An understanding of quantum gravity can only get you so far if your idea of communication is talking to your desk plant. Whether you want to stay in science or move elsewhere, having a robust set of transferable skills is essential for your career.
快猫短视频 looks at the ones you might want to arm yourself with.
Communication: Make yourself Understood
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It鈥檚 not that scientists can鈥檛 communicate. Your very worth is measured in the number of papers published. Your livelihood hangs on carefully crafted grant proposals. Professional gatherings require you to present to rooms of people and guide strangers through the ins and outs of your posters. Let鈥檚 face it, scientists know how to communicate 鈥� with each other.
The problem comes when the rest of the world needs to know what is going on. The ability to convey ideas to lay people tops the list of skills scientists need if they want to be successful outside academia, says Cynthia Robbins-Roth, author of Alternative Careers in Science: Leaving the Ivory Tower (Academic Press, 2005).
The main problem, she says, is that scientists spend too much time speaking to people just like themselves. 鈥淵ou are talking to others who speak the language you speak,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou spend a lot of time with people who are focused on the same things you are.鈥�
That leads not only to the widespread use of cliquish, specialist vocabulary, but also to the abandonment of context and logical connections. When speaking with the like-minded, there are common assumptions about what is obvious and well known, she says, which excludes outsiders.
鈥淐ommunication is important whatever you do, but particularly in science,鈥� says Justin Mullins, a journalist, including for 快猫短视频, who also co-runs a business called , which teaches scientists how to put their ideas down on paper more clearly. 鈥淭he ideas are very complex. Being able to communicate them clearly is crucial.鈥�
For many people, one of the upsides of choosing to study a science subject at university is that writing essays becomes a thing of the past. True, you might have been taught the rudimentary structure of a lab report or scientific paper but being trained to write well was usually left to the arts students. 鈥淵oung scientists are expected to learn to write by osmosis,鈥� says Mullins. He gets his pupils to organise their thoughts before they start writing them down, asking them to think about the structure down to each sentence.
Most of Mullins鈥檚 clients have been in Germany. But since 2002, British universities have been focusing much more on developing transferable skills like communication. This is thanks to a report by Gareth Roberts, which looked into ways to foster science, engineering and innovation, and a 拢185 million fund that was set up in its wake to help pay for skills training. This money runs out in April next year so take advantage of it while you can, says Stephen Tarling, head of talent management at the University of Southampton.
Many universities are now offering writing courses for their students and researchers. Others go further, giving training on presentation skills as well, recognising that effective communication requires a person not only to get across the technical details of their research, but also to convey an enthusiasm about the work. The University of Southampton, for instance, is among 18 British universities that have hired a company called to help researchers become better presenters. They use acting techniques to give researchers the confidence to let their personality shine at the lectern.
People skills: Sell yourself
Even if you find it easy to get the message across, there is another hitch. In academia, your ideas sell you. In the non-academic world, the opposite is true: you have to sell your ideas. It is not enough to come up with good ideas and demonstrate them to people who largely understand what they are about.
To cross the street from academia into the world beyond requires scientists to pitch ideas and themselves, build alliances and network. In short, people skills are essential. Building relationships, listening well and resolving conflicts are important people skills, says , a professor of healthcare administration at Simmons College in Boston, and author of the book Managing 快猫短视频s (Wiley-Blackwell, 2004). 鈥淚t is not rocket science to name them,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut it is to learn them.鈥� Sapienza thinks that training courses could help scientists learn people skills but it has to start early.
Those who are not able to engage with others and market themselves will not be successful in the commercial world, says , a senior advisor at MaRS, an organisation based in Toronto, Canada, that helps transform scientific ideas into commercial enterprises.
McCulloch left academia in 1994 to join a company that invested in the life sciences and was 鈥渂lown away鈥� by the difference in culture. Anyone thinking of leaving the lab for the world of business or government should consider volunteering or doing an internship first, McCulloch says, just to see what the culture is like. 鈥淵ou might like it,鈥� he says. 鈥淥r you might hate it.鈥�
Teamwork: Play well with others 鈥� even if they are different
You only have to look at the number of authors on the average science paper to see that collaboration is a big part of research. Yet the ability to work in a team is often identified by companies as a skill that researchers lack. Why is this? The main problem is that teams don鈥檛 get tenure, individuals do, says Edward O鈥橬eil, head of the Health Care Leadership Program at the University of California, San Francisco. In academia, he says, 鈥測ou eat what you kill鈥�.
The organisation , which helps scientists advance in their careers, recently brought out a to sum up the knowledge, behaviour and attitude that researchers need to be effective. In it, 鈥渨orking with others鈥� is listed as a critical skill. The report also highlights the importance of recognising other people鈥檚 contributions to a team鈥檚 success, as well as the need for researchers to respect differences and work well with people beyond academia. These are two stumbling blocks many researchers routinely face.
鈥溈烀ǘ淌悠祍 are used to working with very like-minded people, sometimes extremely so,鈥� says McCullough. 鈥淚f you are a geneticist, you spend a lot of time not just around scientists but around geneticists 鈥� and almost no time around accountants, lawyers and marketing people.鈥� But if you want to commercialise your scientific idea, then these people are vital.
Keri Damen, also at the MaRS Centre, says that there can be tensions between the technical and sales teams at a research-based company. 鈥淭he sales people may be motivated by different things,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey are a different breed of person.鈥� That is why they are good at selling things 鈥� and you are not.
Damen, who encounters a lot of scientists who want to launch their own companies, confesses that it is often hard to convince them to hire people with specialist skills in finance, human resources or sales. Many think they can do it all themselves, she says, or they want to hire people just like them.
Collectivism: No more lone genius
The toughest challenge of a switch from academia to the corporate world may be accepting your new identity. No longer are you working for your own glory. Instead, you are a part of a greater whole 鈥� and it is not your intelligence that will be valued the most. I know, I know. All your life, from your early school days to well past your postdoc, you were encouraged to believe that being the smartest, the most innovative, the most creative 鈥� in short, the best 鈥� was what was going to get you somewhere. But outside the lab, the rules are different.
鈥淲hat is valued in academia is knowledge and insightful ideas,鈥� says McCulloch. You do good work, you publish papers and that makes you successful in raising funds, so you get a permanent position. But in business you are part of a collective, and it is the entire collective that needs to function well.
Your contribution is just one small part of the whole. 鈥淎t the end of the day, all that matters is that the enterprise is successful,鈥� McCulloch says. This comes as a shock to many research scientists who make the switch. 鈥淎s a scientist, I had been trained to figure out the closest thing to the truth,鈥� says Robbins-Roth, who had a hard time figuring out where she fitted in when she first arrived at biotech start-up, Genentech. 鈥淵our job is to be an asset to the company 鈥� to help the company do well and meet its goals,鈥� she says. It doesn鈥檛 matter how amazing your work is; what matters is how well you help the company with its agenda. 鈥淚f you cause more trouble than you鈥檙e worth, it won鈥檛 matter how smart you are,鈥� Robbins-Roth says.
快猫短视频s leaving academia need to nurture humility, says McCulloch. 鈥淏usiness people don鈥檛 get huge accolades for being smart, but for being effective,鈥� he says. That is measured in things like increased sales, increased earnings and an increased number of licensing agreements. Not, alas, by the fruition of one employee鈥檚 great idea.
Management: Lead the team
People who rise to management positions in academia get there on the strength of their ideas, not on the strength of their management skills. If they happen to be good at managing, that is an added bonus and one that is not always necessary. That is because good research underlings shouldn鈥檛 need a lot of management. 鈥淭he whole principle of academic research is independent research,鈥� points out , also at MaRS. As an up-and-coming researcher, you are supposed to be finding your own path, not simply following orders.
Unlike in academia, management in the commercial world 鈥渋s not just sitting down and scratching heads collectively about technical problems鈥�, says Redpath. Nor is it doing the important work yourself and getting the others to be your worker bees. It is about overseeing the use of time, money, resources and personal talents to ensure they are being used in the pursuit of a common goal.
According to a carried out in 2010 by Vitae, only 32 per cent of PhD students were still working in research three years after gaining their doctorate聽鈥� so two-thirds must be doing something else. Yet a study to be published in early 2011 by the found that while companies are interested in hiring people with both managerial and scientific skills, they are in short supply.
The problem is that scientific institutions don鈥檛 see it as their job to prepare scientists for the management part of their future career. 鈥淭raditionally there has not been much training in management and leadership,鈥� says of King鈥檚 College London, which is trying to fill that gap through courses and workshops.
It is a situation that doesn鈥檛 make sense, says Sapienza. 鈥淲hy would you expect somebody to be confident and competent manager if they have no training?鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 ask someone without skills in mass spectrometry to do that bit of an experiment.鈥�
Currently, much of the hands-on experience has to be gained outside academia. Organising annual conferences, running monthly meetings and managing people in a volunteer capacity are all ways scientists can gain some management experience, says Redpath. Price suggests keeping track of all your skills and experience, such as courses completed, duties taken on and hobbies that involve working in a group. You may find you have more experience than you realise, she says.
What is really needed, says Redpath, is a change in how scientists are educated. Skills like project management should be seen as course components for scientists in the same way that chemistry is for nurses and pharmacists. But in the US and Canada, management courses never seem to be de rigeur. 鈥淏usiness schools want $30,000 for that,鈥� he says. In the UK, many universities offer science degrees with some integrated management component, but these are not compulsory.
Redpath points out that when he studied chemistry in the 1970s, he was required to learn a second language in order to graduate. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see why we can鈥檛 replace that with a management course.鈥� It would simply recognise the skills needed to be a well-rounded research scientist these days.