Name: Erin Sanders (she/her)
PhD: Stanford University, Developmental Biology, 2021
What was your main area of research?
I studied how adult stem cells maintain tissue homeostasis using the fruit fly intestine as a model system. I used confocal live imaging to image intestinal cells expressing cell-type specific fluorescent markers while still inside the living fly using a method developed by our lab. I found that stem cells differentiate via activation of the Notch pathway at different speeds in healthy versus injured tissues and that this is in part stimulated by JAK/STAT and inflammatory pathways.
What is your current job?
I am a Product Engineer at Bruker Cellular Analysis in Emeryville, CA.
My job focuses on antibody discovery workflow development and product support. This involves many responsibilities such as cell biology experiments, designing verification experiments for new workflows, new product development, quality control, customer escalations and troubleshooting.
I wear a lot of hats and have been able to gain expertise across our entire product's workflows. I like having a broad view of how everything works together and why it works the way it does.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
I found this job through LinkedIn and a referral from a postdoc in my department who worked there at the time.
PhD Graduate ➡️ Cell Biology Scientist at Berkeley Lights ➡️ company acquired by Bruker (laid off) ➡️ re-hired as Product Engineer
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia? Was this a difficult decision or one you felt came easily?
I did not want my career to be beholden to other people's timelines and publishing papers. To be frank, I also wanted to make money, and getting a postdoc didn't seem to be a smart financial move when I could get a job in industry and basically learn a whole bunch of new things with a better salary.
What are three pieces of advice you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
If you know you want to work in industry, see if you can do a summer internship at a relevant company (I didn't but this would have been smart).
Getting your PhD shows hiring managers that you can learn independently and teach yourself new things. If you don't have the exact skills a job description is asking for, that's okay, but figure out a way to communicate how you have learned other things quickly and that it won't be a problem for you to pick them up.
Don't just accept a job because the company seemingly does cool science that fits your interests. Ask questions about the financial health of the company! Ask questions about the business case. How do you know the company is going to be successful? Do people actually want to buy the thing they are trying to sell or is it garbage? Success in academia is publishing papers and getting grants. Success in industry is selling stuff and if you can't sell the stuff, you cease to exist!