Back to School? From Industry to Academia

When it comes to their career paths, biopharma professionals typically move from academia to industry. These days, however, some are thinking of—or doing—the opposite.

In a BioSpace LinkedIn poll this month, 60% of respondents said they’d considered leaving industry for a job in academia, and 12% had made that move, many of them for a postdoc.

Source: BioSpace

Moving from industry to academia for jobs ranging from postdocs to project management or finance positions is a familiar topic for Carina Clingman, founder of The Collaboratory Career Hub, an online community for people interested in working in biotech. Several of her community members returned to academia in the past year, and many others have been curious about that potential path, she told BioSpace.

Clingman, who’s also the founder and CEO of Recruitomics Consulting, which specializes in talent acquisition and talent strategy for startup biotechs, even had a recent podcast episode about the topic: “Am I a Failure? Thoughts on Returning to Academia.”

The main reason biopharma professionals consider moving from industry to academia is they’re having difficulty finding a job, Clingman said. She noted that most of her community members who made the transition did so because they took jobs when the industry was doing well, without pursuing a postdoc, and struggled to find positions after layoffs.

For biopharma professionals in that situation, a significant advantage of taking a job in academia is simply getting employment, Clingman said.

“You’re feeling like you’re contributing to society again,” she explained. “That’s a big one. We’re all mission driven, and I think unemployment is really hard on our community because they’re not used to sitting still. They’re not used to not contributing.”

Because many biopharma professionals have left academia for industry, Clingman said, there are job opportunities in academia for people open to them, as fewer people are in postdoc or research scientist roles.

“I’ve heard so many people in the academic world complain that they can’t find a postdoc or nobody’s helping train their Ph.D. students,” she said.

A biopharma professional in Europe who requested anonymity told BioSpace he recently considered moving closer to academia as a staff scientist at a core facility or a scientific reviewer for a fund-granting foundation. He did so for career development reasons. He shared that after spending a few years at a contract research organization (CRO) supporting early-stage drug-discovery projects, he noticed there seemed to be little career progression within CROs. He said that was the case even for people like him who have excellent performance reviews.

“Essentially, where I worked, you are only moving up if somebody quits or somebody dies,” he said.

Hoping to break into Big Pharma, the biopharma professional started looking for a position outside of CROs. However, he said, finding a job in the current market was extremely difficult. After about three months of applying, he started considering a position closer to academia. Deciding that move had more cons than pros, including his concern about potentially getting locked into that environment, he kept pursuing industry jobs. He eventually landed a role as a process development scientist at a Big Pharma company, which he started this fall.

While the position is an entry-level one that he feels he’s overqualified for given his work experience, the biopharma professional said he’s glad he took the job. He noted it allowed him to get into Big Pharma, is enhancing his professional network and is helping him address a key concern he has about the industry.

“I wanted to be with somebody big who is already thinking about how AI will change pharma and how to prepare their employees,” he said.

Moving forward, the biopharma professional said he’s interested in how pharma pipeline portfolios develop and is eyeing a path that could lead him to a portfolio manager position.

For an internationally trained general practitioner with a clinical science background, getting a job in academia wasn’t a move away from industry. It’s part of her path to hopefully get into industry in the U.S., a country she moved to several years ago.

The general practitioner, who requested anonymity, told BioSpace she was trying to find a job in pharmacovigilance, as she’s always been passionate about drug safety, dating back to her days as a physician overseas. However, as she looked for a role earlier this year, she realized they’re hard to come by in industry. She noted that it seemed that in the U.S., people were groomed into these jobs through fellowship programs following medical school. She’d trained to be a general practitioner overseas.

After broadening her job search to include teaching hospitals, she quickly landed her current position as a research coordinator at such a hospital. She started in late spring.

“It’s actually been a great fit, this role,” she said. “But it definitely was not what I was intending to get into.”

The biggest reason the general practitioner took this position, she shared, was because several recruiters told her she needed U.S. medical experience. She said the work she’s doing now in data collection, enrollment screening, recruitment, protocol adherence and budgeting will serve her well if she gets a clinical trial manager or safety position in industry. She’s interested in pursuing both roles. However, she said securing such a job could take a year or two given the continuing biopharma layoffs.

For those considering leaving industry for academia, Clingman recommended doing a bit of soul searching regarding their long-term goals and what excites them about what they do.

“What drives you? What’s your North Star?” she said.

For example, Clingman shared, “If you are absolutely dedicated to solving a certain problem in our industry, what are the steps that it’s going to take to get you there? And is going back to academia—doing a postdoc, a research assistant position, something like that—is that going to get you closer to that goal?”

Clingman also advised that people consider what’s best for themselves and their families. For example, those who’ve been laid off may need to take a job in academia rather than wait for a position in industry.

“For some people, it’s not tenable to remain unemployed,” Clingman said. “And even if it’s a pay cut, it’s better to be getting that paycheck. And that’s also fine.”

While some may worry that moving from industry to academia will make it hard to get back into industry later, Clingman said that’s a perceived fear and not in actuality what happens. She added that people’s career paths are not linear.

“Society may say you shouldn’t be doing this, but if you’re learning something—you’re growing, you’re expanding your skill set—it is a forward step,” Clingman said.

She advised that people who make the move be ready to tell potential industry employers a compelling story about their decision that emphasizes the positives.

For example, they could say something like, “I took this industry job in 2021, and I was so excited to get into industry. It was an area I was really passionate about. Unfortunately, that company didn’t make it. And, because I’m so passionate about that area, I was excited to take a postdoc where I could deepen my understanding, my knowledge. I could contribute.”

“It’s all in the messaging, right?” Clingman added. “That, to me, is a great narrative.”

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