how do I position myself for biotech/industry

[immunorizztochemistry]

Hi everyone,

I'm an MSTP graduate who just matched to a strong, research-heavy academic heme/ onc program. I'll be starting in July, and I'm definitely excited but already having some reservations. In an ideal world, I would continue down this very long path towards having an independent basic research lab in drug development/preclinical models.

The reality of approaching 40 is wearing on me though, and among all the other $ issues in my life I'll soon have to start thinking about college tuition for my kids, making me second-guess academics (like many MSTPs before me). I've recently been reading through this forum a bit and am curious about industry, something I admittedly have had very little exposure to.

Are there things I should try to do that would set me up for success if I want to pivot careers from academia into pharma (eg should I be trying to do things like Vail/focusing more on trials? Ensuring I double board?). I realize these are all very general questions, but I'd appreciate hearing about others' experiences.

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[gutonc]

Industry rarely hires physicians to be on the lab side of things, they generally will want to pay you for your medical expertise, which will be on the clinical trial side of things. So yes, you definitely need to get your feet wet early on in the clinical trial game. I think the Vail course is a great choice, do it in your 2nd or 3rd year of fellowship as this is when I think it will be most fruitful for you and it will give you a ton of connections, both mentor and peer level, that will help you in the future.

This obviously doesn't preclude you also pursuing your potential bench/translational career, with the understanding that the odds are stacked against you in that setting just by virtue of how academic medicine works.

 

[CatFactorial]

Consider a community position where you will be enrolling lots of trial patients. US Oncology is an example.

Agree with the above post but also if you develop a reputation of enrolling lots of good patients for studies, industry will note