From Benchwork to Network: Why Networking Was My Missing Link
Apr 18, 2025
During my postdoc, I constantly heard that networking was crucial for landing industry jobs. However, I had no clue what that actually meant in practice.
Back in academia, I held several misconceptions about networking. Early in my PhD, I thought of it as a sort of shortcut—something like an unfair advantage that allowed people to get ahead without truly earning their success.
As a result, I wasn’t investing nearly enough in building relationships. Instead, I though all I had to do to land a great job was to work harder and harder at the bench, publishing more papers, and mastering new techniques, and that’s where my energies were flowing.
It turned out, I was wrong. Badly.
Don’t get me wrong, working hard is essential to achieving career goals. Scientific knowledge and technical expertise are fundamental in both academia and industry R&D. However, I gradually realized during my postdoc just how crucial professional relationships are on top of that. This lesson applies as much to industry as it does to academia, yet many of us fail to recognize its importance early on. I’d like to encourage you to reflect on this: of course, we all believe we are conducting cutting-edge, groundbreaking, and potentially world-changing research. And that’s great—our research in academia is highly valuable!
But let’s be honest: how could we publish our papers or secure grant funding without the networks of our PIs and professors?
Our mentors, advisors, and colleagues all leverage their connections to get papers reviewed, grants awarded, and collaborations established. Academia thrives on relationships, even though it often presents itself as based purely on hard work and intellectual contribution.
Likewise, relationships are crucial for building a career in industry.
Once I fully grasped this lesson, I realized that investing more time & energy in networking was non-negotiable.
The next challenge came up immediately after, when I had to figure out how to do it. At first, my approach to networking was limited to attending conferences and seminars, where I would strike up conversations with fellow researchers and industry professionals. While these discussions were often intellectually stimulating, they didn’t translate into tangible career opportunities. Simply talking to people wasn’t enough—I needed a more strategic approach.
That’s when I turned to actively using LinkedIn.
Over the past 6 years, I have learned that LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for building and strengthening your professional network—if you use it strategically.
Here are 4 simple steps you can start implementing immediately to use LinkedIn effectively:
- Connect with people in roles you’re curious about or aspire to.
- Engage with them by consistently commenting on their content.
- Reach out via DM to introduce yourself and begin building a relationship.
- Once you have built a relationship, consider asking for 15 minutes of their time for a quick informational interview or virtual coffee chat (I love virtual coffees! â)
That’s how you start creating your network!
Keep in mind that networking is anything but an overnight process. Building meaningful professional relationships takes time. Be patient: the key is consistency—regularly engaging with your network, sharing valuable content, and nurturing connections.
Even if opportunities don’t materialize immediately, the relationships you cultivate now can open doors down the line. For this reason, my suggestion is: start early—don’t wait until you desperately need a job!
While building new connections takes time, mapping and leveraging your existing ones can yield equally significant results in less time.
When I started my industry job search as a pharmacology postdoc, even though I had realized the importance of networking, I was still overly focused on my resume. I thought it was crucial to highlight my skills and strengths and align them with the requirements of the job description to land more interviews and eventually get an offer.
And indeed, it was. When I learned through trial and error how to craft a stronger resume, I immediately started receiving more interview invitations.
However, I soon realized that while an optimized resume was essential, I was still facing a frustrating level of rejections.
Eventually, after 2 years of job searching, I landed my first industry role in biotech in 2019. Recently, while preparing to mentor postdocs for their transition to Pharma R&D for my new mentoring program, I revisited my 2019 application files and compared the resume I submitted in my successful application with some from my previous unsuccessful applications.
Interestingly, I noticed there was little to no difference among them—you certainly wouldn’t reach a p<0.05 if you applied a t-test to them.
What really made the difference in that application was my approach: when I saw the job posting online, I reached out via LinkedIn to a former master's classmate who was working at the company and asked if she knew anything about the role. She kindly replied and asked for my resume, which I sent her so she could forward it to HR and the hiring manager. This one simple step—leveraging a pre-existing connection—proved to be the game-changer.
Of course, my resume was well-crafted and tailored to the role, but I would say it was just as much so in many other applications I submitted during that period. Yet, this step was critical in helping me get the first interview.
Looking back at my journey, I wish I had recognized the power of networking earlier. If I could give one piece of advice to postdocs and PhD graduates transitioning to industry, it would be this: be strategic about building and leveraging your network.
This lesson was reinforced by 6 years of industry experience across biotech and pharma, where I saw similar patterns again and again. Further confirmation came from this retrospective comparison between my successful and unsuccessful 2019 application files.
As I continue mentoring other PhDs in their industry transitions, I emphasize this lesson repeatedly:
- Crafting a tailored resume: great
- Networking: Better
- Tailored resume + networking: BEST
Andrea Grandi, PhD
About the author:
In 2019, Andrea left academia to pursue his aspiration of making an impact on millions of patients as an Industry Scientist. Over the past 6 years, he has held various roles in biotech and pharma, and now mentors life sciences PhDs and postdocs pursuing careers in Pharma R&D.
Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn, and check out his website.