working on and be able to perform under intense deadlines.