缅北强奸

Laura graduated with a PhD from the Department of Biochemistry in 2018. She is currently a Lead Clinical Specialist.

Q: What made you first interested in doing a PhD?

When I was graduating from my undergrad at the University of Ottawa, I knew I was really interested in research. I had done a co-op program where I worked in private labs, university labs, and also in industry. It was such a great experience and I really enjoyed research so I was looking for Master鈥檚 programs across the country. I found one at 缅北强奸 with a supervisor I really liked, and very quickly decided that I wanted to stay longer than a couple of years, so I fast-tracked and switched into the PhD program.

Q: During your time at 缅北强奸, did you feel that you had a good support system or community?

In my lab, there were three of us that started within a month of each other, so we all became very close because we hit all of those milestones one after another. We鈥檙e all still very close, even though we鈥檝e all since graduated. Our lab was pretty big, so there were senior grad students that mentored us for a few years before they left. But also the whole cancer center fifth floor had a number of different labs, and all the grad students got to know each other. It got me involved in some extracurricular activities. So during my PhD, I was involved with the聽鈥攖he Biochemistry Graduate Student Society. I did finance and eventually I became president. There was a very good community there, I think you just needed to find it.

Q: Did these extracurricular activities help you in any way, whether it鈥檚 with your job or with networking?

Completely. Coming into grad school, I was fairly shy. I was like, 鈥淚鈥檓 just going to focus on the bench and do my science鈥�. But these extracurricular opportunities really helped me develop as a person. A lot of the soft skills that helped me in my job now were leadership skills that I developed through my time with the Graduate Students Society. I was a TA for a number of years, which was very helpful. I also wrote for the聽. So those extracurricular activities helped me grow as a person, and helped me develop my soft skills, so by the end of my degree I had much more marketable skills than just my ability to run 100 experimental tests an hour. I realized since I left academia that we don鈥檛 really learn to value a lot of these soft skills we accumulate in academia.聽

Q: What do you do now in your current job and how did you end up there?

My job title is Lead Clinical Specialist at a small startup. We are a medical device company. I actually kind of fell into it鈥擨 started doing basic science at the company first, but moved over to more of a sales, education, and science communication kind of role. I鈥檓 not on the bench at all anymore, which was something I really wanted to leave behind when I left my PhD.

So at the same company, I had two positions. The first one was a short-term contract and it was on the bench; it was mouse work, which I did a ton of in my PhD. The first job I got was only a four month contract which, looking back, is kind of crazy. They saw that I had the ability to figure stuff out and get things done, and they would randomly throw different projects at me. Sometimes it was clinical trials, sometimes it was mouse work. They extended my contract for four more months and then afterwards, they offered me a full time contract in the position I鈥檓 in now. I think the reason they kept renewing me was because I was doing well. They could see that I was smart, that I worked hard, and that I exceeded their expectations. They also saw skills that I didn鈥檛 even see in myself. I never would have thought I would be in this role two years ago. So it鈥檚 really nice to work for a company that sees where your skills are and wants to foster that.

Q: What is your typical day like?

My job is very exciting because every day is a little bit different. It鈥檚 very customer-facing and a lot of talking to strangers. Before COVID, I would travel around, mostly in the States, to support our sales force as kind of an expert on our devices鈥攕o how it鈥檚 used in the clinic, the science behind it, etc. I would go to a lot of conferences, work in the booth, or give presentations to large audiences. My job is supporting the salespeople and providing them that extra knowledge because they鈥檙e not scientists, they鈥檙e salespeople. I don鈥檛 use my science as much as I would if I was still on the bench. But there鈥檚 the odd project that will come through where I鈥檓 just the only person who has the skills to do it. So that鈥檚 really gratifying too, to be able to kind of use my science when I need it.

Q: What made you realize that you preferred to do something other than bench work?

Some time in my fifth or sixth year, I just realized that this isn鈥檛 making me happy anymore. So I needed to figure out what did make me happy and I found that I really loved writing, like I wrote for the blog. I loved TA-ing鈥攖hat was like my favourite day of the week鈥擨 got to interact with the kids, I got to talk about science and explain things. It just wasn鈥檛 the bench work. It made me realize that if I was having more fun TAing and more fun with the student society than in the mouse room, that I didn鈥檛 want to dedicate another five years of my life to doing this sort of a postdoc. And I still love science. I love talking about it, I love thinking about it. But my skills are better suited at science communication and discussing it with people and not doing the science, but explaining the science. So it took some soul-searching, but I figured it out in the end.

Laura discusses her passion for science communication.

Q: What kind of advice would you give to someone that鈥檚 working on their PhD?

I would tell them to start thinking about what you want to do after your PhD at the start of your PhD. When I came in, I really didn鈥檛 have a plan. I was like, 鈥淥h, I like research鈥�. The PhD was my goal for a long time, but your PhD should not be the goal鈥攊t鈥檚 what you do to get to the next step. I think you need to figure out what that next step is a lot earlier than I did. Otherwise, you鈥檙e going to be scrambling at the end being like, 鈥淚 know I don鈥檛 want to do the postdoc, but what else do I want to do?鈥� It鈥檚 okay if that changes for you. But thinking about this early is important.

When I was finishing up, I knew the science was going to be fine. I was going to write up my thesis and the defense was going to be okay. But I was more anxious trying to figure out what to do next and not having a lot of resources to kind of figure that out. I didn鈥檛 know what jobs were out there that were available to me. I think the university could do a little bit better at helping their students with this, because I think it prepares us very well to be postdocs, but not much else. I started going to a bunch of career day events and it was really eye-opening. I knew what I didn鈥檛 want to do, but I didn鈥檛 know what I wanted to do. I needed to figure that out for myself.

Q: What was the most valuable thing you learned during your PhD?

This sounds weird, but self-value. During the PhD, you鈥檙e with so many smart people. Everyone鈥檚 so talented. A lot of people are more talented than you are. I think the PhD pushes you down. You fail so often that you start thinking that you鈥檙e not good at anything. But that鈥檚 just science, that鈥檚 not you. When you get into the real world you start seeing that the work you do is good. So that鈥檚 the best thing I learned afterwards, is that I needed to value myself and my skills.

Q: Is there something you wish you knew before starting the PhD?

I wish I had more of a plan before I started and knew what I wanted afterwards. The best thing about a PhD is that you learn about yourself. I learned science, but I also really learned a lot about who I am.

I think more people need to know that there are jobs out there other than a postdoc. They also need to know that people do well after their PhD. You hear some of these stats and some of them are very scary, like how there are very few academic positions. But I got a job and I鈥檓 happy.