In transition: exploring non-traditional careers

Welcome, readers! I am Jenne Relucio, a pre-doctorate scientist at Stony Brook University in New York. As a guest blogger on Bio Careers, I will be writing about making the leap from the research bench to non-traditional careers in the life sciences. In my future entries (which I am planning to post every 2^nd and last Thursday of each month), I also hope to provide glimpses into my personal experiences as I transition from being a student researcher in academia towards starting a career in patent law.

While most students join their PhD programs with the academic research career track in mind, I knew early on that academia is not for me. Early last year, I started exploring non-traditional careers. And no, that doesn’t just mean working the research bench in alternative settings like Big Pharma or government labs. There are many ways that life science PhD grads can use their skills outside the so-called “ivory tower.” Scientific publishing and communication. Life science recruiting and consulting. Regulatory affairs professional. Biotech start-up business analyst (or even starting your own biotech company!). And so it is at this proverbial crossroad that I’ve decided to go to law school. Without listing ALL my reasons in this introductory installment (stay tuned to future blog entries!), I’ve nonetheless decided to start writing about my journey as a PhD candidate on her way to 1L (that’s law school-speak for “first-year law student,” by the way).

A curious trend I’ve noticed during this last year of the PhD stretch is that a number of students in my class have also started considering working OUTSIDE academia. The thing that frustrates them, however, is that they are unsure how to begin to even explore these options. Through this Bio Careers blog, I plan to share some tips, insights, and experiences from the mid-transition trenches — from coping with the “separation anxiety” from the traditional academic path, to dealing with other scientists’ and non-scientists’ varied reactions (“You want to go back to school AGAIN?”), and eventually laying the groundwork early for that next career. Changing careers, career options, law.