July Career Coach Insights

Karina I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO.

Of a talent strategy consulting firm.

I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and develop thousands of amazing employees so I.

Know what works and what doesn't work.

When it comes to landing a job.

And then excelling in it.

I created the Biotech Career Coach Podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job then move up the career ladder. If you are exploring career paths, looking to learn about biotech, or simply striving to be the type of person who makes an impact and gets promoted, your.

In the right place. Our Career Coach column just dropped yesterday in Biospace and I wanted to take you behind the scenes of the Office Hours session where I actually answered those questions for our community. Normally I record more of a scripted podcast to go over the answers to my monthly Career Coach column, but let me know if you like this format because this is the real deal. This is where I actually answered questions that were submitted by our community. I do weekly office hours with our community members and this is what it actually sounds like. So enjoy this and let me know your feedback because I'm always curious how to improve this podcast. And if you like this, I will do more of these. Here we go. Okay, so the first question that was submitted, basically this person wants to end up in a career in biotech but doesn't have any experience in the lab from their undergrad. And so if you're not fortunate enough to go to a program like the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, which is a fantastic program, it is difficult to get the lab work requirements that you need. And honestly, Biotech is pretty picky about having that lab that hands on that real life experience in order to land those biotech jobs. So this individual doesn't have a Gloucester Biotech Academy in their back pocket. So they are trying to figure out how they're going to get that experience on their own. So my advice is to actually go and look for academic labs to join. There are a lot of academic labs out there that are very willing to take on folks that don't have any lab experience. That's how most people get their lab experience. If they are able to be at a research based institution, you can perhaps do that during your undergrad. But if you don't have a great research based institution at your fingertips during your undergrad, maybe you went to more of a liberal arts school or something like that, you may have to do that experience after you graduate. So here's my trick I got three different jobs when I was an undergrad in three different labs, three different research institutions by showing up and just saying I wanted to work. There was nothing advertised. Nobody knew who I was. They didn't have an official posting. But academic labs are often very willing to take on technicians and train them. So most of what you need to be able to show up and get an academic lab technician job is just a really good attitude and a lot of curiosity. And if you display that in your chats with and usually it's not even a formal application process, it's often, hey, I have this interest. Here are the courses I took that set me up for that. I'd really love to get into biotech. Is there any opportunity for an internship or a lab technician position in your lab now or within the next few months? Honestly, there will be positions. So that's my recommendation, is to start at academic institutions and get the great training. The other really nice thing is that you usually get to work directly with graduate students and postdocs, which could open a different door to you. You may realize you actually want to go to grad school. And again, how do you get into grad school? You have to have lab time. It's like getting into vet school or getting into med school. You have to actually put in the time in the lab in those internships. This will set you up to even know if it's something you want to do, if you want to pursue another degree, or if you just want to get the lab experience and then go straight into biotech. So that's my recommendation there. The next question is really interesting and I'm going to give you my framework for handling this, but this is going to be something that it's hard to answer because you have to feel out the situation as it evolves. The question is, I just had a really bad interview. The interviewer seemed hostile and ended things early. How can I handle that in the future? So I tend to be more of a direct communicator. I tend to like to tackle things head on. I want to just impress upon you that most of the time, when you interface with somebody who is negative or unpleasant or they seem rushed or whatever, it's not you, it's them, it's usually not you. And the way I would typically handle that. And I don't do a lot of interviews on that side of the table where I'm trying to get the job, but I do have meetings with people sometimes and I can just tell something's gone wrong for them. Something in Their life, in their work, whatever, has put them into a state of mind where they can't focus on the conversation. They can't be there right then, they can't be present. And I think it's really polite to just address that and say, hey, would it be more convenient for you if we rescheduled this conversation? I'm happy to do that. If something else is on your mind right now, and not in a mean way, not in a negative way, but just give them the opportunity. And I will say that often you'll get the full story. They'll say, oh my gosh, yes, I really would love that. I just found out that my son got suspended from high school today or something like that. I've heard the craziest things and it had nothing to do with me. And the person was really grateful for the opportunity to actually go deal with whatever they have to deal with and then come and be more present for you in the future. So that's my way of handling it. If they say no, it's fine and they continue to be brusque or they're unpleasant again, it's not you. It's just not you. And that's giving you insight into perhaps that's not a place you actually want to work. Perhaps that manager or that teammate isn't somebody you really want to work with. And that's also valuable to understand. So it totally sucks to have a bad interview where you come away feeling like the person was not engaged, they didn't want to be there, they didn't like you for some reason. Just know that most of the time it has nothing to do with you. It just doesn't. We're all humans and sometimes we have bad days. All right, the next question. I think this is the last question that was pre submitted. I just got a promotion, but no increase in salary. Is that normal? So it's not normal, but it happens. We actually call those dry promotions. And often they come about in biotech specifically and in this climate, this market specifically, because the company wants to recognize you for your contributions, but they actually don't have any money to be able to give you a promotion, a real monetary promotion, a salary bump, and it kind of stinks. So you have to decide if you want to accept that promotion. You don't have to accept every promotion you're given. I would argue that you should accept it, and here's why. It may mean that you have increased responsibility and you're not being recognized monetarily for that, but what you are doing is building Your resume, you're showing career progression, you're showing that you were recognized with a higher title. And maybe the company finds some money soon and they can then catch you up in your salary, maybe they don't and you need to go elsewhere at some point and look for new opportunities. Either way, you have a better title now and that is really helpful for you and it sets you up to make more money. So I would accept the promotion, but I would immediately start to have conversations with my manager about the new goals, benchmarks, metrics associated with that new position and your expectations. And this is where you need to be a little bit candid. Nobody likes to talk about money, but it's important to talk about money. And so to say, hey, yeah, I know the company's in a tough spot right now. I really am grateful for this promotion. I'm excited about it. It's very in line with my career goals. I'd like to understand if there's a path to at some point be able to catch up my salary to this promotion and what that would look like in terms of the goals, metrics, milestones that we should be measuring right now. So sit down, map those out and then have repeated, I always say, weekly meetings with your manager, right? Have those weekly check ins so that you are continuing to document your progress toward those goals and milestones and KPIs and metrics and whatever you're able to outline. And you can continually check in on whether that salary bump is in the cards. And honestly, if you're feeling underappreciated, undervalued, it might be that you need to go look outside the company at some point for another opportunity. But you're armed with a better title. So I would argue for accepting it. Now, the one time I would argue that you shouldn't accept that type of a dry promotion is if it comes with significant increased responsibility. If all of a sudden you're inheriting a team, if you're getting this promotion because somebody left and you're getting their job, there should be money to pay you for that job. If you're getting the promotion because the company really needs somebody to step up and manage multiple projects or outside accounts or something way beyond the scope of what you were doing before, you need to know that's going to impact your work life balance. That's going to impact how many hours you work and your stress levels. And you need to weigh whether that's worth it for the just the title bump alone. There you have it. That was our office hours where I answered the three questions that ended up in my Career Coach column in Biospace. Let me know if you like this. I would love to take you behind the scenes of office hours more often when I can, but I don't know if I don't get feedback. Be sure to rate this podcast 5 stars if you enjoyed it and as always, join our free Biotech career development community. You can find that@library.collaboratorycareerhub.com I'll link that in the show notes and maybe one of your questions will end up in my column or podcast very soon. Thanks so much for listening to the.

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