Navigating the Transition from Academia: Advice from an Industry Postdoctoral Scientist

Planning your future career is a stressful conclusion of graduate school. Students may feel pressure to stay in, or anxiety leaving academic research. The post-doctoral degree career search is characterized by this split between academia and other types of bioscience careers. While career conversations focus on burnout in academia versus the lack of intellectual freedom in careers outside academia, my day-to-day experience reveals more similarities than differences between the career paths. In this article, I describe my decision to pursue an industry postdoctoral position, including a brief explanation of my postdoctoral research and general advice to current graduate students about career development. I provide anecdotal evidence of a fulfilling mix of research independence and career development in an industry setting. Ultimately, I encourage students to introduce themselves to a broad range of careers inside and outside the traditional academic path.