Name: Christopher Gallardo (he/him)
PhD: Pharmacology, University of Minnesota, 2018
What was your main area of research?
The majority of my research focused on neurodegenerative mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's diseases by looking at transgenic mouse models of both diseases as well as human tissues.
What is your current job?
I am a Senior Medical Science Liaison for Intra-Cellular Therapies, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for the treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.
My role involves engaging with healthcare providers and researchers to better understand the areas of need for various disease states and serving as a medical/scientific resource surrounding our company's product/therapeutic area. This includes attending conferences, symposia, giving presentations, and meeting with a range of clinicians/scientists across several states.
The best part is I get to connect with people and have engaging conversations about science/medicine.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
I learned about the Medical Science Liaison role after postdocs in my lab went on to be in this position. Our department also had several recent graduates who went on to become Medical Science Liaisons. Through networking, I was able to find a position that matched my experience.
PhD ➡️ Medical Science Liaison
(I did do a postdoc very briefly while in the interview process, but this was not part of my application nor was it a traditional post-doc.)
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia? Was this a difficult decision or one you felt came easily?
There were several reasons including too few positions for the number of postdocs available, it was impractical from a family/career/retirement perspective, and required years of additional work that would not guarantee a position in academia. It was a difficult decision since a faculty position was a major goal of mine and I loved doing research.
What are three pieces of advice you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
Communicate your work and skills by accomplishments (Impact first, how you did this second). One way I recommend doing this is to focus on what you completed, # of outcomes/publications/presentations/etc, that shows the value of your work to a non-academic audience. Use bullet points and avoid starting sentences with how you did the work/techniques unless it is pertinent to the role you are applying for.
If available to you, try attending 1-2 conferences in graduate school where you can meet other professionals in an industry you are interested in. For example, if you are interested in Medical Affairs, Sales, Clinical Development, Marketing, try a clinical conference where several companies may be in attendance. This can boost networking in-person and allow for more organic/low stress connections that can ideally be covered with a travel grant if the conference is in your current field.
Start early. It is never too early to begin connecting with individuals even if you are unsure about your career path after graduate school/postdoc. The benefit to this is having a strong network that has had time to develop deeper roots should you need a potential referral or introduction to other professionals who may become your colleagues.