My career has spanned different company stages (small/startup biotech and mid-sized pharma), roles (science and business development), and countries (Japan, the US, and France), all starting with a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University. I’m also the founder and owner of a (profitable!) small business that performs solutions services (medical writing and editing) for non-native English speakers, with global clients in more than 10 countries. Below I share some strategies on how I made decisions at each transition point.

Tip #1. For career advice, principles are good, and anecdotes may be good, but collect sufficient data by listening to lots of people.

My career progression questions started as an undergrad in the mid-90’s when trying to decide between medical school and graduate school. I knew science would be a part of my future, but also had a vague notion of wanting to help people. HMOs were just coming on the scene, and most people felt this and other changes would dramatically devalue the practice of medicine. In a career counseling session with our family physician, he suggested that while physicians get to help maybe dozens of people per day, scientists that contributed to new drugs being developed could potentially help thousands or millions. My path was decided. Similarly, in deciding to transition out of science and into business development, I polled many people in my network about the best way to move forward with that plan.

Your ideal career path sits at the intersection of three areas: interest, capabilities, and external factors. Interest describes your interests in life, things that you value, and uses your strengths. You won’t be motivated to do something that doesn’t interest you, at least long-term. Your capabilities include your skills and knowledge, both factual and experiential. Finally, external factors can include market demand, personal connections, and your view of the rewards you want from a career. Take some time to reflect and gather information on each of these vocational aspects of life--aligning all three areas should be a career goal and will result in maximum career satisfaction. For example, I’ve found that I enjoy traveling (an interest), and want to have that as part of my work experience.

Tip #3. Take the best of two models for career progression: linear vs. iterative.

Anyone who has completed graduate training, especially PhD work, will tell you that staying focused on a long-term goal (e.g., graduation!) is critical, even if the path to this goal might change. Many proponents of career planning put forth a linear model that involves 1) knowing ourselves and what we want to do (with the assumption that this is static and unchanging), and then 2) guiding our actions toward the one "right" job. These proponents suggest that any indecisiveness requires further study or reflection to better define ourselves (personality tests, internal reflection). However, the failure of this model is that there is no single, perfect career for anyone. Furthermore, we can only discover this ideal career by experimenting with new professional activities, connecting with new social networks, and working and re-working the story we tell ourselves and others about who we are. This concept is explored more fully in Working Identity-Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra.

My career progression is a perfect example of this. Four years ago, I wouldn’t have told you that I would enjoy working in business development, in part because my understanding of the role was not correct, but also because I’d never thought of myself doing ‘sales’. Still, I have always enjoyed matching people that have needs with people that can meet them—whether it is as simple as helping someone move or helping people find work opportunities. This drive also flows over to generating revenue for my company by meeting a research & development need for another company, and makes Business Development a satisfying career option.

Like many things in life, the ideal solution may be to take what is best from both models: plan and implement vs. test and learn:

•    Think of your career as a combination of reflection and analysis with action.
•    Leverage opportunities (even unpaid!) to explore other options, such as working in the technology transfer office of your university to explore if you’d like being involved in licensing or business transactions.
•    Establish a linear set of goals and begin implementing them, but be willing to change them as you collect more data and reflect on experience.
•    Keep an end goal in mind (failing to plan means planning to fail), but test your hypotheses that underlie those goals.
•    Collect and use both explicit knowledge (what jobs exist, skills you have, etc.) and implicit knowledge (interests, appeal, feasibility).
•    Identify ways to learn by doing, develop relationships, and attend conferences/courses to help you reach those goals.

For me, the linear approach might look like this:

1)    Career Pinnacle- Where are you headed?
i)    Work as my own business development consultant
2)    10 year objective
i)    Become Sr. Dir/VP of Business Development
ii)    Big/small company experience (understand any buyers needs)
iii)    Build an extensive network of influential leaders in Business Development (future collaborators)
3)    5 year objective
i)    Become a team leader, grow a department, leader in licensing activity
ii)    Build foundations for a deal sheet (list of deals you’ve completed)
4)    Goals for this year
i)    Find a position (full-time Manager of Business Development)
ii)    Broaden knowledge/experience into areas such as valuation or licensing agreements
iii)    Continue networking with senior leaders within bio-pharma

Despite this linear goal, though, I’ve explored doing software sales for biotech companies (sales rep), was guest lecturer in an MBA program on ethical issues in the pharma industry (teaching), am writing grants for a medical device startup (entrepreneur), and am developing a drug access program for a central Asian country (public health). These experiences have helped expand my ideas about what I want to learn, do, and be career-wise, but also clarified aspects of each path that may or may not be appealing as well, and will enable me to make better decisions in the future.