Hi everyone,
I’m a senior postdoc with extensive experience in cancer biology, working across academic institutions in Europe. Over the past few years, I’ve dedicated myself to this field with a deep passion, but I’ve now reached a point of severe burnout. After a lot of reflection, I’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to transition out of bench work and research altogether.
The problem is… I don’t know what’s next.
I know I want to step away from experiments and lab work, and myabe go for something office-based. But beyond that, I’m feeling lost. I’m not currently retraining or enrolled in anything new, and while I’m open (and willing!) to start from entry-level roles, internships, or even pursue additional qualifications, I’m struggling to understand what career paths are actually out there for someone like me.
So I’d love to ask:
- What kinds of job titles or fields should I be exploring as a former academic scientist?
- Are there specific roles where my background could be an asset, even if it’s outside traditional research?
- Has anyone here made a similar transition? What helped you find your next path?
I’m trying to approach this with humility and curiosity. I don’t expect to have all the answers right away, but I want to start discovering what else is possible. Any advice or personal experiences would be deeply appreciated.
Thank you in advance 🙂
Comments
Academic publishing! I work in academic publishing and a substantial subset of my colleagues have Phds in a STEM discipline. But you will have to go all-in on leaving academia in terms of resume, how you think, etc. you have the skills necessary but you have to change the way you speak about your skills.
There’s a lot out there, my wife had a similar path to you (PhD in biomedical engineering, but completely burned out of bench work). She landed a job as a consultant doing competitive intelligence in the bio-pharma space. Most of the major companies have a CI department and people with backgrounds like yours are highly valued in those kinds of positions.
Another path could be working as an expert advisor for a politician (especially at the state or federal level). Policymakers have a need of people who are scientifically literate and able to summarize information in an understandable way to someone with a more average level of background knowledge, and I know a lot of people who took that path (granted, working for the government doesn’t mean the same now as it did a few years ago…).