BGS Career Development

Making It Count!

Career: Research (industry)

Medical Affairs – Job Description

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BioCareers, a career service for life scientists with advanced degrees, provides an informative description of medical affairs. The author explains:

“While there is some variation in segmentation and structure, most pharmaceutical companies have two kinds of scientific teams: research / development and medical affairs.  While R & D defines the scientific direction and early stage development, medical affairs provides scientific support for late stage development and post market support for drugs and devices. In small companies, the same team may be responsible for both kinds of activities.” 

They go on to explain that medical affairs can encompass a wide variety of activities, many of them scientific, informational, communications, and interpersonal in nature. Personal characteristics particularly useful to the field include joy in building relationships and a mind for entrepreneurism.

Read more here.

SfN: Career Skills Toolkit: From PhD to Postdoc

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For doctoral students considering a postdoc position, SfN has created a toolkit for exploring career options. Its contents include advice on how to:

  • Explore career options and decide on your next steps.
  • Build the skills and network you need for career advancement.
  • Highlight your value on a CV or resume.
  • Identify and secure a postdoc position.
  • Plan your postdoc to help you achieve future career advancement. (Via SfN Neuronline).

Read more and download the toolkit presentation here.

Biopharma Innovation Cup 2019

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Merck KGaA is accepting applications to participate in the Biopharma Innovation Cup 2019:

“As part of the Innovation Cup, 30 students will be selected and invited to join a week-long summer camp, to work together in a highly stimulating environment.

  • Work as part of a team to generate new ideas in the fields: oncology, immuno-oncology, autoimmunity, small molecules drug discovery, protein engineering and screening, digitalization.
  • Evaluate your ideas from a technical and business perspective and build a convincing business plan.
  • Learn the essentials about R&D within the pharmaceutical and chemical industry.
  • Network with the brightest students from all over the world.
  • Understand how products can be successfully discovered, developed, and brought to market.
  • Get to know us and learn about career options.
  • A jury, consisting of top scientists and entrepreneurs, our senior managers and external experts will pick the winning business plans for first and second place.

On the last day of the summer camp, a conference with alumni of previous Innovation Cup editions will be organized. Learn what alumni are doing today and expand your network of top innovators.

Following the innovation cup, options to implement the best business plans will be evaluated. We will keep you posted.

Travel, accommodation and food expenses paid by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.” (Via Merck KGaA)

Applicants accepted to participate will attend the Innovation Cup 2019 summer camp near Frankfurt, Germany the week of June 23-29, 2019. The winning team will share a prize of 20,000 Euros.

For more information and to apply, read here.

Careers in Research Compliance

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The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) provides an overview of the importance of research compliance. The author asserts that the entire science community is responsible for holding one another to high standards of research integrity. They then delve into descriptions of key institutions (such as university research compliance departments) and core areas (animal welfare, conflicts of interest, and more.) Finally, they list a sample of job postings as well as relevant certifications and trainings.

Read more here.

SFN: “How to Select and Plan for a Postdoc”

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The Society for Neuroscience provides this career advice article written by Dr. Donna Korol, Associate Professor at Syracuse University. Although she acknowledges that there are no concrete answers when it comes to finding and securing a postdoc, she provides her insights on a number of commonly asked questions, such as, “Is it okay to do more than one postdoc?” or, “If I want to go into academia, can I still do an industry postdoc?” Read her perspectives here.

Science: “Explore the skills that can open career doors after your doctoral training”

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This Science article discusses a survey of 3,803 science and engineering Ph.D.s working in various industries. Survey respondents revealed that while many believe they began developing important professional skills while in grad school, there are a number of skills that they have found very important at work that were not a central focus of their Ph.D. training (for example, personnel management.)

The article’s authors developed an interactive graphic based on the survey’s data. It compares the extent a skill is developed in grad school with its importance in 12 career sectors, including research, consulting, teaching, and more. It is intended to give doctoral students an overview of the day-to-day duties and responsibilities of jobs in a variety of sectors and to shed light on which skills should be prioritized, either within their Ph.D. training or through extracurricular activities.