Dr. Nidhi Khurana

Me: Hi, I am a PhD in biotechnology and currently I am the Head of Marketing at a drug discovery and development company! Other person: Oh! Why waste a PhD? Once more the the "expectations of the society" were in my face and it looked as if I betrayed them by choosing a career option outside of R&D. The irony is although in this scenario it was the other person who thought this way, but the truth is, most of the times it is us who think in this manner when it comes to career building for Masters and PhDs. We limit ourselves to R&D positions only because in our minds we are justifying the number of years we spent doing research in labs. We end up thinking, that if I choose my career outside R&D then I will be wasting everything I have learned so far. Tell me one thing! Have you only learnt how to perform lab experiments all these years? Absolutely not! You have learnt how to communicate science effectively! You have learnt how to manage teams! You have learnt how to fetch funding! You have learnt how to fetch answers by reading the articles and making sense out of so much data that is out there! You have honed your data analysis skills, organizational skills, time management skills. You have learnt how to fix a problem, and find suitable solutions which is one of the greatest assets for the companies- to find a person who is solution oriented! Then why limit yourself to only doing lab experiments when you can do so much with your PhD! My current company is a drug discovery and development company. The way I understand what happens here, how it happens, how to communicate with clients, a non-science person cannot. The way I understand its challenges, a non-science person cannot. The way I communicate with my team regarding our projects or with our collaborators, a non-science person cannot. Even if they do, it will take them months/ years to come to a level of similar understanding that too with a lot of effort. More importantly, this career choice of mine is the perfect amalgamation of my skills, my strengths, and my inherent nature of being in people's facing roles! So yes, I have not wasted my PhD! Let the PhDs feel free to pursue a career of their choice. It is the highest academic degree that one can obtain. It should open the doors to vast number of roles, not LIMIT them! Find a career for yourselves, which aligns your skills and strengths. Do Not go by what the world wants you to do. You do YOU! ............................................................ Follow at Metis Hive for more information on career building in life sciences. DM me if you are seeking help in this regard! #lifesciences #metishive #lifesciencesjobs #phdchat #phdcareers #sciencejobs #opportunities #sciencestudents

Three months into my M.Sc Biotechnology program (2010) at the University of Hyderabad, I realized that most of my classmates: 1. Had already done a project in some lab before they joined here. 2. Knew about some leading journals of science like Nature, Science magazine. 3. A few were carrying fellowships with them like KVPY. 4. Were exposed to research environment. 5. Knew the leading authors in the field on their finger tips like Lehninger, Watson, Kuby (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Immunology) I on the other hand, 1. Did not have any experience of a project or research (yes certainly lab practicals). 2. Did not know what are manuscripts, where to find them, how to find them, what do they tell! 3. Was not carrying any external fellowship, rather had no idea if these fellowships existed. 4.Had never seen the door of any research lab. 4. Knew about these names but had not read their books as such directly for these subjects. My subject knowledge was good which let me crack the entrance exams and crack the interview. But my exposure to the research world was just absent and I was completely unaware of the extent of competition that existed in this domain. I was always a confident girl but upon realizing that I was far behind in all the above experiences as compared to my classmates, My confidence was shattered for a while. I had two options in front of me! 1. Continue to feel inferiority complex, continue to tell my brain that I know less and do not deserve this position which ultimately would affect my performance- I would consequently fail to meet my own expectations and get frustrated and lost. 2. Accept my flaws and start working to fill the gap in terms of practical exposure to research, reading those books, finding about what manuscripts are and learn about how this world works! Guess what I chose! The next day, I walked up to one of my classmates in the library and asked her "Hey Geetanjali, if you don't mind me asking, could you please help me understand what manuscripts or journals are? Can you help me get started with it. " She had earlier shared her experience in a lab and talked about research and manuscripts so I asked her help. She patiently heard me and guided me through whatever she knew. It was an eye opener for me! I worked hard towards filling the gap. Read manuscripts, went into labs at the University of Hyderabad to start getting exposure to research, and started to read textbooks by these renowned authors. If you find yourself in a position where your colleagues have better knowledge and experience than you, take their help to learn better. Remember, if you have reached a place where they are, then you definitely have something special in you that you are sharing the same platform. Keep that zeal and enthusiasm alive to keep learning. It is perfectly okay to learn a little late but it is not okay To NEVER LEARN #keeplearning #growthmindset #research #science #experience #help #dontgiveup

If you get into a Ph.D. program without any career goal in mind, you might get lost in the loop of pursuing one postdoc after another to sustain your living after PhD! Whether to do a PhD or not is indeed a burning question. Understand, that this decision should support the career your foresee for yourself. You need to ask yourself, why you need a PhD? Is it because you have an immense interest in research and you want to hone that skillset? Is it because the job you are targeting for your career growth requires PhD? Is it because you are passionate about a topic so much that you want to dig deeper to learn more about it so that you can advance your learning in that area? Life sciences students, especially in India are blindly pursuing PhD without understanding how are they going to use it to build their career. They are pursuing PhD because they think there is nothing else to do after masters. They do so because their teachers, seniors & colleagues are indirectly forcing them to go for it. So, when you enter this commitment of doing a PhD without really knowing where you want to go next with its help, you will end up lost! As a result, you will be jobless even after getting the highest academic degree in hand. You will find yourself lost in the never-ending loop of doing one postdoc after another. You will desperately apply for any job position for which you may also be over-qualified and get paid less. Sadly, life sciences community does not get any help from the institutes to explore life sciences career based on their strengths. PhD is one such path that anybody should opt for after their strength assessment. It should prepare you for your career growth and not create a block in your journey. The key lies in conducting research regarding your career aspirations, ideally when you commence your Master's degree. Next, develop a career roadmap that outlines the steps needed to achieve your career goals. Finally, determine whether pursuing a Ph.D. is necessary to reach your career objectives. What has been your experience? ............................. DM me if you are looking for guidance for career building in the life sciences. #lifesciences #phdchat #phdcareers #metishive #sciencestudents #lifesciencesrecruitment #lifesciencesindustry #lifesciencesjobs