Transitioning from academia to industry – abridged

In March 2021 I moved from a permanent academic position to a permanent applications scientist position at a major international biotech company. In this post I would like to offer an insight into why I made this decision, and what my experience has been like.

I moved into industry aged 35, after 15 years working in universities in research and teaching positions. My last 5 years in academia were in 2 different permanent lectureships at 2 different UK universities, in which I was reasonably successful in securing grant funding and publishing papers, building a small research team and developing as a research leader and educator. In my last position I was working 2 hours from home and on average I worked 60 hours per week. It was abysmal for my social life and not great for my relationship but I was very, very happy. However, despite continuing to do good research and publish good papers here I had 10 or 11 grant rejections in a row and was beginning to feel very demoralised, although my feedback was getting better and better and I felt like I was edging closer and closer to getting a big grant. I decided to have one last punt at a big Fellowship scheme. Then COVID hit. This was a really difficult time. I was helping to run an MSc programme and we had to suddenly move all teaching online. I was leading the dissertation module and had enormous trouble persuading colleagues to supervise project students. With labs closed, projects dried up and I ended up supervising a lot of students myself. The workload was enormous. Whilst this was going on I was working on a colossal Fellowship application (it was around 65 pages in total when it was finally submitted) and also on a very exciting COVID-related research project. This was by far the most exciting and significant piece of research I had ever worked on, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that I worked day and night. I had a huge amount of work to do, and it was difficult to ever stop working when my flat was my workplace. I basically didn’t stop working except to eat and sleep. This might have been tolerable if it wasn’t for the fact that I was working on this COVID project with a bully, and this caused me a great deal of stress, anxiety and unhappiness. I became physically unwell. I made a formal complaint of bullying and harassment to the university, which was upheld, and some significant changes were made as a result of this, but to me the damage was done.

I was made aware of a very good opportunity at a world-leading biotech company in November 2020, I applied and interviewed for the job and was offered it in December 2020. I accepted. The COVID project paper was published in January 2021 and soon after I found out that I was shortlisted for the big Fellowship. I started the new job in March 2021 and a week in I attended the Fellowship interview. It went well and I was offered the Fellowship (£1.2 million!) in June 2021 but by this point my life and the world had moved on so much that it didn’t feel relevant any more. My experience in my first few months in my new job in industry were enough for me to know that this was a much better life choice for me. My partner, family and friends were also very much in favour of me ditching the Fellowship and continuing in this new job in industry which was making me so happy.

So, what’s so great about working in industry?

Culture: There is a culture of openness, respect and collaboration rather than competition. Collaboration and openness are core company values, and we have a really inspirational CEO who embodies these principles from the top down. How is this achieved? I think a big part of it is that hard work and good performance are reliably and consistently and regularly rewarded in my company. You are encouraged to focus on your own personal development and are supported in this, and you can be confident that you will get recognition and promotion for this. There is no unnecessary competition, backstabbing or brutality because there isn’t a lack of opportunity. The company is very selective about who it employs, but once you are in you’re on a permanent contract, they want to keep you and help you progress and there are lots of opportunities internally to move both upwards and sideways into different job roles if you want to try something different. We work in an area of biotech in which I think there’s a bit of a skills shortage, so the company works hard to keep us happy and incentivise us to stay and do good work for them. It works. I’m really happy, really invested in my work and in my company, and very productive at the moment because I’m so happy.

Equality: The company has a genuine commitment to equality. There is so much more diversity in the body of staff working for my company, and that’s so exciting for me – I get to meet and learn from lots of different types of people. It’s also a big relief for me because I no longer feel like I am battling to prove myself in spite of my gender and class. That doesn’t seem relevant in my company, which is as it should be.

Work/life balance: We are actively encouraged to have full and rich lives outside work. This afternoon I signed up to an online Drag Queen Bingo event that my company is putting on for us. We are given free volunteering days, we receive rewards for getting exercise, there are incentives to take part in activities outside of work, and there is no emailing outside of work hours. I have a work phone which I switch off outside work hours, and then my free time is mine. This is such a privilege in today’s world when we are expected to be online and available at all times, and I treasure this.

Defined responsibilities yet freedom and variety in my job role: I appreciate the fact that I have a very defined role with clearly defined responsibilities, yet simultaneously huge variety in my job. I also love the pace of change. I found this breathtaking and a bit unsettling when I started, but now I have embraced it and I find the exhilaration and excitement in it. I can feel confident that I won’t easily get bored in this role. One of my major roles in the company since I joined has been in supporting labs undertaking SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing for the surveillance of the virus which causes COVID. This process allows us to track the evolution and spread of different viral variants. It is a constantly changing landscape, and it’s fascinating, exciting and feels really important. It really feels like I am doing important work, and I’m doing it alongside amazing colleagues as part of a team where everyone has a defined role, everyone respects each other and everyone pulls together to achieve a shared goal.

Financial: Let’s be honest; there are financial incentives for moving to industry too. I’m not earning tons more than I would have been in academia (if I took the Fellowship I would have rejoined the university as an Associate Professor), but there are a lot more perks. We receive many benefits alongside our base salary, and more of my income is mine to take home. When I was working in academia I was paying around 20% of my salary on my commute and accommodation near the university.

Line management: For the first time in my career I have a manager who has undergone significant management training and understands how to manage people. He is an effective people manager and we have an effective working relationship with mutual respect. We work with a personal development model in which I drive the agenda of our quarterly meetings which are focussed on setting goals for the future rather than on focussing on the past. I have a clear vision of my future within the company.

You don’t need to sacrifice all of your academic work: I maintain an honorary contract with the last university I worked at, so that I can honour PhD student supervisions, funded research project and external examiner commitments that I signed up to in my previous job. In many ways I have the best of both worlds, I keep a foot in the world of academic research whilst enjoying the many advantages of working in industry.

If anyone is in the position of starting to apply for industry jobs and wants specific, constructive advice on how to approach job applications and what to expect from the recruitment process get in touch and I will be happy to help.