Moving from Minion to Manager

Image: Anne MacNamara Thomas Collett discovered a way to get the schooling he needed to become a biotechnology leader: He joined a company that paid for it. His postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., gave him entrance into McKinsey & Co, a worldwide management consultancy. As he traversed Germany on the firm's payroll, he developed the business networks and abilities to land an executive position at a startup company. Now, at only 38, he's a chief executive officer (CEO). For most postdoctoral trainees--those who don't land jobs at tony consultancies--the road out of the postdoc cell and into management may be littered with frustrations and false starts. Nevertheless, whether in academia or biotechnology, researchers can learn from Collett's experience by transforming every turn into a new lesson. "You need to be lucky to have all the transitions work, and you have to be mentally prepared when the opportunities show up," says Collett, president and CEO of Rubicon Genomics in Ann Arbor, Mich. "You can't plan it and if you're not open-minded enough, you will not be able to take advantage of what comes your way." The aggressive biotechnology industry offers opportunities for ambitious scientists to advance their careers. According to Ernst & Young, the number of biotech companies increased from 1,374 in 2000 to 1,457 last year. During that same period, biotech employee ranks swelled from 176,000 to 191,000. New startups and new minions require new managers--and that opens opportunities for those who don't want to put a decade behind the ladder before they step up. At universities, the traditional home of the bench scientist, the employment picture is less rosy. Last year, approximately 500 new assistant professor appointments were open in life sciences, according to the American Association of University Professors, and the scarcity of positions makes advancement tough for the legions of foreign and US postdocs in academic careers. "For the really good people there are academic positions available," says Robert Simoni, professor and chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. "But ... there are way more applicants than jobs available." ACADEMIC CLIMBING Those who get a foothold on the academic stairway gain success either by chance or by strategy. In his 54-year career at University of California, Berkeley, Howard Schachman has hired 50 postdocs. Almost every one started out wanting to become a university research professor. Those who reach their objectives, he says, share certain qualities. "I see in them originality, creativity, curiosity, terrific success with their hands, extremely hard working, conscientiousness, and they are very ambitious," says Schachman, professor of biochemistry and molecular and cell biology. The 'wow-power' of your doctoral thesis and the success of your postdoctorate work can impress a search committee only if scientists at the university or college know about your work. And gaining recognition begins with your choice of research topic, says Nigel Killeen, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of California, San Francisco. Search committees seek not only novel genes and proteins, but also new methods for understanding them. "People are unlikely to get past the application process if their applications aren't creative. If all they propose is standard methodology, [for example] they plug their gene or molecule into a standard or trendy assay or experimental ... design," explains Killeen, "that doesn't interest search committees. They are interested in big-picture concepts. They are asking deep questions with significance." The significant study program gets launched with a solid proposal. Successful postdocs learn how to articulate their goals in poster sessions and in funding proposals. "If one has identified a good area ... a good set of questions--something that's really interesting and important--then writing the proposal falls in place," Killeen says. Once an academic jobseeker progresses to the interview and to seminars before the search committee, success hinges on a sterling performance. Killeen learned to redouble his preparation after he asserted an incorrect argument in response to an interviewer's question at a seminar. "If you answer a question in any way inadequately, all of a sudden that becomes larger than life; that becomes the focus of attention," he says. "It doesn't matter how well you do. At that point, that one deficiency ... can have a huge impact." To avoid humiliation, practice and practice again, says Killeen. "Be as prepared as possible. Get crucial people to hear you talk and ask you questions." Snagging an assistant professorship simply gives the candidate a view of the next academic ladder that, with the best of luck, leads to tenure. Most appointments come with startup money to buy lab equipment and supplies. But the grant won't cover hiring a grad student or a lab technician. Postdoc experience in grant writing can help on the tenure track. "You just write a good grant application and hope it gets to a good review group that will review your work," Schachman says. Assistant professors are expected to write three or more papers a year, according to Schachman. If you do only three, he says, "they have to be damn good papers." Though new assistant professors vie with science superstars for places in Nature, Science, or Cell, any respected journal with a good peer review system can help a tenure-track academic proceed into tenure. Says Schachman, " ... If it's a good paper, I don't care where it's published. It will get attention." BIOTECH DREAMS Private industry may free the scientist from the pressure of publishing, but for many, it ends the freedom in research that gives academia its allure. Still, some biotech companies encourage their scientists, within limits, to follow their research interests. "They absolutely can do some of their own work," says Carolyn Fuchs, vice president of human resources for Biopure and a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization human resource committee. "It's that flexibility that keeps people with certain companies. It's good for the company, except when you have to keep people focused." The pattern for advancement in the biotech industry includes laboring in the lab and attending poster sessions. Like their academic colleagues, industry scientists must give speeches and lectures, train others, publish scientific papers, and secure patents for the company. But promotions often pivot on knowing how to get things done inside the organization, says Geoff Roach of Targeted Genetics in Seattle, Wash. "There are a number of strategies; one is to look at the people who are successful in the organization and talk to them about what it takes to be that way," Roach adds. "It's kind of like mentoring, but more focused." It takes time to learn a company's system, and some employees get stereotyped as nonachievers or poor communicators just as they are trying to learn. When that happens, it may be advisable to find an open door at another biotech. "It's not until [people] move that the stereotypes get broken," Roach says. "Sometimes they turn around and go back to the same organization. But it takes the leaving to break the molds." Biotech work is not for the fainthearted. Because many biotech companies are relatively new and the work they do expensive, there are times when people don't get expected salary raises. Companies sometimes go belly-up. "It does take a certain type of individual to work in biotech," says Fuchs, who has lived through some tough times. "It is very, very expensive to do the work we do, and unfortunately that puts some companies out of business." In such an environment, being able to renew and remake oneself can determine the difference between disappointment and self-fulfillment. "It's really a career development strategy, to recast," Roach observes. "Change all the things you can change--your education, your experience--change what you're working on. ... From the career development point of view, the message is that change is good." Bob Calandra (rotoca@aol.com) is freelance writer in Philadelphia; Paula Park can be reached at ppark@the-scientist.com.

Moving from Minion to Manager

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