This past October, swissnex Boston, with the support of Interpharma, held its first Career Development Program (CDP). Intended to assist Swiss, Life Science and Engineering postdoctoral and graduate students from the Boston area, the CDP consisted of four, weekly workshops that covered topics from industry standards to negotiation tactics. An experienced professional, from the career development or academic industries, led each workshop, giving the students access to invaluable, expert knowledge.

Workshop 1: Culture and rules of the industry

Jen Megules – Novartis Institute for BioMedical

The first Career Development Workshop kicked off with a member of the Life Sciences field at the helm. Jen Megules, a Staffing Manager in the Human Resources team at the Novatis Institute for BioMedical Research, led the students through a 3-hour course on the operations and structure of a typical industry career. With almost all of the students’ experience in the academia world, they were very curious to see how careers in Life Sciences industry worked.

Megules started off the session with an overview of major companies within the academic and industry field. Deconstructing the way companies and academic institutions integrate research in their operations helped the students grasp the major research paradigms differences between the R&D strategies of the industry versus the traditional academic career. Then taking an interactive approach, Megules presented the students with a compatibility exercise, which involved each student assessing the transferability of their own skills to an industry job. The students were intrigued by how many of their academic/research skills applied to industry, more business-like positions.

A great start to the CDP workshops, Megules left the students with some parting advice for their future job searches:

“Really think about where [you] will be successful, most engaged and supported the most individually. “

Workshop 2: The art of the job interview and storytelling

Sarah Cardozo Duncan - Careerstrategist.com

The second CDP workshop filled the swissnex Boston office. Led by Sarah Cardozo Duncan, CEO and founder of CareerStrategist.com, the students began the workshop prepared to tackle the art of the job interview and resume tactics. Duncan, who draws upon over twenty years of recruitment and career development experience, ran the students through a self-evaluation process that broke down all of their interpersonal skills (leadership skills, analysis skills, etc.) From there, Duncan broke-out the students into groups based on their skills, allowing them to compare notes and discuss the important aspects of their personality types. Duncan explained the process further:

“[The students] had to think about the four quadrants of communication. It is so important to recognize other people’s communication style so you can adjust your style to meet that person, particularly in an interview or in a team situation.”

Duncan brought the groups back together to analyze the different categories and how they would then communicate and work together. In the end, Duncan told the students that the most important aspects to concentrate on, during your job hunt, are the most basic ones:

“The goal of the workshop was to help people understand how to talk about themselves and their work.

Workshop 3: Career opportunities and current state of the industry

Lauren Celano - Propel Careers

The students returned to swissnex prepared to take a deeper look into the inner workings of the industry. Lauren Celano, founder and CEO of Propel Careers, joined swissnex for the third installment of the CDP, hoping to show the students a new world of options after life in academia.

“[For workshop 3] talked about a number of different things in the technology sectors, life sciences, clean tech and high tech, different industry trends that could help shape people’s careers over the next couple of years. We talked about how to look at different opportunities that could be a fit for individuals with scientific backgrounds, PHD or PostDocs. Especially thinking about all the different career options that could exist- consulting, investment banking or R&D,” Celano explained.

Breaking down the industry with helpful charts and diagrams, Celano walked the student through different career options and responsibilities that would come attached. Celano also stressed the importance of building a memorable online presence for career searching. “In today’s job market, there are estimates that more than 30% of jobs are currently filled by finding candidates through online job boards and sites like LinkedIn,” Celano commented. She continued to emphasize networking and its benefits for potential career opportunities.

Celano stressed the importance of using resources and networking available and reaching out to seasoned professionals for advice: “We talked about how they could learn about different opportunities, different roles and different people that can help them along the way.”

Leaving the students with new resources and guides for the next career move, Celano reminded the students that, with their transferrable skills, they have opportunities in more fields than they think. “Everyone here has so many good skills, they could work in 10 different roles.”

Workshop 4: Leadership and negotiation

Professor Ofer Sharone - MIT Sloan School of Management

Finishing off the Career Development Program, swissnex Boston brought in Professor Ofer Sharone, from MIT Sloan School of Management, to lead the fourth workshop. Drawing from his experience in international law and sociology, Prof Sharone guided the students through a series of exercises that introduced the key concepts of efficient negotiation techniques and leadership skills.

Prof Sharone began with a basic explanation of how negotiation skills are essential for career success.

“The core issue that comes up in almost any negotiation; sharing information is necessary to reach these win-win deals, but at the same time sharing information can make you open to being exploited. The other party can take advantage of you.”

Prof Sharone then walked the students through multiple scenarios that would allow them to negotiate job offers and opportunities without the feeling of vulnerability or uneasiness.

Unlike Prof Sharone’s business students, the CDP participants were unfamiliar with the workshop topics. “It was fun to talk to a group that has no assumptions about how things really work,” Prof Sharone mentioned. This “openness” gave Prof Sharone the freedom to cover the basics that he thought were crucial for the CDP students’ future.

“We focused on job searching and salary negotiation and it was clear that this is the issue on their minds. And I think what was really interesting about this groups was being Swiss. The American context was not taken for granted. So I got a lot of questions- how does it really work? Is what you’re saying really the case? In practice can really do this type of thing… can we really negotiate?”

In the end, the students learned that negotiations in job searches and salary discussions are the norm and a crucial part of the process:

“The negotiation leadership part was really amazing because I have never heard about this and it will bring me a lot. I have learned so much,” Irene Wuethrich, CDP Participant.

With the close of CDP, the fourth workshop proved to be a success and left many students eager to practice what they learned:

“I will apply [negotiations] in my life, private and professional,” Sharon Blättler, CDP Participant.

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In addition to the four, weekly workshops, swissnex Boston offered CDP students the opportunity to apply for a career-travel grant, providing the recipients airfare to and from Switzerland for any career-related interviews or job opportunities.

To receive more information about this grant or other possible grant opportunities please click here.