Postdoctoral Representative, Medical Devices and Combination Product Specialty Section, Toxicologist, Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson
In addition to finishing off experiments, crunching data, and writing my dissertation, one of the most stressful parts of wrapping up my PhD was madly applying for jobs. Because I wasn’t interested in going into academia, I did not consider applying for traditional postdoc positions. I wanted to land a position as a toxicologist in industry. Initially, I was just shooting my resume to every position that had the word “toxicology” in it. I wasted a lot of time on applications that were obviously not a good fit (for example, principal scientist positions) when I had no time to waste.
As a new PhD graduate, I wanted a position in industry, but in order to get the position, I needed experience. I needed a job to get experience. I needed experience to get a job—and so on. To add to this problem, I was told that if I applied for associate scientist positions without a PhD requirement (but did require experience!), I would most likely be excluded from the pool of candidates. It is frequently thought that PhDs merely want these positions as a foot in the door; where upon being hired, they will leave for something better as soon as they can. It became very evident that my PhD was not going to get me any job I wanted—it was going to qualify me for a different type of job. I just had to find the right fit.
Once I realized a different approach would be more effective, I focused my search for industry postdoc positions and entry level positions for PhDs. The search was only half the battle because there was a limited number of available positions. However, I received call backs. It was a miracle.
Industry postdocs are gaining attention because of the difficulty landing that first job in industry with a new PhD. The traditional postdoc is often research based and more geared towards those who want to be in academia. But the industry postdoc offers a varied role. Postdoc positions can be a way to get new PhDs into the company with the intention of having a trial period. However, it’s important to ask a lot of questions to clarify what the role will be. I was lucky enough to interview for a postdoc at Ethicon with Johnson & Johnson as a toxicologist evaluating the safety of medical devices and combination products. Because I’ve known I want to do toxicology in industry, it’s been a great match. I get extensive training from amazing mentors, which is what I need coming straight out of graduate school.
Looking back, the shot gun approach was fruitful as well, but did not lead me to positions that I was truly interested in. I found the most success when I focused my search on positions where my brand new PhD was welcomed. Importantly, in these positions the company knows you need a lot of training and is willing to mentor you so that you will thrive in industry and achieve your career goals.