Success in Industry is a Game - And a Scientist has an Awesome Role to Play by David Giltner, PhD

I wasn’t sure I would like working in industry when I got my first job after finishing my PhD.

After all, that’s not what I saw myself doing when I arrived at graduate school several years earlier. Like so many young scientists, I started my PhD journey following the ‘traditional career path’ that leads to becoming a professor and academic researcher.

I loved working in the lab, and I loved staying on top of the brand new science that was being developed in my field. But after several years watching my advisor, I realized I didn’t want the lifestyle of a professor. 

CHOOSING THE INDUSTRY CAREER PATH 

My lab partner Roger had done an internship with a company before his PhD, and he talked about this amazing world of industry where you got to create things that people need. Building high-tech products, sending them to people, and seeing the results of them using something I’d made sounded much more fun to me than publishing more research papers. 

I decided I would start my career in industry. 

My advisor said that unfortunately I was on my own, because she didn’t know anything about industry. My only connection with industry was buying equipment for my lab, so I had a big challenge ahead of me to figure out how to get an industry job. 

How I got that job is a whole different story, but after a lot of work and some creative networking, I found an awesome job with a laser company in San Jose, California, a region often called Silicon Valley.

Despite my concerns about working in industry, my new job was very exciting. The day-to-day work felt similar to the lab work I did as a grad student, but the motivation was very different. We were building a company rather than a university research program, and that made a big difference in how I had to approach my work.

BUSINESS IS A GAME 

Working in industry meant I was working in business. And business is a fast-paced competitive game where you work to provide solutions to customers faster and better than your competitors.

That was a real shift from academic research. If I wanted to grow beyond that first job, I’d better figure out what unique value I could bring to the game of business! 

Finding the answer to that took some time, because it took me several years to figure out how the game worked. Nobody ever gave me a rule book (so years later I wrote one of my own!) But in time I came to see that there are many strengths that a scientist has that make us great at the game of business. 

FIVE SCIENTIST STRENGTHS THAT MAKE US UNIQUELY VALUABLE IN INDUSTRY:

Problem solvers

Scientists are great problem solvers. One of the best things about a PhD education is that we get used to solving problems we’ve never seen before. And there are LOTS of problems to solve in industry. Every company has plans to do big important things…and then unforeseen problems get in the way. We scientists can help with that.

Independent Learners

Being an independent learner is one of the hallmarks of a PhD degree. It’s a huge help to your industry manager when they see you can tackle a new project without them having to teach you everything themselves.

Data Driven

Good companies strive to make data-driven decisions whenever possible. Scientists know how to collect and analyze data and determine which conclusions are valid and which are not. That is a valuable strength in every aspect of a company.

Prone to challenging assumptions

Humans have an unfortunate tendency to rely on preconceived ideas. While this can make some aspects of our lives easier, it can also lead us to make poorly informed decisions. We scientists are naturally skeptical, and that often leads us to uncover problems and discover solutions that others miss.

Not afraid of the unknown

Many people are not very comfortable with the unknown and tend to avoid the unexplained. But we scientists choose a career that is all about venturing into the unknown in a bold effort to explore it, understand it, and explain it. Companies that are trying to solve big important problems deal with the unknown frequently, and we can help them. 

NEW GAME, NEW THINKING AND NEW WORKING HABITS 

Despite having many valuable strengths, my first few years in industry were a struggle adapting to the new game.

My PhD research was about independently working for years to find the right answer to specific questions about how the universe works. It required persistence and dedication to continue testing and analyzing and improving until I had the right answer.

Business is a fast-paced game where you are part of a team working to find the solution to a problem. There may be many ways to solve the problem, so you and the team are working fast to find any solution that works before your competitors do.

I realized that if I wanted to be a valued player in this game, I needed to shift my thinking and working habits.

I discovered that I needed to move fast and try things that may not work. I found that I had to make recommendations based on my expertise when I often didn’t have the time to collect the data I needed to be certain. 

I discovered that this game was about working with other people and trusting them to play their part, rather than being the independent expert who understood every aspect of my project the way I did during my PhD.

And I realized that if I didn’t have enough data to prove my recommendation was the ‘right answer,’ I had to learn to persuade those on my team that my ideas were good. The approach of ‘the data speaks for itself’ didn’t always work in this game the way it did in my grad school lab.

LEARNING TO TAKE THE SHOT 

Above all, I learned that working in industry is a fast paced game where I had to make decisions quickly and deal with more uncertainty than I was used to. I no longer had the luxury of hiding in my lab collecting data and analyzing it until I was sure I had the right answer. Just like in a football/soccer game, I had to learn to take a shot without taking too much time to analyze it.

But I also learned that working in industry is an exciting game, and if I was willing to learn the rules, I could play a unique and powerful role.

If you are a scientist, you can play this exciting game too. 

Are you ready?

Bio:

David Giltner, PhD is an internationally recognized lecturer and the author of three books on the vital role scientists play in industry, including It’s a Game, Not a Formula: How to Succeed as a Scientist Working in Industry. His third book, Shaping the World: The Vital Role of Scientists in Industry is due to be published in the fall of 2024. 

After 20 years in the photonics industry, he left his job and started TurningScience to help scientists work in the private sector as employees, entrepreneurs, or academic collaborators.

David has a BS and PhD in physics and holds seven patents. In his free time, he plays in the rock band Gravity Check and loves hiking and cycling in the mountains of Colorado (in the United States).