Friday, January 31, 2014

Funding academics

Normally, when there's a technology I discover through publications or a competing or start-up company, I have to make a critical decision for my company:

a) Make a better version of the technology,
b) License the technology, or
c) Collaborate.

There's a d): keep it to myself, but let's assume that doesn't exist.  Each of these has pros and cons (obviously), and a couple weeks ago I discovered a technology that will be very cool in one of my products.  And I know that with my involvement, it will be much better (one of the best things about the internet is that I can be cocky and not feel bad for it :) ).  Not just because of my knowledge, but because of my budget.  In this particular case, it's a lab at a major state university in a different state (not one of the schools I applied for...for those of you thinking about conflicts of interest).  So I'm weighing which of these options I should pursue, and since I have some experience in a), b), and c), of course I want to blog my thoughts.

a) I've done this before with a start-up that had a technology that they weren't willing to share at all.  I came up with a prototype alternative using a different physical principle, but giving similar, but better, data.  This method was cheaper and had other clinical advantages.  The company didn't get purchased for the hundreds of millions of dollars they wanted from us (don't cry for them, they got bought by one of our competitors).  My version is getting ready to save a ton of lives as we've gotten approval for sale in the good ol' USA.  This was relatively cheap, and turned around in less than half the time of the company acquisition and integrating their technology.

b) I didn't have time to create a specific product, so I knew of a company that had something close-to-done.  The product isn't really something complicated, just something that's necessary for the particular surgical procedure.  So I led the licensing effort, and ended up with a product that got recalled after 3 months.  Not a pleasant experience, and now I'm redesigning the product myself.

c) I collaborate with two university medical centers to perform animal and some human studies.  But they have relatively little engineering input, they just perform the procedures and process data for us. Nothing spectacular, although I've gotten these universities over a half million bucks each per year.  The one time I found a university to work with me on an actual product things never worked out because of legal.  They wanted a crazy amount of overhead (500%), and our people were not okay with that.  Then our legal department got mad, then my manager got mad. Not a great experience.

So, I talked to legal a few months ago, and got approval from the VP of my company.  I've been allotted $800,000 over two years to allocate to this.  The PI has a couple smaller grants, but nothing big.  He was very receptive, and he has gotten his legal department on board.  We have agreed to 400% and my company gets to keep the IP.  This significantly cuts into the budget.  We'll be able to fund maybe two students, but we will have enough left to do what we need.

I'm really looking forward to this because I'll be able to work with students again!  Being treated like a colleague from the PI is fun, too.  He doesn't really act like I'm his boss, which I appreciate.  I just want to do cool science.  My #2 working with me is pretty pumped about this too, because it's her alma mater for her MS and BS (she has a PhD).  I'm going to try and make sure she's very well trained.  If I get admission to the ivory tower, she'll need to take over.  And if the academic search doesn't end well, then at least I'll have this academic exposure!  Bright sides!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Throwing in the towel (not me...someone else)

It's funny.  We're peaking in terms of hiring activity for TT jobs, and so my conversations with friends in-the-hunt have been slowly turning away from the usual immature conversations to talking about the successes, failures, and frustrations of the faculty search cycle.  Because of this, I'm intending on throwing in a couple posts of my friends' experiences since I think their stories are interesting.  This post covers a friend at a VERY elite school who has been academic-focused since she was a kid:

A good friend is finishing her third year in her second post-doc.  She's been applying to many many universities with no hits whatsoever except one phone interview.  Her BS/PhD pedigree is similar to mine, just I went to industry and she stayed in academia (plus, most people really really REALLY hate her PhD advisor).  She got a pretty cold reception in her phone interview and they haven't gotten back to her for 4 weeks.  We Skyped earlier today and she has told me that she's officially throwing in the towel: she wants me to give her a referral for a job at my company.  I'm going to oblige because I know we will take care of her, and the things I don't like about industry and my reasons for going to academia don't necessarily apply as strongly to her.

This is really unfortunate because she's a very talented researcher (double digit pubs, good presentation record, solid ideas), and if I can bring her into my company, she's going to be a quickly rising star.  I read her research statement and CV, and if I had the budget, I would bring her in my group at a senior-level in a heartbeat.  She's also a great teacher, winning multiple TA awards during her time in grad school.  I think she'd make an unbelievable faculty member, but it's not going to happen.  I told her it was way too early to be giving up, but after years of rejection she's done waiting.

I guarantee that the people in charge in my company will recognize the talent she has and scoop her up very quickly.  I have 11 patents (submitted+awarded) from the past few years, and I wouldn't be surprised to see her pass me in a couple years.  Why can't academics see her talent?  I've read stories of people giving up, but I've never seen it.  It was heartbreaking, and it actually pissed me off.  I've came across many professors that are bad teachers, don't bring in too much grant money, and are total assholes.  My friend would be far better than half of the professors out there, I'm sure of it.

It was heartbreaking, and I'm pretty upset that she won't be able to train the next generation of scientists and engineers.  But, on the bright side, she's going to change the medical field (plus, we'll be able to hang out more. YAY!).  And if I end up giving up (though I'm not giving up hope, yet), she and I will be changing it together. :)

Friday, January 24, 2014

What the heck takes so long?

When I got my current industry position the timeline was roughly like so. Each offer I got was very slightly different, but the timing was similar.

Late Oct: Put together letter and resume. 
Early Nov: Applied to position.
Late Nov: Phone interview with recruiter.
Early Dec: Phone interview with hiring manager.
Mid Dec: Second phone interview with hiring manager's team.
Late Dec: On-site. 
Early Jan: Second on-site. 
Mid Jan: Offer.
Early Feb: Negotiated offer and acceptance.
Early Mar: Started. 

This process was a four person local and 2 person international team to decide hiring and needing the VP of R&D's permission.  They needed someone to do the job, they posted a specific position, and quickly filled it to get work done.  For my academic search, here's how quickly things have been shaping up for the position I'm furthest in on. 

Mid Sept: Started putting together materials
Mid Oct: Applied. 
Early Dec: Got request for phone interview. 
Early Jan: Phone interview. 
Now: Expressed interest in bringing me in for on-site. 

By now I had a written offer from industry after 3 phone interviews and 2 on-sites from the job I eventually accepted. What the heck takes academia so long? After the two schools that have said they'd like to bring me on campus told me so, I responded to the email with something like "Great! Please let me know which dates work best for you, as I have some international travel coming up to test some new devices."  I threw in the devices thing 1. Because it's true, and 2. Because I want to hammer in the point that they want someone with my experience.  This was a couple weeks ago.

The two schools that have said they are interested in bringing me out seem to be holding still.  So what could possibly be taking so long?  In industry, I got emails saying "unfortunately, we had to go with someone else", or "how does INSERT DATE HERE work for you?".  But no response since my response to their interest-emails.  Not even an email saying, "we will let you know more details as get closer to scheduling".  Bear in mind that they have already gone out of their way to say they want to bring me out.  I'm bewildered as to what's taking so long (although maybe ~2 weeks isn't that long?). Maybe I just operate on a much shorter time scale than most other people I know. I know if I took this long to get candidates together, short-list them, and bring them in I would be in deep trouble from my boss wondering what the heck is taking so long. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: 

I'll never understand how this process works. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Landed the on-site!

Of the 2 Skype interviews I've had so far, they've both gotten back to me with on-site requests. One is an R2 school in a city I'm not a huge fan of, the other is at an R1 in a city that I truly adore. I'm working on my job talk and I'm a little torn.

I decided on 4 projects that cover a wide range of fields so everyone will be interested at some point (my field is quite interdisciplinary).  One of the projects is my favorite project from my work in industry. Because it's industrial work I have to be very careful.  This project has already had successful animal studies, and this will revolutionize the field.  Most of the impact in the field has been incremental, with two major advances that significantly change patient outcome.  My company has been using small changes to sell more products the past few years.  This product I'm so proud of will change the medical device world.  It will be amazing.  It's patent protected, but other companies don't know how close we are to getting this product ready.

I strongly feel that if I just focus on my grad school work and little things that are in patients in my current position my job talk won't be as strong.  I'm trying my hardest to figure out what to present.  I have my two favorites from grad school, and my future projects.  I feel like showing my current favorite project would really show them that my industrial experience is valuable to them.  But how? Maybe I'll use hypothetical statements...


Outright Rejections (their loss): 9/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 11
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 5
1st campus visits offered: 2
1st campus visits accepted: 2
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

Friday, January 17, 2014

Corporate awards

At a company luncheon today I found out that I have won a big fancy award from my company for a product I conceived a year ago, and then another award for diversity and public relations for my role in my company's charity. All-in-all I take home $20,000, a plaque, and a vacation. Not bad, considering I do this because I enjoy it and want to help people.

I regularly say to my team, "would you feel comfortable using this on you child?", if we're creating a device that might not be up to our standards. I do this because I care. I overheard someone saying, "You can tell that Phindustry does this work to get company recognition and the awards. Phindustry is trying to make the move up."  Personally, I hate company awards. Supposedly, it gives employees something to strive towards, in actuality it inspires jealousy, resentment, and internal competition. We are on the same team. When something good happens we should all be rewarded here.  Maybe it's the socialist in me (although I consider myself a capitalist, tried and true) in academia, you're a little more on your own, so recognition should come on a more solo basis (although in academia, recognition rarely comes at all). I'm divvying up the part of the award for the invention among the three people that worked on this project with me. I did this with the last award I got, and it seemed to improve morale. 

The comment I overheard is annoying because I present myself as interested in the greater good. I don't care about patents or recognition. I want to have fun and help people. That's it. I felt so insulted. I understand why they said it: I work very hard, argue a lot, and dress up every day for work. The managers like me for my skills and for my public image. I really want to tell those jags (jackass douchebags) talking about me that I am trying to leave industry for good. That I moved up the ladder because that's how I could make a difference in patients' lives. Also, I want to tell them that they didn't get the awards because they suck. 

I know academic awards exists for all kinds of things with plenty of undeserving people getting them. But I've never seen someone in academia step up their game to get a specific award (unless it's a grant). Maybe I'm just naive, but science should be about improving the world and broadening our understanding. Not a plaque that I keep in my desk drawer. 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

I'm a Watcher



If I had to guess how I got to my position (youngest person in my pay grade and leadership level in the history of my company) I would attribute most of my success to being able to please people. This occurs frequently through scientific or engineering achievement, but a lot of it through pure observation. I feel that I've developed a knack for reading what people want through a joke, plain conversation, a look, or just telling people what they want to hear. I made it a point to acquire this skill along with whatever technical knowledge because I've observed the most successful people having this skill.

These successful people can keep people laughing in the workplace, they can play politics without pissing everyone off, and they can give a presentation on a mundane topic and keep the room engaged. I practiced these skills tremendously. Sometimes more than practicing my art.  This has worked very well for me both in and out of grad school.  Especially after grad school.  I can tell I'm a different person in my industrial lab.  I just wish I could utilize this skill in my interviews for academic jobs.  For some reason I can't...

My problem with this is I sometimes feel fake. Unfortunately, technical ability alone does not equal advancement. In academia, my advisor said he had to kiss the asses of grant reviewers and program leaders. He went to conferences mainly to socialize, not present work. All of this was deemed necessary to get grants. In industry, having a boss like you as a person will get you much farther than having him or her like you as a scientist or engineer.  And these people-pleasing skills are something I picked up from meticulously watching those people perceived as great.  I don't practice this is my personal life, and most of my friends are from outside of work, so I don't feel fake outside of work.  I know that the more I move up and the more money my group gets, the more lives we can save (have I mentioned that we're the best group?).  So 'playing the game' is necessary, even though it's not right.

I was taking to someone about this (another person in scientific leadership in a sister company) and they said that, if you play yourself, you get stuck in a rut. You don't have to be 100% fake, just strategic. If you're in a room full of people from the south, it's probably best not to throw a southern draw and talk about incest the whole time, even if that's something you would do at home with your friends. That isn't much different than putting on a work personality. Don't rock the boat and try to make yourself someone that people would want to publish and fund. In industry, do the same thing, but you do it to get promotions, your ideas taken seriously, and more funds for your lab.  And to be the kind of person people want in scientific leadership, you have to watch.  I don't like this, but I tried to change it when I first showed up, but I knew I wanted to move up and make an impact.  With my team, I find myself acting more like myself, but I'll always watch since it also provides me with ways that I shouldn't act.  Maybe growing up overseas without my parents or a lot of Americans has taught me to mimic those around me to fit in.  I know people aren't going to like this, but there are some things that won't change, and the only way to change things is to play the game and move up.

Monday, January 13, 2014

No collaboration allowed

I'm on loan.  

Another group needs some help from someone with my skillset.  Since I'm the only one with my skillset here my boss loaned me away.  I HATE being told what to do.  Especially from someone not in my immediate group.

I hire pretty intelligent people, all masters degrees or PhDs with lot of experience.  If I surround myself with great people, we'll achieve greatness.  In the group I'm being lent out to, they're mostly people with BSs that have been working here for five years or so.  They don't know much about the biological system, however, they know a decent amount about the very specialized areas they work in.  One thing that irks me about them though is the way they do 'science'.  Their experiments are missing controls, data is processed in the most simplistic manner possible, and laws of physics and physiology are regularly ignored.  This makes the level of work really freaking simple and boring to me.  They are also stubborn.  They hate that I'm here and helping their group.  The fact that they're all a bunch of older white dudes and I'm...not...messed with the dynamic, too.  They're clueless, and my input will save them a year of R&D work.  But they hate that an 'outsider' has infiltrated their group, even though it's very obvious that I don't want to be here.  In my group, we play like a team and depend on each other, but groups within a company are often rivals rather than collaborators.  Even when we work on the same things and could benefit from each others' experience.

This whole loan experience reminded me of why I want to make the academic transition.  I want to be surrounded by smart, passionate individuals.  And if they're not geniuses with PhDs, they at least appear to want my help.  They want to collaborate.  Groups regularly collaborate from different and similar backgrounds.  They realize there is strength in numbers and truly value intelligence.

Maybe internal competition isn’t a big deal, but I hate egos, and I hate being passed around like someone owns me.  

Saturday, January 11, 2014

My first interview/Talking with academics

In grad school, and during industry interviews, I consistently got the comment of "you seem like you can take control of a project and get it done."  I have a ton of drive, and it definitely showed. The passion for my research was evident. During my first set of faculty interviews I've noticed it's not quite there. I'm having trouble making great, convincing chatter that I deserve a faculty post and can bring in money and get publications.  Right out of grad school I know I could have convinced these search committees but I think industry has done two things to me: diminished my drive, and put me into a rut.

Since I wasn't in the academic mindset when things like grants and progressions of projects came up in recent interviews I felt like I was drawing a blank. And when it came to the projects I was proposing, since I haven't had time to catch up on literature, I was definitely lacking. In grad school I nailed all of these types of questions. I think I still did okay, but I know I could have done better a couple years ago. 

As I've said multiple times, I feel like I'm dumber. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't feel as smart. This might just have to do my loss of motivation in my work, and my overwhelming desire to get into a good academic position.  I noticed I do better in interviews when it seems like I don't really care if I get the job. I think I've been coming off as a desperate graduate student, and can't seem to get out of this funk. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Prepping for my first interview

When I interviewed for industry jobs I looked up questions and not one was asked of me. So I practiced for no reason.  For academic jobs I thought that I would hold off of looking at typical questions, then the over-careful person in me took over and I've been reading up on every question I can think of.  Questions like, "What would you bring to our department?" "Why do you want to join us?" "What classes could you teach?".  I'm worried that I'm going to put my foot in mouth, since if I claim that I can bring real-world medical device experience they could get offended (even though it's the truth since most academics in medical devices have never tried their devices in a person).  I'll probably end up saying something about how I like to collaborate on medical devices and my experience can bring new things to the table like blah blah blah...

Maybe it will be for nothing again, but I hope it works out since the first school I'm interviewing for is in my top-5. It's a decently large R1 with great core facilities and collaborations in a city I love.  My advisor has told me that the person he talked to there has said I'm the front-runner. It makes me kind of nervous. Actually, it makes me incredibly nervous. Especially since I've never been interviewed over Skype. Of course, I'll be myself, but I can't help but feel like it's going to be like my defense all over: four faculty members staring at me, judging me. Although I hope it does go like my defense. I had a really fun time, cracked some jokes, and passed with flying colors (30 second faculty deliberation). Hopefully, these faculty members are as receptive.

I'll post some time afterwards with the damage, but in the meantime, I'll be talking to myself in my office while staring at these questions. Yay.

Outright Rejections (their loss): 5/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 11
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 5
1st campus visits offered: 0
1st campus visits accepted: 0
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

Friday, January 3, 2014

Life's pretty cool

One of my products was passed to clinical affairs in my company.  This was my first project.  I came up with an idea my very first week on the job, and then I did a ton of science related to obtaining never-before-seen data.  New types of experiments, lots of debugging and talking with physicians.  This data culminated in a new product development.  I had some really great animal studies last year, then great human studies a few months ago.  Now, the design is frozen, and we're getting everything ready to take this to market.  Making money for myself and my company is cool, but the greatest thing happened earlier today.

I was at a local hospital and was talking to someone in a waiting room.  A man roughly 40 years old with his wife and two beautiful twin baby girls, maybe 5 years old.  He mentioned how he could barely move beforehand.  He had multiple corrective surgeries with no luck.  He was involved in the first human trial of a new product.  My product!  He mentioned how the new product has changed his life.  In three weeks he was up and moving, and in four more weeks his life was how it used to be before illness struck him 5 years ago.  He had maybe one year left in his life beforehand, and the physicians think he's going to live a full life now.  I didn't let him know that I came up with the medical device.

After he came out of the appointment, the doctor came out to talk to get me and bring me to his office to talk about the next stage of this device.  The doctor stopped the family and told them that I'm responsible for the product, from inception to implementation.  The wife teared up, and the father gave me a hug.  The girls just sat there.  I suspect the girls weren't told of the dad's severity.  They kept saying, "Thank you. Can we have you over for dinner? Can we take you out? etc.".  I told them I do it to save lives, not get free dinners.  Their thanks is enough.  

When I go through the job grind, I sometimes forget why I do this; why I got into this field.  In academia I plan to do the same.  Although, I would have the freedom to explore diseases outside of the mission statement of my company.  I'm happy where I'm at, I just know I could be happier, and do more good, in the academic field.  I just have to remember how good I have it, how many people have it worse, and keep focusing on what's important in life.  Life's pretty cool.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Staying up

I have to fly out today to meet with the MD I do most of my studies with.  This was supposed to be next week, but the MD has a last-minute commitment.  So I have to travel last minute.  boo.  I never understood the significance of New Year's Day as a holiday.  It seems so arbitrary.  Up until my early 20s I stood up all night, partied, danced, did the countdown, had a resolution, etc.  But mid-20s I stopped.  I just realized it wasn't as fun, and I could never think of anything I had to change and I didn't think I needed a special day to implement said change.

So I didn't stay up all night.  I watched movies with my spouse and my cute dog; drank some beer a friend brought in from Oregon.  Very fun and relaxing night.  I haven't stayed up past 11pm for quite some time.  And I only stay up that late when there's a hospital study that goes late.

It's not that I can't stay up.  When there's work to be done, I can stay up.  In grad school I regularly had to perform late night or early morning experiments going-until or starting at times of 3am.  It was fun.  In industry, we work pretty standard hours, and I do miss the crazy times a little because I felt like a crazy scientists those times.   Hopefully, I'll have some crazy academic research nights in the near-future.  Wait, what the hell am I saying?!  Actually, maybe I'll just stay in industry... :)