SciPhD: What to expect and why you should do it

When we attended the iJOBS informational meeting, one of the main things Dr. Alder drew our attention to was the mysterious SciPhD program. We knew the dates and times, and that somehow the program would benefit us. When registration opened, all 70 spots were filled, despite the multiple Monday night/all-day Sunday schedule and no promise of free coffee. I’m not sure what everyone expected of the program, but my friends and I prepared mentally for 40 hours of unremitting lecture. At the first session, I bought a big Pepsi, piled as much free cheese cubes as I could get into a tiny styrofoam plate and settled down for the 3-hour intro to SciPhD. The two presenters, Larry Petcovic and Randall Ribaudo, made a great impression from the start. Knowledgeable, confident, and sunny, they immediately asked us what scared us most about the prospect of transitioning out of academia to ensure they addressed as much of it as possible during the program. By the end of the session, we had reluctantly been put through one round of practice interview questions, confronted with 22 (!) effectiveness scales upon which our performance as employees can be evaluated, and learned 24 Core Business Competencies (transferable skills, of sort) that one can choose to focus on in their targeted resume. Phew! The SciPhD program covered the usual topics of a career workshop or panel but in more detail than other iJOBS events. Granted, they had 40 hours as opposed to 90 minutes, but they were 40 hours FULL of information and learning. Catchphrases such as “Network!” or “Soft skills!” were finally explained in detail with examples and an opportunity to practice them. One of the main points Larry and Randy made was that a PhD in life sciences really does provide us with many transferable, or “soft”, skills that pharma/biotech companies like to see in a job applicant. And no, they didn’t just tell us, “Hey, you’ve given a talk, you have communication skills!” They showed us how circumstances we all face in lab can be phrased in a Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) arrangement to demonstrate experience in conflict resolution, communication style flexibility, and training/instruction. One of the most useful portions of the program was Larry and Randy’s dissection of a job ad in order to determine what soft skills the employers are looking for in the applicant’s repertoire. Then they showed us how to create a targeted resume in response to the ad. At the next session, I sat down with Randy and asked him to look over the attempt I made of dissecting an ad I found online. He gave me his undivided attention and assisted me on an individual level to fix my errors. Throughout the program, I spotted Larry and Randy doing the same for anyone else who asked – revising practice cover letters, resumes, and interview question responses. It helps that they seem to know something about every career option – from government to pharma to business to military. Overall, did some aspects of the program appear silly at times? Yes. Once, we threw fruit, vegetables and a tennis ball at each other for a whole morning. Yes, it was entertaining, but I’ll admit I did not discern the purpose at first. Afterwards, we discussed the various processes in innovation and how we experienced almost all of them just in that brief exercise. To me, the lesson was much more memorable than a 2-hour lecture would have been. We learned a lot about the way businesses function. Special attention was paid to our own individual personality types, and more importantly, how to customize our communication in response to the personality types of other people we are trying to work with – whether they are bosses, subordinates, or teammates. The cultures one finds across different business, and how individuals can fit into and be happy at an organization, were also stressed. All of these things helped not only make us substantially more informed about how to apply for a job, tailor a resume, attend the interview and network, but also what jobs to look for that would be best suited for our own individual happiness.