By: Chris Lowe Some of our iJOBS participants have been able to complete industrial internships during their PhD studies. We recently had the chance to sit down with Dharm Patel, a 5th year PhD student in Biochemistry, to learn about his internship experience and see what advice he would offer other students looking to transition into industry. This is part II of our 2 part interview with Dharm. To read the first part of the post, click here. Q: It sounds like you did a lot! Dharm: Now that I look back at it, it was all so exciting! I worked eight thirty to five, and because it was a small company everybody wears a lot of hats, including the interns, which was great. You were doing multiple things and you got exposure to multiple groups within your department and even other departments. Q: Culturally, in your internship it sounds like you were responsible for a much greater breadth of things you covered scope-wise, as opposed to your academic lab where you’re focused on going very deep into one project. Did you notice any other significant cultural differences during your internship? Dharm: It was a much more collaborative environment. When I used to look at my calendar during my internship I would have at least two or three meetings with various groups every day. You were constantly in team environments doing things, agreeing to do things, and then doing them and coming back and presenting what you did or then re-strategizing ‘Oh well this didn’t work so we’ll have to think of some other way to do it’. Another cultural difference I encountered was a sense of politicking, which is something you need to be cognizant of. This is something that’s not really discussed, but there is a little bit of politicking going on all the time- even in academia. It certainly didn’t hinder productivity at this company because it was a small community where everybody knew everybody and you could get things done, but, it never hurts to watch out for yourself! On that topic, in the US healthcare Systems course I am auditing, we recently had somebody from Leo talking about Market Access. In giving some general career advice, he discussed this sense of politicking too! His last slide was about how to promote yourself in your career and he advised that you should always be aware of the politicking, not that you should be engaged in it, but that you should always be aware of it.
"The ability to work on multiple projects at the same time was most valuable"
Q: Being away from the bench for your internship, what PhD skills do you feel were most relevant and valuable to you in your work in industry? Dharm: For this internship, the ability to work on multiple projects at the same time was most valuable. Once you work in a lab you know how to work on multiple projects and deadlines pretty well. With your PhD studies, you’re constantly doing that: starting a new project, exploring a new idea, just jumping in and getting things started. That was another thing, being able to jump in, get things started and get to the heart of the problem quickly and not waste time. Additionally, we’re very vocal as PhD students, whether you’re soft spoken or you don’t speak a lot, at the end of the day each of us is opinionated about the science and how to best conduct it. This is advantageous, because you feel comfortable going in and saying, “Look, this is not going to work,” and be very objective about it. So I think those were the three things that were really very transferrable. Q: After coming back from your internship experience, are there gaps or areas you want to more fully develop before jumping into your desired career full time? Dharm: My career goal is to be in a medical affairs capacity either in scientific communication, MSL, or Med Info- somewhere in that area. Through this internship, I identified two areas where I lacked knowledge. One is an understanding of the US healthcare system, including managed markets and health economics. How does it work? How does a drug get from a manufacturer to a patient? Who are all the different players within there? There’s the manufacturer, then there’s the distributer, then there’s the pharmacy benefit manager, then there’s a payer, then there are formularies, then there are physicians and other healthcare providers, specialty and retail pharmacies, and ultimately after all of that a patient gets a product into their hands. So each of those people requires different information to be able to handle your product and move it along that chain. This was something I didn’t know a lot about. So that’s something I’m exploring now with by auditing coursework. I’m auditing a course called US Healthcare Systems and Managed Markets at the Rutgers Business School and am taking Health Economics and Public Policy at the School of Public Health. The other area I identified was clinical knowledge. As PhD students we may know about the clinical implications of our work, but don’t have an operational understanding of treating a patient with the condition in the clinic. One of the things I would like to do is understand the clinical oncology side. How is a patient diagnosed with cancer? If a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, what is the standard therapy? Beyond that, what are the different targeted therapies? These are the things I need to be a little more versed in. Ultimately, I hope to learn about different issues that arise while treating a patient. The job of a medical affairs group is to be able to 1) get the product into the patient’s hand by finding out where the bottlenecks are and then 2) educating and understanding HCP-related issues with regards to using your therapy. So those are the two things I’d like to further strengthen.
"Start early and apply aggressively"
Q: It sounds like your internship experience was overwhelmingly positive. Do you have any advice or guidance you would offer to other PhD students considering an internship? Dharm: Start early and apply aggressively. I knew I wanted to get into a medical affairs group, but there are not that many opportunities available, and a lot of the ones that are available are mostly geared toward PharmDs. I was applying aggressively, I think I applied to twenty-five or so internships and I only got a few hits. It’s really competitive. Even though you’re a high-caliber student, you have a PhD, and you bring a diverse skillset to the table- it’s hard- especially when you’re going into a non-research role. Once you get the interview, they really want to see your passion. They know that you’re not going to know everything, so don’t go in there and act like you know it all. Really show your motivation and conviction to be in that area. Another thing to be conscious of is the application cycle. It starts in the fall for summer internships and that’s an ideal time to start looking. Most of the applications close by February and then interviews start. Lastly, use the resources that Rutgers has. I found this internship opportunity on the Rutgers Career Services page. I actually applied to a lot of them that way. I know for those in the Biotechnology Training Program, we have a resource available to us to help set up internships. Within iJOBS, students and directors alike will try to help you find something. Network through every available channel you can!