First, I apologize for not following-up sooner, but as a soon-to-finished PhD student I’m sure many can appreciate the time constraints. In any case, I wanted to use a blog entry to follow-up on the various questions and comments these series of posts have generated along the way, and also to reaffirm that I will be back to more regular blogging….

First Question:

"I have always been curious regarding the intellectual freedom in strategizing experiments for students in entry level in a corporate company. For example, an RA in his or her own project has a certain degree of intellectual freedom in directing the project. What would be the case in a corporate scenario? Do entry-levels researchers merely translate the higher order strategies into benchwork without input of their own?"

First, let me preface by saying that this is particularly dependent on the specific corporation, division within that corporation, and project team you ultimately join. My experience at Merck Research Labs has been that very young researchers, without a PhD, are given an enormous level of responsibility and opportunity to impact experimental direction, design, execution, and interpretation. However, what perhaps should be clear is that in an industrial setting there is more emphasis put on understanding the larger milestones, and therefore, the entire team is aligned towards meeting that goal. Consequently I feel that the younger staff is often included in “strategy” meetings because upper management recognizes that it’s ultimately us that have to execute the experiments. Again, this has been my experience at Merck, and certainly you will find a large variety across institutions.

Second Question:

“Excellent series of posts. I hope you can provide some advice to me, and other graduate students. If one is interesting in joining an industrial research center, should a recent PhD do a post-doc in academia or industry to be a better job candidate? Also, how can I find more information about job opportunities in industry? One more thing, what companies would you recommend?”

As someone finishing their PhD right now, I get asked this question often since I’m surrounded by colleagues engaged in the same decision making process. I think that there are two prevailing considerations that I would focus on. First, is the subject matter of your PhD. Traditionally, engineering PhD graduates have not required a post-doctoral experience, either in academia or industry, before transitioning into an industrial career. As a chemical engineer, I find this very much to continue to be true, and I’m even finding that less engineers are getting their Master of Science or Engineering degrees, preferring job experience after their BS degree. However, if your discipline is grounded in the sciences, such as biology, chemistry, or physics, then it continues to be common to have a post-doctoral experience. I think if you’re looking to transition into industry following your PhD, that either an academic or industrial post-doc experience is equally good. In general, there are far fewer industrial post-doc programs, formally. One of the most well respected programs is the one offered by Genentech (http://www.gene.com/gene/research/postdoctoral/). This is without question one of the best in the country for the biological sciences and I think rivals the top 20 academic departments in similar fields. Ultimately, though what is always most important is the supervisor you work with and the specific work you embark on. A friend of mine once put it best: During a PhD you are allowed to fail, and it’s often your supervisor’s responsibility to make sure it is not catastrophic. During a Post-Doc you are allowed to fail, and you alone will fail. In other words, a post-doctoral position should be more about true independent research capabilities and developing the skills required for a complete project success – management of funding, personnel, time, or other resources, in addition to state-of-the-art science.

I hope this has helped, and again, I’m sorry for being away for so long!

Cheers,
Manny