TurningScience

I suspect that every scientist hopes their work will have a positive impact on the world. ⚛️ ⚗️ 🔬🌍 🌎 🌏 I’ve interviewed dozens of scientists to collect their stories for my books and career workshops, and most can talk at length about their desire to make the world a better place. Many can even describe strategic career pivots they’ve made to increase the impact of their work. Many of us discovered that making an impact through creating solutions to problems gave us real satisfaction, and that led us into careers in the private sector. That is my story as well. I’ve loved my industry career, and it’s been very exciting to contribute to the development of many different technologies. I’ve helped make advances in optical communications, both terrestrial and space, scientific instrumentation, and the cleanliness and efficiency of industrial combustion. It feels really good to see where I’ve made a positive impact. But it’s also great to look back on everything I’ve learned from my career in industry. So many of the life skills that I use in my personal life were developed from my career. After all, so much of what we do in an industry career is working with other people to solve challenging problems. And many of those problems are not technical, even in a high-tech company. My second book, 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙂𝙖𝙢𝙚, 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙖 is a compilation of what I’ve learned about being successful as a scientist in industry. It took me 2 years to write and 3 months to narrate the audiobook version... …but it took me 25 years to learn everything that is in it. I encourage you to check it out, because I know you will find it helpful as well - in both your work life and your personal life. #scientist #industrycareer #lifeskills #academiatoindustry

I wasn’t sure I would like working in industry when I got my first job after finishing my PhD. Working in industry meant I was working in business. And business is a fast-paced competitive game where you work to provide solutions to customers faster and better than your competitors. But not only did I find it to be a very exciting game, I've learned so many useful skills for both my work and personal life. Please check out the guest post I wrote for Alma.Me below. Thank you to Elena Hoffer, PhD for the opportunity to share my story!

🎓 How can a PhD advisor help prepare their students for the industry careers that most of them will have? 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮.   When your research group collaborates with a company to help them solve the problems they have getting their technology out to their customers, your students get to see first hand how industry teams function: 📍 What matters and what doesn’t 📍📍 How decisions are made 📍📍📍 Why the environment is so different than an academic research lab. This is a valuable introduction that will pay off big when your students graduate and begin looking for their first job. They will interview better, because they have learned how industry functions. And they will perform better in that job, because they will understand what their manager needs from them. 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲?  DM me with the question: ‘How can I connect with industry? And if you missed my posts on the other two benefits: Benefit #1 is more #researchfunding: https://lnkd.in/gKW_mZrr Benefit #2 is more commercially viable research/better #techtransfer : https://lnkd.in/d8T8_hkY #industrycollaboration #scientists #industry #phdcareers #postdoc

Check out this great interview with David Giltner of TurningScience where he and Thomas G. Sors, PhD discuss the challenges and rewards of being a scientist working in industry.

One of the biggest concerns I hear from early-career academic researchers: “𝙄’𝙢 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢 𝙄’𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙙.” This concern is easy to understand, as government funding is increasingly hard to secure in many countries. Academic scientists are left to cut back on the scope of their research programs or find creative new sources of funding. Collaboration with industry is one such novel funding source that more and more researchers are cashing in on.  And they are finding that partnering with companies has benefits beyond just funding. I have identified three major benefits to partnering with industry. Benefit #2 is increased commercial viability of their research. Many researchers would love to find companies who want to license their technology and turn it into commercial products that make a difference in the world and make money at the same time. But this is not as common as they imagine. COMPANIES NEED SOLUTIONS, NOT SCIENCE! They are busy trying to get the technology they already have out the door. They don’t need more great ideas, they need help with the problems that prevent them from shipping what they are already working on. If a researcher builds partnerships with companies to help them solve those problems, the researcher gains insight into the product roadmaps of their industry partners. And this allows them to pursue research that might be just what their partner companies are looking for in a year or three. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: If you want industry to bring your research ideas to market, find ways to partner with them to solve their 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 problems. And you will begin to see how your own research can help them in the near future. Benefit #1 is, perhaps obviously, more research funding. See more here: https://lnkd.in/gKW_mZrr Watch for benefit #3 next week. #scientist #postdoc #industrycollaboration #researchfunding

It could be awesome for 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 career as well!

I had a great time last week giving my 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑬𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 workshop for a great group of scientist PhD candidates and postdocs at Technische Universität Clausthal. To all of the participants, thanks for a great time talking about how to make the transition into an exciting #industrycareer! 🚀 You were very engaged and contributed so much to the session. That always makes it better for everyone, and a lot more fun for me! 🎉 And thank you to Jacqueline Leßig-Owlanj for bringing me in to work with your #PhD candidates and #postdocs. See you again soon! #yourindustrycareerplaybook

⚛️ ⚗️ 🔬Are you a postdoc scientist looking for more funding? Who isn’t, right? 💶 💵 💴 💷 Have you considered funding from industry? And I don’t mean research grants that a few companies offer. I mean building partnerships with companies where they pay you for expertise or capabilities that you and your team have. It’s a lucrative concept that more early career researchers are pursuing. I’ve interviewed many academic researchers from around the world who have build amazing research programs through industry collaboration. Curious? DM me to learn more. #scientist #postdoc #industrycollaboration

Cover ideas for the next book from TurningScience founder David Giltner, due out in October 2024. Which to you like best? Why?

If you want a company to see your value, show them how you can solve problems. They don't care so much about the science you have done, but they do care about the skills you demonstrated while doing that science, because they expect you can use those strengths to help them.