From Lab Bench to Corporate Desk: A story of a scientist outside of science
“Bench work does not represent even the majority of the positions you can occupy. What you know, what you do as a scientist, you can work in multiple fields.”
By Elizabeth Wu
On the morning of November 20, 2014, scientist Nuno Antunes returned home in the middle of the workday. He held a box of belongings from his work desk. He was in shock. He and half of the company had been called into a room shortly after arriving at work. There, they were told that the biotech company they worked at was going through financial troubles, and that most scientists, including Nuno, were being laid off, effective immediately.
Nuno didn’t want to believe this was happening to him. He had only worked at this company for 3 months and had no idea that the company was in trouble. His shock faded into anger.
Would this negatively impact his career and his immigration status? He and his wife were in a new city with no network, with a recently signed apartment lease and moving expenses still fresh on his mind. All this weighed on him as he unpacked the box at home. Just a few hours before, he’d felt like he was living the American dream, and now it was over.
Journeying into science
Nuno grew up in in a suburb of Lisbon, cheering for the Sporting Lisbon soccer team. He wanted to become a vet, but changed his mind after discovering science during a 6-month internship in infectious diseases and microbiology.
“I fell in love with science,” Nuno says of his internship. He loved studying how microbes evolve, how animals react to disease, how the two different species interact and try to kill each other. “That’s when I fell in love with microbiology. That’s when I decided that this is what I want to do.”
Nuno decided to pursue his PhD in animal health in Spain. “Being the first person to see or to experience something, solving problems…those were the things that kept me in science. Every day was a challenge. I could explore ideas, I could get out of the routine.” He learned a lot from his experience abroad, including proficiency in another language. Little did he know that later in life, fluency in Spanish would become critical to his career.
Nuno accepted a professorship at a vet school in Portugal, where he could teach, keep doing research, and be close to home. A year and a half later, he heard of an opportunity to do a postdoc in the US through his PhD adviser in Spain. He decided to take it.
Postdoc years in the US
He had never visited the US before and was excited at the chance to work in science in the US. In April 2009, he packed his life in two suitcases and headed to the airport in anticipation. When the plane door closed, he had a moment of panic. He realized, with sudden clarity, that he knew no one in the US, was unfamiliar with the culture, and would be far from home and loved ones.
Once he arrived, his fears about being in a new and unfamiliar place were assuaged. Many postdocs there had gone through similar experiences. As a result, he had close community of postdocs that helped each other. There, he met the love of of his life, who would later marry him and bring him to heart of biotech in Boston.
In 2013, Nuno’s wife, also a scientist, applied for grad school in Boston. In a stroke of good fortune and timing, Nuno had been applying to med device companies in Boston, and happened to receive a job offer from a biotech to work as a scientist right as his wife needed to start school. They moved in August 2014.
The Layoff
Although Boston was culture shock from his experiences in the Midwest, Spain, and Portugal, Nuno settled into his new job nicely. “The experience was good. The position was perfect for me,” Nuno recalls. “I was really happy. The project was going really well.”
Three months in, his entire department was laid off. Nuno had just come from a postdoc position where he didn’t really have any savings. He had spent 3 months in an extremely expensive city with a lot of moving expenses. Suddenly, he was left without a job in a city that is quite expensive, where he didn’t know anyone, and where he had no contacts or references.
Nuno decided not to let it affect him. The next day, he was on LinkedIn updating his profile and sending cold messages asking to get coffee and talk. He went through his short list of contacts and asked them if they had any suggestions and asked if they could help him. He started to network and apply to jobs.
Finding a job outside of research
“I didn’t need to stay in science to continue my way of thinking, my way of analyzing…There are multiple options we aren’t aware of or don’t even consider because that’s not in the training that we get as scientists. There’s multiple opportunities for scientists outside of industry.”
Nuno found it very difficult in Boston to get a phone interview if he didn’t know someone, and realized the importance of reaching out to any potential connections. He found his next job opportunity through an unlikely source: a Facebook group of Portuguese scientists. He saw a post looking for someone who speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and has some understanding of science. He applied.
3 months after he was laid off, Nuno was deciding between 2 job offers: a healthcare market research firm and a contract research organization (CRO). The CRO would have allowed him to stay in science, but the salary was low.
“Initially it was not my favorite idea to leave science,” Nuno recalls. He had good prospects to stay in biotech, but he knew that getting laid off was very common in biotech. He had talked to people who had been laid off 5–6 times, due to acquisitions, lack of funding, or failure of clinical trials. Upon reflection, he realized he didn’t want the uncertainty that comes with a biotech career and didn’t want to be packing every couple years. “It’s not a life, personally,” he says.
He realized at this market research firm, he could stay linked to science from different perspective. The job was Market Access Analyst. He accepted.
The new job required understanding disease and treatments, knowledge of health systems, and knowing what doctors need. As a market analyst, Nuno felt like he was still applying the scientific process: identifying and solving a problem, making observations, analyzing data, looking at trends, and making predictions.
“I didn’t need to stay in science to continue my way of thinking, my way of analyzing. It’s something that people forget. We’re trained to follow tenure track or industry research track. There are multiple options we aren’t aware of or don’t even consider because that’s not in the training that we get as scientists. There’s multiple opportunities for scientists outside of industry.”
Transitioning to a new career
“That transition of going to the office environment, sitting the whole day in front of a computer, that could be the biggest challenge.” His new job was not about understanding a phenomenon but rather finding information. He had to get used to having a routine after leaving a job where he did something different every day.
Nuno’s first year as a market analyst was a struggle. There was a lot to learn, and he had to think in a different way. As he got used to his new job, he realized routine had benefits too. It gave him flexibility to do other things. With the stability of a routine, he had the possibility to explore new things. He wrote several blogs and gained social media presence through Twitter by posting about Zika. In his first couple years as a market analyst, he had visibility and made an impact in efforts outside of his job.
2 years after making the transition, a position opened at his company in infectious diseases, his first love. He spoke with the team leader about joining the team, and a week later had a contract in hand.
Nuno says the hardest part of his job now is how busy the second half of the year gets. He had very little time to get updated on his new field and acclimated on his new job within within the company. His main focus is to learn enough to do job well, even amidst a hectic schedule and the pressure of multiple deadlines.
Looking back, Nuno says, “I wouldn’t do anything differently. I’m not sure where I would’ve ended up. If I had known I would be in this position, maybe I would have paid more attention to investing time in developing business skills: forecasting, economic data, and business vocabulary. But it’s not too different from being a scientist. It’s just applied to a business setting.”
“Happiness comes through many different avenues.”
When asked if he misses science, he replies, “I miss it every day, but I am very happy with what I do….I work 40–48 hours a week. I’m able to have a life. Happiness comes through many different avenues.”
Advice for junior scientists: Be open-minded
As for his advice for other scientists, he says, “There’s more to life besides being a scientist. It helps when people tell you or when you are aware…Bench work does not represent even the majority of the positions you can occupy. What you know, what you do as a scientist, you can work in multiple fields.”
“Bench work does not represent even the majority of the positions you can occupy. What you know, what you do as a scientist, you can work in multiple fields.”
Nuno suggests that junior scientists learn desired skills through Harvard Extension School courses, Coursera courses, and attend networking events. “You can meet different people and listen to them sharing their stories, their experiences, their struggles. That’s how you learn if you can see yourself doing something different from science or not.
“Be open-minded, don’t be afraid of trying something new. If you get a PhD, you can do anything in your life. Don’t be set on being a scientist. We don’t need to be set in a certain mode, we can get out of that mode and be happy.”
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